CONCORDIA WELFARE AND EDUCATION FOUNDATION-THAILAND

2013-2014 Authored by: Ms. Oratai (Dang) Thaweesin

CWEF-Thailand Annual Report

For July 2013-June 2014

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CWEF-Thailand Annual Report

For July 2013-June 2014

Background Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation Thailand (CWEFT) was founded by Lutheran Church Missouri Synod missionaries in 1988. CWEFT was established to minister to the needs of underprivileged children throughout Thailand. We are fully registered with the Department of Labor, the Public Welfare Department and the Ministry of the Interior. CWEFT helps to improve the lives and long term outlook for children through education and other services. We believe education to be the path out of poverty and a gateway to opportunities for a better life. CWEFT provide a wide variety of programs and activities designed to help people in various situations of need. These include clean water, shelter, food, emergency assistance, dormitories, scholarships for children to be able to attend schools, training and seminars, daycare facilities and others. CWEFT helps to strengthen and broaden the outreach activities of the local partners through its mercy ministries in the surrounding communities. Goal To share education opportunities in order to build a world of thriving communities, serving, inspiring light and hope in others. CWEFT emphasizes four major areas in its projects: education; community development; hygiene and basic health care; and emergency relief for those affected by natural disasters.

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1. Education CWEFT encourages and helps to establish early childhood centers in urban and rural slum communities to provide assistance to working parents and guardians, as well as provide children with quality care during their preschool years and after school care thereafter. These daycare centers encourage children; develop their imagination and creativity through art, music, languages and computer skills. Scholarships are provided for needy children in remote areas. Also, CWEFT works with hostels for children and youth from different ethnic hill tribes, orphans and homeless children. CWEFT also conducts a program for the elderly, which includes basic health care, wellness training and care, as well as activities to build relationships within the person’s family and community to prevent depression.

2. Community Development

Community development is aimed at changing the lives of local residents through volunteer support. Volunteers are encouraged to help share their knowledge, get involved in renovating schools and church buildings and libraries, developing clean water projects and supporting a revolving fund to promote occupations as a way to improve the community standard. In addition, this program has helped integrate local indigenous knowledge to create income and to support local residents as they pursue a self-sufficient economy. By encouraging this type of development, communities become more self-reliant, while at the same time becoming able to help others.

3. Community Health CWEFT facilitates health and wellness trainings for community leaders and local villagers to help provide an awareness of basic health and disease prevention. Community leaders are taught to record information, preserve local knowledge and share knowledge

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of modern health care and treatments. This includes training village health workers in the use of basic medical equipment and natural treatments with the long-term goal of becoming a self-supporting community clinic. 4. Emergency Relief and Development CWEFT aims to help victims of natural disasters in many ways, while placing an emphasis on assisting affected students, schools and churches, whenever possible. CWEFT acknowledges that the government should be the first organization to provide emergency relief. However, CWEFT is willing to work alongside local partners and government organizations to help people or communities that are affected by disasters. The goal is to find way to help people help themselves and become self-sufficient with their input, so they can continue their lives. CWEFT’s Program 1. Concordia Day Care and Slum Community Center, Bangkok The Concordia Day Care Center (CDCC) is a child care center for at-risk children in the slum community near the Bang Na expressway in Bangkok. The objective of the CDCC is to bring the love of Jesus to the children who live in the slum community and attend the center. The CDCC provides a safe environment for children to grow and develop in a loving atmosphere. As with slum communities around the world, the Bang Na slums are rife with serious social problems which include poverty, drug and substance abuse and trafficking, and prostitution. Nearly all of the children in the Bang Na slum community are directly affected by one or more of these social ills. Through the programming of the CDCC, not only are the youngest children given a safe and secure environment, but also they are shown and taught about the love of Jesus, which is the primary motivator for the CDCC program.

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Since 1990 the CDCC has provided educational and medical services for at-risk school children, in addition to providing a safe haven for at-risk pre-school children. Children in the Bang Na slum are at risk for a variety of reasons. These include: abandonment because of extreme poverty, death from malnutrition, social and intellectual deprivation and emotional issues due to a lack of closeness with caregivers. The CDCC provides the children with nutritious food, a safe area in which to play, basic hygiene and medical care, as well as a preschool education that prepares them for primary school. After they complete the preschool program at the CDCC, the children often continue to spend time at the day care after school and on weekends. They know that they are welcome at anytime to continue to be surrounded by loving and nurturing caregivers and friends. In addition to child care, referrals for further counseling or follow-up are provided on a case by case basis for children with issues that exceed the capabilities of the CDCC. What We Have Accomplished this Year We continued using the early childhood center to help children and parents daily. Through the Concordia Day Care and Slum Community Center, this year we helped 150 children from Monday-Friday, 27 children in the weekend classes and 28 children from the school break program. We also helped 23 children who are undernourished to improve their condition by providing, milk, vitamins

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and nutritious food packages. With the children who live in the slum and are 1-2 years old, we worked with their parents and grandparents regarding hygiene and basic health training to help them in the area of holistic health care. We prepared children and educated their parents about the value of education and how important it is for the children to stay healthy and to continue studying through the early childhood program and to attend school with good support from their parents. Ideally this will continue until they are able to finish high school or technical college. This year 16 children from CDCC were prepared and went to public primary school with proper legal document. The CWEFT staff helped them re-apply to the government, since they lost birth certificates, house registrations and other important documents during the fire that destroyed much of the Bang Na slum community some years ago. We are open and willing to work with volunteers. They always give a warm welcome to volunteers who want to use their gifts and talents to arrange activities to help the children. This year, we worked with 250 students from four international schools to do service learning activities at CDCC. Also, every Saturday volunteers from International Church of Bangkok came to help us teach some classes. It was a good opportunity for us to work with them, to share about who we are and what we are doing and to inform them of our needs regarding this ministry.

