Help Bring Water to the Thai Child Foundation

We are delighted to share that the Thai Child Development Foundation’s school for special needs students has reopened and is welcoming back students!

For the past 6+months, TCDF's social programs remained open but the non-emergency house visits and hospital visits were postponed due to the pandemic. With the area reopening, one of the biggest challenges lies in visiting all schools and village healthcare stations and reacting to their emergency needs. TCDF is expecting an increased demand for their medical care program and the home outreach programs.

One of the biggest obstacles moving forward for TCDF is the loss in revenue as their Ecologic resort for charity is closed and we will not have any visitors for at least a year. The revenue loss is two-fold: first the loss in sales of the farm produce due to closure of the restaurant and secondly the significant decrease in new small sponsors coming from visitors who have witnessed the power small donations can make and became part of the monthly Friends program.

What TCDF benefits from is low overhead costs and the proactive, flexible and creative approach they’ve adopted to meeting the challenges from the pandemic and accompanying Thai economic crisis. An example of this creativity is while the school was closed, the teachers changed jobs and worked in the garden every day! Composting and mulching the young trees, digging the water gutters, putting in water drips and making staircases for the students to easily walk uphill after the reopening of the school. The thousands of fruit trees are too young to bear fruit but the farm did provide the team with plenty of organic vegetables, fish and eggs. At the end of the day the produce would be sold at the gate to local people who ordered via Facebook. While this revenue stream doesn’t offset the losses from Ecologic, it certainly carried TCDF through the pandemic!

Now that the school is reopened, young adults with disabilities are able to return and continue their occupational training program. TCDF is currently tapping into new markets to sell all the produce the students work on every day. For 2020 the plan was to expand the occupational training programs in order to increase their local sustainability and create solid jobs for the young adults with disabilities. However, like so many others this years plan as well as 2021 is being revised to adapt to the changing global climate.

The water management system plans are also being revised to meet the new global reality as our key partner is unable to travel from Australia for the implementation. Fortunately our corporate partner has several suppliers with operations in Thailand that have stepped forward to fill the gap and help the project continue. After receiving special permission by local authorities to visit the region during the lockdown, a report was issued examining the planned project for viability and to problem solve two challenges regarding water storage.  Pending availability of the teams in Thailand and continued access to the region, planned implementation is for the upcoming dry season which will run into early 2021.  As the timeline is confirmed short project updates will be submitted to keep all of our donors updated.

While this year has been filled with many ups and downs, it has also made us even more grateful for our incredible network of supporters… the donors, volunteers and mentors. Thank you!

These photos are courtesy of TCDF in Thailand.

While it hasn't been that long since the last update, we wanted to share some exciting news that is a follow-up to our previous report.

As many know Thailand has been in the middle of one of its most severe droughts in decades, but Mother Nature finally cooperated and two large rainfalls occurred on April 22 and 23, 2020 providing much needed relief for the crops and fruit tree saplings on the Thai Child Development Foundation (TCDF) farm.

As we write this update at the end of May, the rainy season is expected to start in June and traditionally lasts until approximately mid-October. 

In addition, the Thai irrigation company who have stepped in to support the implementation stages of the water management system applied and were given special permission by the authorities to travel into the region to visit TCDF.  The purpose of their visit was to walk through the project against the proposed system and in particular take a careful look at the tiered mountainside land and the uphill water pumping solution that has been developed to ensure feasibility.  We wish to thank the local authorities for recognising the importance of this project and approving the travel request during the COVID restrictions. 

At this time, we're incorporating the feedback from the team on the ground and once the COVID restrictions are lifted in the Pak Song region, the dates for the installation will be scheduled.

The special needs school that is supported by this project remains closed in accordance with the COVID-19 lockdown.  However Thailand is slowly reopening, and we hope that the children will be able to return in the next couple of months.  Once TCDF's school reopens, we will send a short follow-up with that news.

We'd like to thank again those that have given to this special project.  Your donation not only supports an group of incredible children but moves TCDF along its' path to be self-sustaining in the next five years.

Our very best wishes to all to remain safe and healthy.