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HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]: 

Rotary Club of Pattaya Marina holds 1st party of 2010

Gavin Waddell from Phyathai Hospital Sriracha addresses PCEC

DUK Group donates 210,000 baht to Redemptorist Vocational School

Underprivileged Rayong, Chantaburi kids visit Nong Nooch

Khru Ja fighting it out in the streets to protect kids

Rotary Club of Pattaya Marina holds 1st party of 2010

A BBQ amongst friends. (From the left) Franz Lochbrunner and Friend Patty, President Florence Pellegrin, Eric Larbouillat and Jean Francoise Le Cot.

The Rotary Club of Pattaya Marina held its first party of the new year with Rotarian Jean Francois Le Cot hosting a barbecue at his Kasira farm Jan. 9.
Le Cot also introduced his estate and explained he would like to take in elderly people to create a kind of retirement home. He has six bungalows for rent for 600 euros a month, which includes meals, laundry and housekeeping services. A minivan is available for residents to travel into Pattaya.
For more information go to: www.retirement-home-thailand.com


Gavin Waddell from Phyathai Hospital Sriracha addresses PCEC

After Master of Ceremonies Les Edmonds welcomed everyone to the Pattaya City Expat Club meeting on Sunday, January 17 at Henry J Beans, and made the usual announcements, he introduced the guest speaker, Gavin Waddell, international marketing executive with Phyathai Hospital Sriracha. Gavin was no stranger to the club as he is a fellow member and has arranged for health professionals with the hospital to periodically address the club.
Gavin, with his usual humorous style, began by noting that he has now been in Thailand for 10 years. He started out in Bangkok doing some teaching. About 5 years ago, he was a guest speaker on the topic of marketing heath tourism at Burapha University in Bang Saen. He was approached by the executive director of Phyathai Hospital Sriracha and asked to join their staff. Gavin said he agreed to the one year contract offered and he has been there ever since.
He mentioned that the hospital is a 13 story building built some 15 years ago. The lower floors house the various medical centers and reception. Hospital administrative offices are on the 4th floor and the hospital wards are on floors 5 through 12.
Gavin told an interesting story about the 13th floor, which used to house male staff that work at the hospital; but the floor was vacant for several years and was used primarily for storage. He said this floor is generally avoided by the Thai staff. It seems an apparent lovelorn male staff member chose to jump from that floor and since then the Thai believe that his ghost haunts the floor. Gavin said as the only farang working with over 1,000 Thai staff, it can be frustrating at times. So, he discovered that he can guarantee a little solitude for himself by spending some time on the 13th floor.
Gavin said that in the past 18 months the hospital has undergone a complete renovation and upgrading of equipment for its diagnostic center. He mentioned that with age the hospital had become a bit seedy and a bit dated, thus losing out to more modern private hospitals.
Although the hospital is associated with the Phyathai group of hospitals, each are financially responsible for their own operations. Consequently, the Sriracha hospital needed to find its own funding to renovate and upgrade. This was not easy in the present economic climate. But it seems the hospital was land rich and cash poor. He mentioned that Sriracha is often called little Tokyo because it has a Japanese population of around 4,000 along with about 100 Japanese run businesses. Thus, the hospital was able to sell some of its adjoining land to Japanese interests for the 400 million baht they needed.
However, this renovation got off to a bumpy start when they paid their contractor an advance of 25 million only to have the contractor stop working shortly after starting. It seems the contractor had a dishonest accounting employee who absconded with the funds. As a result of this setback, the hospital staff did not receive any bonuses that year.
Overcoming this bit of adversity, the hospital went on to complete the renovation and upgrade their equipment so they could offer better health care to their patients as well as compete on a more equal footing with other hospitals in the area.
Gavin then proceeded to describe the improvements in their diagnostic center. One improvement was the acquisition of a CT 64 Slice machine. Gavin explained that this X-ray computed tomography can take 64 slices per rotation. With the aid of a computer, the two dimensional X-rays can be made into 3 dimensional pictures. The CT 64 is very good for getting a picture of the soft tissues of the body and is especially suited for cardiac diagnosis. This machine cost the hospital about 40 million baht.
Another improvement was the acquisition of an MRI scanner. This Magnetic Resonance Imaging device is beneficial because it uses no radiation. Gavin explained how the extremely strong magnet is used to obtain images of organs inside the body and is very good for making diagnosis about the brain as well as other parts of the body. The MRI they acquired is one of the latest and best on the market, costing about 44 million baht.
Gavin concluded by describing their Cath Lab and its operation in some detail. He explained that the term Cath Lab is short for Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory. Cath Labs are used to detect and treat blocked heart arteries by using a catheter that is inserted into a main artery and moved up the artery to the heart.
After Gavin answered several questions from the audience, Master of Ceremonies Les Edmonds called on his lovely wife Judith to conduct the Open Forum, which is always informative and sometimes humorous where questions are asked and answered about living in Thailand and Pattaya in particular.