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This year, we are increasing the number of partners working with the CDCC program and volunteers opportunities. Some of these include members of International Church of Bangkok, Concordia Lutheran Church pastors and members, Lutheran organizations in Thailand and the U.S.A. and local Christians. Also, CWEFT administrators attended some of their church services and events, so we could meet with pastors, church members and other people to do presentations about the CWEFT and CDCC ministries. We did volunteer programs and built relationships with people in the surrounding community by sharing resources with them. We directly impacted 1,590 community residents surrounding the CDCC. 2. Concordia Children Home, Chiangmai In 2006, CWEFT began to work with the Hmong of the northern mountains, which were introduced to us by Dr. Fungchatou Lo from the Hmong Mission Society in the U.S.A. This ministry allows us to work daily with many children who are in the rural areas that are so extremely poor, most of them cannot access basic education, health care or systematic career training. Some have no proper legal documents, since they are refugees, minorities and immigrants in Thailand. Some of their communities are in red zones where many drugs are trafficked through their communities. They are hill tribe farmer who work with their hands to make enough income to take care their families. Their life is in mountain communities that have only dirt roads. The government primary schools provide just the simple bamboo buildings with a few education materials from grades 1-6, so

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they can learn to speak and read Thai to communicate with government officers and others.

In 2006, Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation – Thailand began supporting the original Hmong Student Hostel, which was established by Mr. Prajurk Phosiripattannaon, a local Hmong leader. He personally experienced living in a hostel, when he stayed at a Buddhists temple and Islamic temple while he studied in Bangkok. He knows how hard it was for him to keep his faith, but economic hardship gave him no choice. Mr. Prajurkknows in his heart that God called him to serve with the hostel children. He stepped down from community leader , give up his career and moved to live in the city with his family, so he can care for these children. He had no stipend or support from any organization at that time, only income from his wife’s work to support him and the ministry, but he took the call. He ran the ministry without financial support. We visited with him and heard his story. CWEFT’s board decided to partner with him, as CWEFT always seeks opportunities to work with local leaders who have a

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commitment to help poor children. We started with little support, brought volunteers to work side by side with him. Then we agree to changed the hostel from a private hostel to a legally registered hostel through CWEFT in 2009. Finally, CWEFT hopes that in the end this center will develop multiple people to place into this hostel. We also hope that it can be a training center to practice life skills with those children who are lost and who suffer from economic hardship or drug trafficking. What we have accomplished this year In early 2012 CWEFT learned that the hostel needed to relocate immediately, as the land it was renting was being sold. In response to this need for the hostel to find a new location, coupled with CWEFT’s own need to expand its facilities in Northern Thailand to better accommodate the growing human care effort in the area, with God’s blessing we finally bought land in Chiangmai. This new site was developed as the permanent home of the Hmong Student Hostel. Due to the larger size and location of the new land, CWEFT has implemented a three-year development plan, which includes (in addition to hostel) a guest house, retail/office facilities and large area dedicated to self-sustaining and income-generating agricultural projects. In March, 2013 the building construction was finished. In April Mr. Prajurk and students moved to stay at the new site.

In June 2014, we formally opened the home as the Concordia Student Hostel under CWEFT. Since it was CWEFT’s team, Mr. Prajurk, students and their parents helped develop self-sustaining projects, such as planting seeds to grow the vegetables near the fence for the students’ food bank, building a bamboo segment fence and front gate to prevent strangers from coming in, joining with Logos Farms in Doi Saket, Chiangmai for training and introducing self-sustaining Aquaponics vegetable production and learning how to make fruit and juice drinks.

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Later we were learn how to raise black chickens and built a chicken house to collect eggs and meat for the center. All that training helped to build the capacity of the students and project manager, so practice life skills while they stay with us. Now we are applying the aquaponic system to raise fish and using the water from the fish farm to grow vegetables without using chemicals.

This past year the Concordia Children Hostel helped 21 students. They came from Mae Sa Mai District, which is a link for us with the Hmong local church network from the U.S.A. About 60% of these students are children of church members and 40% are some of their neighbors who want to get further education in the city. Unfortunately they don’t have any relatives to care for them. Their parents are willing to cover the cost of some of their education supplies, living expenses of 700

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baht per month for food and shelter at CLLC, also they help their kids to keep Hmong culture even though they live in the city. From Monday through Friday the students rotate to help in the kitchen and clean the house every morning and evening. During the day they go to a school in the area. They come back from school around 5:00 p.m. and help prepare dinner. On Wednesdays they have a small group study together. Besides that, if any other activities come up, then the caretaker helps to arrange for the students to get involved with some community events or get involved at the center to develop self-sufficient projects there with him.

CWEFT invited local leader representatives, to teach the students about Christian morals and ethics.

CWEFT invited 17 students from the Hmong Student Hostel in Mae Rim to join the TCLC youth camp in March, 2014. CWEFT also coordinated with other volunteers, who are interested in helping those students with Mr. Prajurk by teaching the students English in the evening or

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cooking, clearing and others classes on Saturdays, so they can develop while they stay there.

