Care & Community - THAILAND Volunteer Stories

Care & Community in Thailand - Christine Williams & Rosemary Yates

We were met at Bangkok airport by Pia who was to be our Assistant manager for the time we were there. The first thing that strikes you is the heat, which neither Rosemary or I were complaining about! We were taken to the office for 2 days to get over the jet lag and orientate us to this wonderful country.

The care placement we were going to was a brand new project, which was very exciting. We were working with 17 children aged 1 to 3 years who were being cared for in a home in the grounds of Lad Yao prison, in which their mothers are incarcerated, sometimes for the lifetime of their children. On Monday morning all the children and their helpers met us at the entrance to the home - what a wonderful start to our stay.

We had arrived at Heathrow Airport with a very large bag full of all sorts of playthings for the children, and luckily they let us through when they knew where we were going! These were to be our main resources as unbeknown to us the children had not before experienced play activity. What a delight it was when they found the books we'd taken out, and the real enjoyment on their faces when they all sat down with one each and looked at the pictures. This remained their favourite activity until we left.

We organised different activities for each day. Painting went down well with the children, the only problem being that everyone was painted, resulting in a mass bathing session afterwards! By the end of our placement there was a fine collection of paintings, necklaces they'd made out of straws, lacing cards and wonderful pictures of them enjoying themselves. They were also learning a few words of English: 'good morning', 'bye' and nicest of all 'I love you' which they said while giving us a BIG cuddle.

As we were fairly close to Bangkok we used to take the bus to Nonthaburi and get on the riverboats, which ply the Chayo Phrayo River, and visit the sights. This way we visited some of the wonderful temples, street markets and Bangkok itself, all the time feeling very safe as we did so.

Every other weekend we met up with Teaching & Projects Abroad volunteers and visited places further away together, having a great time.

Needless to say we were very sad to come home and we were all crying as we said goodbye to our babes, hoping to return one day in the future.


Christine Williams & Rosemary Yates

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