DUK Group donates 210,000 baht to Redemptorist Vocational School

Kindhearted members of the DUK Group from Germany donated 210,000 baht to support the Pattaya School for the Disabled.

Sue K. and
Vimolrat Singnikorn

After an accident in 2003 in Thailand, avid golfer Jens Maspfuhl was left paralyzed from his chest down and has been in a wheelchair ever since. But he didn’t hang up his clubs.
Hi accident didn’t stop him from continuing to play golf, which he still does today thanks to special equipment. And he’s now helping motivate other disabled people to enjoy life as he does through a company he founded in 2004, Deutsche Unfall und Katastrophenopfer Hilfe e.V
Known as the DUK Group, the company supports sports programs for the disabled. In its latest effort, Maspfuhl donated 210,000 baht to the Pattaya Redemptorist Vocational School for the Disabled Jan. 11.
Maspfuhl first came in contact with the Father Ray Foundation, which runs the school, a year after his accident. He said he was very impressed by the work of the school that teaches and trains Thai handicapped people in various fields in order for them to be able to get back into the workforce.
It was actually DUK’s second donation to the group. Last year they donated 45,000 baht to the center. This year the cash came with teddy bears for the children in the day care center.
Next year they hope to donate even a bigger amount as well as bring in some wheelchairs and equipment for their Thai handicapped friends.


Underprivileged Rayong, Chantaburi kids visit Nong Nooch

Caretakers and children from the Child Education and Welfare Department in Chantaburi and Rayong Panyanukul School’s Special Child Cooperative Learning program recently visited Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens.

Patcharapol Panrak
Mentally and physically challenged children from Rayong and Chantaburi were taken on a special outing to Nong Nooch Tropical Garden through a special program for underprivileged children sponsored by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.
The TAT’s “Happy Dreams for Underprivileged Children” program arranged the Jan. 18 field trip for dozens of children from the Child Education and Welfare Department in Chantaburi and Rayong Panyanukul School’s Special Child Cooperative Learning program.
Marketing Officer Watcharapol Sarasorn said TAT offices in the two cities cooperated to select underprivileged kids, focusing on those with learning and hearing disabilities. Some of the children have been learning dance from teacher Jitakorn Makaew so they can put on shows to build their self-confidence.
Watcharapol said Nong Nooch was a good location to bring the children because it opens their views about the world, reduces their fears, increases confidence and provides knowledge of society’s rules.


Khru Ja fighting it out in the streets to protect kids

Theerarak Suthatiwong
“My family was poor. Broke. Underprivileged,” recalls Supagon Noja, looking around at the new Home for Impoverished Children in Huay Yai. “So I know first hand how poor people don’t have rights or power in society.”
Now the director of the Child Protection and Development Center in Pattaya, Supagon, or “Khru Ja” as he’s known, was a driving force behind the new CPDC shelter next to the Huay Yai Temple. He wants people to get a chance to do as he did and rise from pauper status in Lamphun Province to make something of their lives.

Supagon “Khru Ja” Noja addresses the press at the recent opening of a new CPDC house.

“I learned a lot of things about being poor,” he said. “So I was determined to succeed in life at some level and try to do my best for underprivileged people.”
His life’s work began in earnest in 2001 when he volunteered to help those infected with HIV and addicted to drugs. He became a teacher of street kids and gained enough trust that he eventually became the head of the CPDC.
“Pattaya has about 1,500-2,000 street kids and it seems to be increasing yearly,” he said. “These children come from all over the country, as well as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. Most of them usually end up with human-trafficking gangs. They are forced to distribute goods on the roads, at clubs, bars and to provide sexual services against their will.
“Presently, the Child Protection and Development Center in Pattaya is providing support for no less than 2,000 street kids and victims of sexual abuse. This is being done especially to press charges against groups of pedophiles and child abusers,” he said.
Supagon sees the CPDC as a vital part of a network of groups helping the police make arrests. Pedophile cases comprise more than 50 percent of the agency’s work, he said.
But he said the real challenge is to educate children in the schools about the risks they face. It also requires more community support to watch over children. Supagon takes this role seriously, working himself with about 3,000 children a year on the streets.
Now that the CPDC center is open, there’s more work to be done, Supagon said. Next he wants to build more facilities, including a multi-purpose building and sports field and start offering occupational training.