In January 4-22, 2015 Mr. David Karkan, former volunteer from the USA, will visit Thailand again to learn more what else they can do to help the Concordia Children Home improve their hostel, also help to impact with CWEFT ministry in Thailand. After he retires from his work in the U.S.A. Every year he will come to Thailand and spent 2-3 months to volunteer to help

those children about electric and technical skills for their career training. The total budget for the Concordia Student Center is 13,000 USD per year, which includes utilities, food for students, building and equipment maintenance, school supplies, travel costs and allowance to the school. Locally we raised 5,000 USD per year and we depend on outside sources for about 8,000 USD per year. Finally, we hope to get about 2,000 USD per year income from the agriculture products from the self-sufficient projects. Project 3: Concordia Mannaporn Student Center, Chiangrai In October, 2012, CWEFT start to work with hill tribe hostel in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand. CWEFT has been involved with three other hostel projects in the north and we are excited about the opportunity to continue to reach disadvantaged and at-risk youth at this new site. Mr. ThardonNgonkham, church members of Pastor Sompong Harmpradit, is married to a Lahu hill tribe woman and was familiar with his wife’s culture, as well as the condition in the remote Lahu villages. Drug trafficking is a big problem in the community and many parents are imprisoned because of their involvement, leaving their children to stay with relatives with limited supervision. In addition, due to the limited employment opportunities in the remote villages, many parents are forced to move to urban areas to find work. They often leave their children with relatives in the village, while they are gone. Consequently, many children were not attending school and had limited opportunities for their futures. To address this issue, Thardon’s father-in-law, Me. Apichai Rachamekul, a Lahu, used his own land to build a temporary hostel for these at-risk children. His goal was to provide them with much needed physical and spiritual support. As a

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result of this initial project all of the 17 students at the hostel attended public schools while living at the hostel, which provided them with food, clothing and shelter in a loving Christian environment.

CWEFT is excited about the opportunities for partnership in doing outreach and human care at the new Lahu youth hostel, which is the fourth hill tribe hostel project that CWEFT is involved with. At the Lahu hostel in Chiangrai, a local family will continue to oversee the project. CWEFT’s work at the hostel projects includes training the children, youth, their families and other community members in organic agriculture. Many families in the area use excessive amounts of chemical fertilizer, which leads to a variety of health concerns. CWEFT also organizes camps during school breaks and community service projects, provides scholarships, support for startup costs on self-sustaining agricultural projects and assorted vocational training programs. What we have accomplished this year This year we helped to support and care for 17 students, most of whom don’t live with both of their parents. Some of their parents are in prison and their relatives can’t help them to care for their children. All the children went to the public school in the area, which is supported by the government, so we didn’t have to pay any tuition. But still there were some expenses for education supplies, school uniforms, shoes and personal allowance for the students. Some of the parents helped by giving 2,000 Baht per term. For parents who weren’t able to pay, we asked them to help by donating a 50-kilogram sack of rice each term to the children’s home. The main expenses for this project are for electricity, water, food, travel expenses for the children to go to school each day and for students to

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visit their hometown during the school break, home supplies and some equipment to use at the center. We thank God that this year some missionary families in Chiangmai helped to build a permanent building for the girls and boys hostels and the care taker’s house. In the past, every two or three years we needed to rebuild or replace the bamboo buildings and leaf roofs. Normally, CWEFT helps to raise about 300 USD per month for Manaporn Children’s Home to pay for monthly utilities, food for students, school supplies, maintenance, travel and medical care. If any extra funds come in for this project, then we use them to help build a self-sufficient project at the center. These projects include food, pigs, chicken project, well projects and equipment that are needed in the long term. Mr. Apichai and his family are very committed to helping these children physically and spiritually. All of the students in this home have become Christians. After school the children take a bath, then eat a group dinner, share the responsibilities for cleaning the table, have a devotion and then do their homework. CWEFT’s team will visit 2-3 times each year to follow up, hear the needs and get updates from Mr. Apichai and the students. Occasionally CWEFT’s team will travel to students’ hometowns to visit some of their family members to learn about their family situation. Every month we communicate by phone and letter.

In September, 2013, CWEFT provided seed funds for a pig project, so they could build a food project to feed students. The pastor, families members and some students used their labor to build a pig house,

then they bought 3 baby pigs to start, so they can help to raise meat to sell or eat at the center. The cost of the seed project was about 15,000 Baht.

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In October, 2013, we helped to develop the front area of the student building to be a study area, so the children can do homework there rather than in their rooms all the time. We bought supplies to make the roof, floors, chairs and tables at a cost of about 25,000 baht. On December 21, 2013, CWEFT’s team visited Manaporn hostel to join hands with them to arrange a special Christmas event in the surrounding community. About 100 children and 50 adults came to the event. April is summer time in Thailand and most of the wells dry up if the wells are not deep enough. This hostel has the same problem. Although we have limited funding, we need to buy city water for the hostel. This is quite expensive for us, as we are outside the main community. We prayed that God would provide a fund for us to dig the well deeper. We thank you the Lutheran Rise Christ in Springfield, Ohio, provided some gifts to finish the well project. We also were able to provide a pump and tank for Manaporn Children’s Home, so we could have enough clean water at the hostel. The cost including labor for digging the well, buying the tank, pump and pipe, installation in the rest room, kitchen and washing area was about 37,000 Baht. (1,250 USD). With the new school term, 10 students applied to our program. Please include Pastor Apichai, his family, the children and CWEFT’s team in your prayers.

