Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive 2010 needs your help

New Fr. Ray Halfway House coming soon

Sattahip Rotary Club donates food, funds to autism center

St Andrews IB Diploma Visual Arts students reach final hurdle

Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive 2010 needs your help

Our Main Events are coming soon! The Jesters Children’s Fair Sunday, September 12th at Diana Garden Resort and Driving Range in North Pattaya and then the Jesters Party Night Saturday, September 18th at Jameson’s Irish Pub in Central Pattaya.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Thanks to your generous support in 2009, we distributed 6,818,161 baht, or 99.8% of the net raised, for needy children’s charities on the Eastern Seaboard and tsunami orphans in the South.

In the meantime, with just over 100 days until our annual September events, we are intensifying our planning and fund-raising efforts and would like to ask you once again for your help.

Over the last 12 years we have assisted at least 35 different organizations benefitting deprived children, many of which we continue to help today. Some of our more recent projects recently completed are:

* Khao Baisri Home for Disabled Boys - In Sattahip, we constructed new classrooms cum dormitory and provided furnishings and landscaping.

* Next Step Program - In Krabi, we continue our scholarship for 15-year old tsunami survivor, Eckalot.

Some of our core beneficiaries that we continue to provide assistance are as follows:

* Fountain of Life Center for Children - In North Pattaya, we cover the majority of operational costs for this center which provides identities, medical/dental care, nutritious meals, day care, life orientation and ultimately scholarships for slum children to enter schools.

* Pattaya Redemptorist School for the Blind - In Naklua, we provide building renovations, educational aids and sports equipment for blind children and young adults.

* Camillian Social Center - In Rayong and Lat Krabang, we continue to sponsor handicapped HIV-infected children.

* Ban Jing Jai Orphanage - In Nong Prue, we provide monthly food/utilities costs for 65 kids.

If you would like to help the deprived kids this year, please refer to the sponsorship levels and benefits table right:

Please send your donations, cheques, and/or bank drafts to: Good Shepherd Foundation, c/o The Fountain of Life Center, 3/199 M.6 Soi Chalermprakiet 3, Pattaya 3rd Road, Naklua, Banglamung, Chonburi 20150, Thailand, or transfer funds directly to their account at: Bangkok Bank, Muang Pattaya Branch, Chonburi 20260, Acct# 484-0-68306-6. Swiftcode: BKKBTBK and fax the payment slip to 038 362010.

Official invoices and tax receipts will be provided for all contributions.

Alternatively, you may wish to use our Online Donation Facility (PayPal and Thaiepay).

For more information about us and other ways to help, please visit our web site at www.care4kids.info or email us at [email protected].

Yours faithfully,
Lewis Underwood
Chairman
Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive 2010

New Fr. Ray Halfway House coming soon

Construction site receives holy blessing

Fr Peter sprinkles the foundation with holy water.

Derek Franklin

When teenage street kids want to change their life and decide to leave the streets of Pattaya they need somewhere to go, and one place where they can receive the help they need is the Fr. Ray Drop-In Center.

Fr. Peter gives
a blessing.

The Drop-In Center will help these young people get their life back on track with counseling and offering a variety of options such as returning back to school, attending a vocational college or finding suitable employment. But even after graduating from school or college or finding the job they want, these young people still need support.

If immediately after graduating and finding work they are asked to leave the Drop-In Center there is a chance that they will return to their former life on the streets; this is a life they know and one they are comfortable with. They still have friends on the streets and they may have yet to make new friends in their new place of employment, so out of loneliness they forget about all they have learned and return to a life with not much future or hope.

The Fr. Ray Foundation has decided to build a ‘Halfway House’, a place where these young people can continue to live, but live independently and still know that the help and support they may need is available to them.

Fr. Peter, Acting-President of the Fr. Ray Foundation, recently blessed the new construction site in the hope that the building work will be completed with no problems, and that when finished the new home will allow its residents to grow into decent hard working adults.

