Jesters Care For Kids 2011 - Your donations at work
Sam flashes a
big smile at Hand to Hand.
Lewis Underwood
It was a pleasure to meet Sam; a real working class hero
caring for disabled kids in the Pattaya area. Sam was crippled with polio
when he was a baby and after a difficult childhood, found a new lease on
life determined to help others like him.
For the past 10 months, Sam has been collecting donations
to buy rice to give to the families with disabled children. Each family
receives 2-3 bags, or 5 kilos of rice, which has to be of high quality, as
many of the kids have problems swallowing food. He usually does this on the
first Saturday of each month in the Nong Prue Municipality at the top of
Nernplabwan Road.
And after sitting down with Sam and hearing about his
life and ambitions, we decided to join in too!
Sam Somkiat, born in Udon Thani, contracted polio when he
was one year of age. Considered a burden by his family, they left him with
his grandparents. But they were poor rice farmers, who also did not want Sam
and when they went to work in the fields, they would leave him alone with
just some sticky rice.
He was often beaten and his grandparents even tried to
sell him. But, fortunately, a local doctor in the village, aware of the
ongoing injustice, introduced Sam to some missionaries in the area, who took
him in. Suddenly, his life did a complete 180.
Now there was love and care from his new family and they
got him registered with the local amphur and sent him to school. Without any
previous education, and speaking only Issan dialect, he persevered to learn
to speak, read and write in both Thai and English.
Sam spent two years with the missionary family, before
they had to return to their home country. But they continued their support
by placing him in a boarding school in Udon Thani, where he finished and
graduated from high school.
One of Sam’s ‘children’.
After that he hit the road and went south to the shores
of Pattaya. Here, he studied with Maha Thai Redemptorist School for a year
before going to work with the Christian Care Foundation for Children with
Disabilities for 4 years.
Following that, he also worked with the Mercy Center,
where he met Margaret Granger.
And now, since this year, Sam has been working with
Margaret under their new organization, Hand-to-Hand, located in Duck Square
in South Pattaya. Here they offer day care for kids of poor families, whose
parents work during the day.
Sam, under this umbrella, has continued his rice
distribution under the banner of the Eastern Association for Disabled
Children.
However, his ultimate goal is to also help these special
kids by establishing a rehabilitation center for the severely disabled,
which is in sight now that Hand-to-Hand has petitioned for foundation
status. This would be a day care facility offering physical therapy and
training parents how to best assist and cope with their children’s
disabilities.
In the meantime, the Jesters Care for Kids committee has
agreed to cover their monthly rice costs, and at Sam’s insistence, we will
help with the actual physical distribution too. In short, we can’t wait!
If you would like to help us care for disabled kids,
please visit our website at www.care4kids.info and Facebook at www.facebook
.com/care4kids.
Please remember that our Jesters Children’s Fair is on
Sunday, September 11th this year at Diana Garden Resort and our Gala Party
Night on Saturday, September 24th at the Amari Orchid Pattaya.