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Project 4: Concordia Light Student Center, in Chiangrai Mr. Chumee Sangsin, friends of some of pastor in the USA, invited us to visit the Light Hostel project, which is run by his friend. CWEFT took the invitation to visit the project and to learn about the leader’s vision and ministry. His vision is to set up a hostel for disadvantaged children and to prepare young leaders, who can go back to share the Good News with their people. The hostel takes in children 7-16 years old. Most of the children in this hostel are orphans. Some of their parents died because of involvement in drug trafficking and some parents are in prison. The village is underdeveloped and in a very dilapidated condition. The villagers are poor and are hired to cultivate vegetables, which they sell in the hill tribe market to traders or those renting space in the market. The villagers are hired and paid on a daily basis. Some children become victims and have to deliver drugs for adults, while some are forced to use the drugs themselves. Most of the villagers are animists. The area surrounding the village is considered a “Red Area” due to drug problems while incidents of suicide also occur. Families live in the Self Development Community under the Department of Social Welfare. In some areas drugs are stored in the village. As a result, a number of villagers are arrested every day.

Currently, there are 8 children at the hostel. CWEFT saw this as an opportunity to partner with the Akha community to help these needy children.

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What we have accomplished this year CWEFT provided monthly support of about 200 USD per month for the first year during our time to work on some agreement with the caretaker regarding the vision and policy. We also drafted a MOU, so we can agree on the principles of what our partnership will be like. We want to help the needy children to have opportunities for further study. We are interested in building the capacity and self-sufficiency of the hostel, so they can continue to less dependence on outside funding. We hope that we can develop the relationship further, introduce them to more people, network. In August, 2013, CWEFT partnered with the Thai-Japanese Ladies Group from Bangkok to run the day camp for 2 hostels (Light and Manaporn Children Home) to host the camp in Chiang Rai. We provided lunch, supplies to run the camp and the ladies led the activities and compared Japanese culture and Thai culture, so show what we can and can’t do, as we are children. We also provided some cooking supplies, sport equipment and 2 guitars to donate to both children home. CWEFT’s team shared about the treatment, care and prevention of Dengue Fever. They also donated two guitars, sports equipment and household supplies for two children’s homes. CWEFT also signed a MOU with Light Hostel’s caretaker and his family. Currently they care for eight students.

CWEFT provided 10,000 Baht in seed money for a chicken project. We took Mr. Pawn to learn about Lahu and Akha community in the area, especially how they build self sufficiency to support their family and hostel. We hope that this will be an encouragement for him to continue the ministry as CWEFT is willing to partner with him to develop it.

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On December 21, 2014, we conducted a Christmas event with the caretaker and his family. We invited the children’s friends from the school to celebrate Christmas. About 50 students and 15 adults came to the event and learn about the true meaning of Christmas. Project 5 : Community Health Training Concordia Welfare and Education Foundation Thailand has been working in cooperation with Lutherans in Medical Mission (LIMM) to coordinate and develop CHE programs in northern Thailand. The goal is to help build sustainable health-related support for the people and community in the region.

The goals of the project were to empower Hmong residents through CHE trainings, build the capacity of the local people to develop a Community Health Education program that will share the love of God to the community residents and improve the health of the community. The Hmong of Thailand, including the Hmong in the Baan KhunHuayKlai and Baan Mae Sai Mai villages where the CHE projects were held, are mostly farmers who grow enough rice and vegetables to feed their families and then plant additional corn, mangoes, roses or other produce/flowers to earn their living. Additionally, when the rainy season ends, they will travel to markets in the nearest city to sell their distinct handmade crafts Their average annual income is 50,000-80,000 baht per family (about $1,540-$2,460).

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The Hmong typically have many children. Some of these children help their family with the farm, while others are sent to stay at government or Christian hostels in city centers to get further education. When the children are sent away to go to school, the other village residents are left on their own to continue farming in the remote mountain areas. The nearest hospital is 100-150 kilometers (62-93 miles) from their villages, with the winding dirt roads to the villages in poor condition. There is no public transportation, so they must provide their own transportation, which usually is by pickup truck or motorcycle. In addition, their Thai language is limited, particularly among older residents, making any trip to the doctor or elsewhere difficult. As part of their farming, the Hmong have traditionally used generous amounts of chemical fertilizers on their fruits and vegetables without knowing the dangers of doing so. They didn’t realize the danger of not properly protecting themselves by wearing protective clothing, gloves and masks. In addition, there is little knowledge of good nutrition and self care, combined with high levels of stress. There are high rates of certain diseases in the villages, because of the prolonged exposure to dangerous chemicals, poor nutrition and high stress levels. Some of these diseases include certain cancers, respiratory diseases, stroke, diabetes, high cholesterol, gout and mental health issues. CHE trainings have helped community residents to better care for their family members and others in need in their villages. The trainings focused on hygiene, health care, nutrition, mental health, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, baby diarrhea, digestive issues and respiratory disease. Specifically, participants learned about symptoms, how to watch for certain indicators and how to record their findings and share them with local health care staff or doctors. These skills are particularly important for villagers to be able to identify situations which require immediate care and transfer to local health care facilities. They also need to know how to best care for and protect their children, the elderly and other residents from preventable illnesses, while monitoring other non-emergency health conditions. While saving on travel costs for unnecessary trips to the hospital, the trainings also have provided life-saving knowledge and expertise in enabling residents to take charge of their health and well-being. Through these trainings more and more residents have come to better understand holistic health care for prevention, while making changes to their eating habits, increasing exercise and helping other area communities with their health and wellness needs.