The new Halfway House will accommodate up to eight residents. There will be cooking facilities and a TV room, and the residents will be expected to keep the house clean and tidy. There will be rules that must be followed, but the age of the residents will be taken into consideration and they will have more freedom than residents at the Drop-In Center.

Most people living in Pattaya, or any large town or city in Thailand, will have seen children begging and living on the streets. The Fr. Ray Foundation is doing what it can to help these young street kids change their lives. Many who arrive at the Fr. Ray Drop-In Center will go to live at the Fr. Ray Children’s Home but with the new Halfway House the Fr. Ray Foundation will be able to give these older teenagers the desperate help and support they need.

In a few months time this will be a safe home for eight young people.

Sattahip Rotary Club donates food, funds to autism center

Sattahip Rotarians and Rotary Anns serve lunch to autistic children
under the care of Baan Khao Bai Sri School in Plutaluang.

Patcharapol Panrak

Members of the Rotary Club of Sattahip district donated food and funds and paid a visit to autistic children being cared for at Baan Khao Bai Sri School in Plutaluang.

Amrin Ratanapak, head of the special education center, said there are currently 36 children in the center who suffer from developmental and communication problems. The center cares for them while their parents are at work.

The group brought food and snacks and donated money to take care of 15 autistic kids.

St Andrews IB Diploma Visual Arts students reach final hurdle

Kim Morris

In April, St Andrews IB Visual Arts students, Tevin Jones, Cindy Kim and Josephina Cheong had reached the final hurdle in this two-year course, the examination interview!

Tevin from year 13 working on his assignment.

Their ultimate goal had been to develop original artworks based on their individual interests, thoughts and feelings. The question was though, had they achieved their goal and become independent artists in their own right? And even more importantly, would they be able to talk confidently and in detail about the work, its successes and failures, its development, context, meaning, influences and purpose?

The examination required the students to mount an exhibition of their finished artwork that was then to be presented to a visiting examiner during a forty-minute interview. As well as the artwork, students had also maintained investigation workbooks throughout the course. These books housed all of their research and documented, analysed, explored and experimented with ideas, media, artists and a variety of creative techniques. These books were sent to the examiner prior to the interview so that she could develop specific and individual questions for each candidate.

So what did the students think of the examination?

Shaman Mask - oil paint on paper by Cindy in year 13.

Cindy - “The Art exam was the most interesting of all of the IB exams. It didn’t feel like an examination. I felt like I was simply explaining my work to a very interested audience who was visiting my exhibit. We were interacting in the name of Art. Mair Lloyd, the examiner, listened intently and was very understanding. She was impressed. It would be a pleasure to have another chance such as this.”

Josephina - “I was quite nervous about having to talk to a complete stranger but the examiner was very positive and polite. As she had already read my statement and my book, she had a lot of questions for me. I felt confident and proud of myself as I told her the story behind my work. She listened so carefully. It was a great experience to be able to share my artwork and discuss how I feel about it. She also talked to me about what she saw within my work and how her viewpoints differed to mine. I would love to repeat this experience.”

Thai Folk Tale - oil pastel on paper by Josephina in year 13.

Tevin - “It was brilliant! It was exciting and fun to talk with the examiner; we got along really well. She was from Wales too. Forty minutes seemed like a long time but once you got into it, you didn’t even notice the time passing. I was in there for over an hour! Ms Lloyd told me how much she liked my artwork and how she too was very interested in Thai fishing boats. She is a textile designer and she was looking for me to recognise the qualities within my work that were relevant to textiles.”

As their teacher, I can definitely say that our students understand what it is to be an artist; the striving for an original idea, the experimentation that can lead to happy mistakes and creative disasters and the surge of excitement when everything falls into place and you manage to complete an artwork. Whatever the outcome of the examinations, the students’ learning experience, the personal growth and self awareness are the greatest qualifications.

Cindy from year 13 getting creative.

Josephina from year 13 starts work.