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What we have accomplished this year Ms. Oratai (Dang) Thaweesin, CWEFT Executive Director met with Dr.Somrak Shuvanitchawong, the chairperson of Thai Family Link Association, on August 13, 2013 to discuss CHE training for September 2013. Prior to this meeting, it was found that many residents suffered from mental health issues and the number of people admitted at the hospital was increasing rapidly. District health officials noticed these issues and contacted the community leader to look for a way to use some sort of community health training to teach the people how to care for those who are ill, but not in need of hospitalization. As a result of this need, CWEFT in cooperation with local church leaders and partners reached out to local experts to address the issues. This led to the meeting with Thai Family Link, which is an association with experience in mental health issues. After the meeting between CWEFT and Thai Family Link, it was agreed that the two organizations would help with future CHE trainings to best address mental health issues in the Hmong communities. On September 16-18, 2013, CWEFT partnered with Thai Family Link Association. Ms. Kruawon Tiengtom and Ms. Darastella Sreesangkom led a CHE training in the Hmong village of Khun Huay Klai in Chiang Rai province. Mr.Pongsak, former headman of the village welcomed the team to his home first and then led them to the local church where the training took place. The training itself began with an introduction about the meaning of good health, including physical, mental and spiritual health. There was a discussion about how families function and men and women’s roles in families. The discussion also included how residents manage their problems, who they talk to and what causes stress.

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Time was provided for individuals to share about any family members that currently suffer from mental illness and how they are dealing with it. The CHE trainers then shared about depression—what the symptoms are and how residents can encourage family members to share and talk about how they are feeling. The training covered techniques for helping them to deal with stress or depression, including knowing when to seek treatment from a doctor. Medical treatment can help manage the attitude of those suffering from depression and greatly improve their quality of life. The issue of suicide also was addressed, particularly knowing the warning signs and other ways to help, along with when to seek immediate medical attention in serious cases. Ways to improve family communication also were discussed as a means of avoiding miss-communication and maximizing the effectiveness of any help provided. Fourteen people attended this CHE training, which included women and one young couple. Everyone was between 15-40 years old, most have small children at home, while three women had children who were over 30 years old. One woman was not Hmong, but had recently married a Hmong man from the community. All participants were very interested in the topics addressed at the training. Some of the older participants had a little trouble with the language, as the training was conducted in Thai, but the younger participants helped with translation into Hmong and everyone was able to understand the entirety of the training. In addition to the residents who attended, Mr. Pongsak and the local church board also joined the training and so were able to better understand the issues in their community and to discuss ways to address them. The participants said that in general women are more stressed than men, because they must make many adjustments when getting married—adjusting to his family (Hmong women stay with their husband’s family after marriage) and any other changes in community daily life that goes along with that. In addition, Hmong culture traditionally allows for men to take on multiple wives, if they are able to support them. But many women prefer to adopt a more modern approach to marriage with the husband having only one wife. All of these factors, combined with the rigors of daily life in a remote mountaintop farming community, lead to high stress levels for many residents. A few

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participants also indicated their family members suffered from mental health issues. There were cases in this community where wives had committed suicide as a result of unaddressed, high levels of stress and depression. In these more extreme cases, there were elevated issues between the wife and the husband’s family, as well as problems with lack of privacy, drinking and feeling overwhelmed with no support. This was the first time for many of the residents to talk about these serious cases in their community. It was helpful for them to do so, as it made them aware of the reality of the problem and the very serious results that can occur if the situation is not recognized or is misunderstood and left untreated. As a result of the training the church decided to begin a couples ministry to reach out to married couples who may need support for any reason. The group is open to all other residents as well, if they also have any sort of need. It is hoped that through this ministry the church will be able to encourage and pray for those in need, while also working with residents to identify and address any physical or mental health issues. Residents also are interested in learning about chemical-free farming techniques. CWEFT will do follow-up with related organizations and hopes to be able to coordinate future trainings in this area for the community. Participants also reviewed topics from previous trainings, including checking blood pressure, diabetes detection and others. As a result of previous CHE trainings, residents continue to work with local government officials in areas of health and wellness. They have selected local health volunteers in their communities to list with nearby health care facilities. To conclude the training, Thai Family Link shared pamphlets about mental health, CDs and other materials with the church, so the community will have resources on hand when they need them. Ms. SangchanTasu from CWEFT’s team and two local leaders joined the CHE-TOT 1 training in Thai Vision at the River Training Center on January 20-24,2014. This training helped local Thai staff and local leaders to gain more skill and techniques in how to develop a community health program for people living around their community.

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On June 1-8, 2014 CWEFT led a community health seminar about dental health care. We shared about how the health of the teeth and gums is related to the health of the whole person, just as the well-being of a person relates to the health of the entire community. Early care is what makes the dentist’s work unnecessary and this is the care that each person gives to his or her own teeth or what a mother does to protect her children’s teeth.

We helped train nine church members, 21 parents of children at the early childhood center and 57 children in the community early childhood center at Baan Mae Sa Mai, Mae Rim, Chiang Mai. Also another 12 adults and 6 teachers with 83 students at a primary school in Baan Khun Hua Khai in Chiang Rai. We are very thankful to Ms. Kelly McDonald, a nurse who has a community health background, and Dr. Connor Ware a dental doctor from the USA for volunteering to help us with this project. From the training we found that the elderly people in the Hmong hill tribe never have toothbrushes and never learned how to take care of their teeth. Those who age in above 65 often have teeth that still are in good condition, except for some small cavities, because they still eat their traditional foods which have little sugar. This training is the first time in their live that they can learn from a professional dentist and nurse. The students from Grade 1-6 all have lots of cavities and need to see a dentist to take care of the problem. Only 10% of the students learned how to care for their teeth from the school. None of their parents showed them how to do it.

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The community residents members, who went through the training promised that they will share their knowledge with their grandchildren and their families. The mothers were more concerned about their cooking and hygiene in their families. The young mothers who can read and write Thai well will help the older people translate the information into the Hmong language, so they will understand too. Winds and young mothers were included. They got lots of support from the men, who did the farm work so their wives or mothers could attend the training with us. A resident community trainer will continue to do blood pressure and weight checks once a month, when they hold the community meetings. They will share about nutrition, how to care and watch what they eat and how to keep their blood pressure stable. They will include activities about dental care too. Normally about 23-30 people show up and ask for blood checks. Some women went through the health training six times with us within the past two years. They gained a lot of knowledge and are confident to tell other people about what they learned. They also are confident in running the community health clinic. This training really empowered the women to get involved more in their families and communities. The church members who joined the CHE training have met together at the pastor’s house once a week to do Bible study, pray and encourage each other about health and life problems. In the past they met only on Sundays. Now they have started to visit people in their communities who are sick too. Project 6. Community Development CWEFT facilitates health and wellness trainings for community leaders and local villagers to help provide an awareness of basic health and disease prevention. Community leaders are taught to record information, preserve local knowledge and share knowledge of modern health care and treatments. This includes training village health workers in the use of basic medical equipment and natural treatments with the long-term goal of becoming a self-supporting community clinic What we have accomplished this year On October 10, 2013, CWEFT provided the funds for Mr. Chowee, a community leader to develop a Black Chicken. First he bought 30 Black Hens and

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built a temporary house for them to see how the project would work. He has finished the long term hen house. The hens have begun to have 7-15 eggs each day that become babies. Now he has more than a 100 chicks to raise. Mr. Chowee started a pig farm in addition to raising the chickens. He started with 4 pigs and now has 24 pigs. He hopes to have more than 40-50 pigs within the next 6 months. CWEFT saw his commitment and hopes to support a second part of the project with a pig farm that he will start with his members. He will bring someone to train them and provide some funding to support food for the pigs for 6 months, until his church can grow the pigs to sell and then they will continue to take care of it on their own. As Promise Lutheran church interest to help the abandon children near my their community, so they invited CWEFT’s team to visit and find way to help them to build sufficient. Pastor Niran allow to use his home, to care for those children. From April 22-24, 2014, the CWEFT team met with Mr. Niran and three key leaders and joined the Aquaponics training to learn about this garden technology.. The training included actually building a small floating raft for the aquaponics system, principles of constructing a concrete ring media bed, types of plants and fish that can be grown, productive methods of planting seeds, productive methods of transferring seedlings to media beds or floating rafts, harvesting grown plants, safe washing, in ground vegetable growing system using fish water as the fertilizer, details of materials needed for small construction, pest problems and the advantages of water-grown vegetables. As CWEFT are mostly working with the hill tribe pastors, leaders and students, this kind of training fits well with us and the locations where we work. Through this project LCMS and CWEFT have been able to build the strength of the young local leader, so they can better serve their members and serve out to the people in their communities. Directly 20 people are being help and indirectly about 100 students and 1,500 people from two communities will benefit from this project.

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Project 7. Teacher Training On June 7, 2012 Mr. Dennis Denow, a CWEFT board representative, went to the opening of the Concordia Hostel Center in Mae Rim, Chiang Mai. There he met Mr. PrasobsukViphataphum, who is the principal of BawrirakSuksaChiangmai School in DoiSaket, Chiang Mai and learned about the school’s needs. Mr. Prasobsuk is interested in improving his school and other local Christian schools and has been looking for a partner to train the teachers. As Mr. Dennis is a professional church worker in education with the LCMS and he is one of CWEFT‘s board members, this teacher training allows CWEFT to help strengthen the school and teachers, so they can better serve the students and community. While these mercy ministries help with various needs in the surrounding communities, the pastors and church members proclaim the Gospel to those who are being helped. BawrirakSuksaChiangmai School is registered under the Bawrirak Foundation. This Foundation also owns the Ban Sarnfun Orphanage that helps abandoned children. Currently the orphanage is caring for 28 children. The BawrirakSuksaChiangmai School was started with the intention of inviting children from Christian orphanages and hostels to attend, so the children can continue to grow in faith and be influenced by Christian teachers daily. The school now has 50 students coming from orphanages and hostels and 12 students are coming from the community where the school is located. Mr. Prasobsuk is working to improve the school quality and teaching level, so that more families living near the school will be interested in sending their children to study there. They also will learn about God and His love for them. What we have accomplished this year On August 2-3, 2013, Mr. Dennis Denow from CWEFT’s board and Ms. Dang Thaweesin, the Executive Director of CWEFT, did a survey trip to Chiangmai to meet with the BawrirakSuksaChiangmai School founder, the school board, the principal, teachers, students and the foreigner volunteer teachers to learn about the school’s vision, goals, method of teaching and the community where they serve.

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Many opportunities and doors are open for CWEFT to develop relationships and start working here with our new Christian partner in the target area near a TCLC church. On May 10, 2014, Mr. Dennis conducted the first teacher training workshop. The school has several foreign volunteer teachers who teach only in English. The workshop was conducted in both Thai and English and Ms. Dang Thaweesin served as the interpreter. The workshop topics included classroom management, creating a positive learning environment and the success cycle. These sessions helped the teachers understand the Western teaching philosophy and methods and the idea that the teacher is the key to the students’ success and is responsible for teaching in ways that will help the students learn.

At first it seemed that the teachers didn’t see the point. They said that they already did so many things to make a difference in their classes. The Asia teaching style is different. The teacher is the center of sharing information through their lectures. If students ask questions the teacher might consider them to be trouble makers in the class. But, by the end of the first training the teachers began to change their altitude and to learn the new methods of teaching. On June 7, 2014 Mr. Dennis conducted the second teacher training workshop about the importance of different learning styles, the differences between left-brain and right-brain thinking, 8 types of intelligences and left and right brain teaching methods. The training is helping the teachers to know that each student is different and students can learn best when they can use their preferred learning style.

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The teachers are realizing that they need to observe and help their students improve and for the students to share information with their parents to be involved in helping them to improve too. Near the end of the training, Mr. Dennis asked the teachers to practice what they had learned by preparing teaching plans and trying to apply the different methods of teaching to hit both groups of left and right brain students. Most of the teachers did it well. This is the reward back to us that teachers understand it and will apply it in their classes. Through this project we helped 9 Thai teachers, 3 foreigner volunteer teachers with indirect benefits for 87 students and 250 others (parents and family members of the students). Mr. Prasobsuk’s goal is to develop this Christian school into a top quality, bi-lingual school. Mr. Prasobsuk has a vision to use this school to provide good education for many poor families and students. For several years Mr. Prasobsuk has been struggling to know how to improve his school. When he met Mr. Dennis Denow, he was confident that this was God’s answer to his prayers. Mr. Prasobsuk asked Mr. Dennis to help train the teachers and to offer advice on how to improve the quality of the school. During the two teacher training workshops and through other conversations with Mr. Dennis, Mr. Prasobsuk began to see a new way of approaching education. As he learned more about a student-centered approach, he came to believe that this philosophy fits very well with a Christian school and that it offered something special that the government schools don’t offer. As a result, Mr. Prasobsuk is working on new ideas for developing his school. He’s excited about making adjustments to the teaching methods, the approach to student assessment and the relationships between teachers and students. Mr. Prasobsuk also is developing opportunities to build relationships with other Christian schools in the area and sharing the training and new ideas with them. Mr. Prasobsuk is looking forward to organizing more teacher training workshops with CWEFT in the coming months. From the training and discussions we found that the schools in Thailand need to make many changes to their education philosophy. To raise the quality of education in Thailand, new teaching methods are needed and the schools need to focus on developing the students in many ways, not just giving them information to memorize. I believe that some of these changes can begin more easily in Christian schools than in government schools. I’m confident that these new education ideas

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will help the Christian schools to be more attractive to many Thai families. This is a good area for CWEFT to focus time and energy during the next fiscal year. Project 8. Scholarships Scholarships is one of the projects that CWEFT focuses on to support the children and students that are in our program or from the local church members or in the target community that we are working with. This project especially focuses on those families who have financial problems, but the children are committed to continuing their education, working part time or are showing a commitment to bring their knowledge back to develop a ministry. They value education as the way out of poverty with good support from their families and pastors or local churches, so this person can impact other people’s lives. What we have accomplished this year

First case: Preecha Saeyang. Mr. Preecha is a Hmong student who comes from family that has a limited income, as his mother has small children to care for and his father rents his van for transportation or sightseeing. During the low tourist season, his father works on construction or picks fruits to sell at the wholesale markets.

Preecha’s family has 4 children. Preecha is the oldest son. As a Hmong man, the oldest son has many responsibilities to help his family bring income. Many times he misses school to travel with his dad to help drive the van, if someone hires them for a long distance trip. This limits his time for studying. Mr. Timothy and Dawn Horswill met Preecha and learned more about his problems. They still is in need for his school allowance, payment for his lodging and education supplies. They decided to offer an extra scholarship for him, so he can spend his time studying, rather than having to drive a van to earn income. The main purpose is to use some funds to study English, so he can communicate with teams in the future. The amount that is left over can be used for his personal allowance for his study.

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In May, 2013, Mr. Timothy and Mrs. Dawn Horswill signed the contract with CWEFT and agreed to support Mr. Preecha Saeyang. CWEFT received the transfer of funds on June 14, 2014. The total amount was 1,800 USD. We agreed to provide 150 USD per month that he can use for studying English, field trips for Tourism and Hotel classes and monthly allowance for him. This allows him to continue his full time study at the ChiangmaiRajabhat University for the fourth year to complete his university classes and improve his English skill. We transferred the funds to Mr. PreechaSaeyang’s account for July, 2013 – March, 2014. Mr. Preecha used the scholarship to study at the N.L.L.C English center near his university and the price is cheaper than the YMCA classes. The course is English conversation for 120 hours at a cost of 8,000 Baht (267 USD). The class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays after school and last for two hours each day. Some of the funds are used to pay for rent of a room to stay with his classmate. It costs about 2,200 Baht (75 USD) per month, which includes water, but not electricity. It is a convenient walk to school. From October 2013 until March 2014 Preecha used his allowance to get training with a hotel in Chiangmai, so he can complete his study. The CWEFT Executive Director visited Preecha in August and November, 2013, while I worked in Chiangmai. To catch up, I went to visit his apartment and the language school. In March 2014 I met him at the TCLC youth camp in Chiangmai. From time to time, Ms. SangchanTasu, CWEFT’s staff calls and chats to find out how he is doing. Now Preecha has finished his study. The support that he received for the last year of his studies meant so much to him, allowed Preecha to finish his studies and begin his career. Now he is able to support his two brothers for their studies and to take care of his own life and move on. He still is involved with hostel evangelism at Hmong Hostel in Nam by leading the activities once a month.

Second case: Ms. Vanida from Grace Student Hostel. Mr. Sati Guntatient is one of the key leaders at Grace Student Hostel in Chiang Mai. Since 2011 one student from the hostel finished high school and would like to continue her study at the college. She comes from a poor family and her father already passed away. She is committed to work with children. She knows the value of the hostel and the big impact it made in her life.

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Mr. Sati, Project manager of the Grace Hostel wrote to us and asked CWEFT to find a way to provide a scholarship for her, since she is a potential leader to continue running the hostel ministry in the future. We got the funds for her scholarship. Now she is in the third year of the Bible College. Every weekend she travels back to the hostel and teaches there to help the children who stay there. We provide about 26,000 Baht per year for her tuition at the College. Some of the church members help her for her monthly allowance to go to school. During the school break she works a part time job to earn some income. Interesting Stories from Children and Volunteers

DollayaDaengmesri (nickname: Kratai) was born on October 24, 2009. She has two older brothers and one older sister. Her first brother is seventeen years old. Her second brother is ten years old and studies in grade 4. Her sister is in kindergarten at Roongreungschool. Kratai lives in a slum community near the Bangna Expressway. Kratai’s parents are very poor. They have inconsistent income and struggle to have enough to survive.

The slum where Kratai lives is a source of many illegal drugs. Kratai is very thin and malnourished, because her family doesn’t take good care of her.Kratai has been coming to the CDCC since June 2012. She has received training for pre-school readiness, morality and discipline. She has developed physically, emotionally, socially and intellectually. The CDCC staff always encourage Kratai to eat healthfully. Kratai is a cheerful girl. She can adapt and plays well with her friends. Kratai comes to the CDCC every day. Now she can write without having to connect the dots. She has started to memorize and learn from songs, reading and listening. She can color within the lines and likes to use many colors.

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MontidaSijunpong (nickname: Nuay) and MontichaSijunpong (nickname: Noon) are twins who were born on August 17, 1999. They are in grade 8 at Bangnanai School. They live in the slum community near the Bangna Expressway, which is close to the CDCC. They live with their father, NirinSijunpong, who is a motorcycle service man, and their mother, RatchanokSijunpong, who works in a factory.

Nuay and Noon’s parents are poor. They barely earn enough money to support their family. Their mother has to work very hard to take care of the family and to provide for the children’s education. Sometimes their grandmother has to take care of the children, because their mother has to work long hours. The slum is not a good place for Nuay and Noon to live. The air is bad, the area is not very safe and the children can be misled into doing bad things. Noon and Nuay are good and hardworking children. Their parents trust the teachers at the CDCC. The children are tutored after school to review their homework. The extra classes are English, computer, guitar and arts. Both children attended the Christmas celebration. They enjoy singing, dancing and were in the Christmas play. Noon and Nuay are obedient to their teachers and other adults. They pay attention to their studies and love to research information. Even though their family is poor, they are studious. They help other people and they are very smart. They dream of getting higher education. If they can take care of themselves, they can help others. They have the ability to help their family and others in the community get out of poverty. Already they can live on their own. They want to be teachers in the future. The reason is because teachers are role models. Teachers are respected. Teachers help children become good citizens. If they have mentors, they can make their dreams come true.

Mrs. Yoshi Russell, foreign volunteer. It wasn’t long after moving to Thailand that my husband and I know we were sent here for a reason. After only a few short weeks we found Concordia Day Care and Slum Community Center. During the week I was blessed to be able to volunteer with the younger kids and show them things that we take for granted, like throwing a pizza party; making green eggs and ham while

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reading the book; making sushi; playing different sports; baking cookies (and the children being hesitant to try them- I know the feeling all to well!); playing dictionary and singing and dancing; receiving love and knowledge; and allowing Christ into our minds and hearts. On the weekends my husband and I both volunteer with the older children. They are amazing! Over a period of time each of them has grown to trust us. They all have a story and they all have scars. But, thanks to Concord Day Care and Slum Community Center, they all have a fighting chance at a good future. They are eager to learn and eager to explore outside their comfort zones. It has been an amazing experience teaching them English, while they teach both of us about love and happiness. KhunMaew (Project Manager) has shown us the slums. The heartbreaking, yet full of life shacks that these children live in. they all are so joyful for what Concordia center has done for them. I, too, along with my husband and cannot thank Concordia enough for their diligence in spreading God’s message and allowing these children the right every child should have: an opportunity to shine through God’s light.

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