A Tangeant for Thailand: The Baan Dada Walk

I'm going to take a step away from my irregularly scheduled ranting about my life in China to talk about something much more worthy of your time and attention. There is an orphanage on the Thailand/Burma border called Baan Dada, which serves as a home for over 60 children, many of whom lost their parents to unspeakable unspeakable atrocities by the military junta that controls Burma.

My good friends Gaelen Engler and Ben Landry both spent time volunteering at the Home and came away with only incredible things to say about the children and the director Ricardo Zoleta. Gaelen shot a documentary there, which I saw in Sudbury that left me with tears in my eyes. They both recently sent me messages about a fundraiser for the Home to raise enough money to build a technical school there. I'll use their words now to give you the details:

Gaelen:

"The Home is so much more than an orphanage- it's basically a community development organization. And at the moment, it is taking on it's biggest project yet: building and running a Technical School for youth in the surrounding 20 villages- the closest existing one is over 130 miles away, pretty far if your main mode of transportation is either a bike or your own two feet. Because of the crazy laws surrounding building schools for refugees in Thailand, it's going to cost a crazy sum- and the Home is seriously, desperately struggling to come up with enough to just start the process. The average wage per day in the area is $2.80 (!!), so obviously they are looking far and wide for donations and grants."

Ben:

"On October 23-24, I'm walking 40 miles to benefit Baan Dada Children's Home in Thailand - the goal is to build a technical school next to the Home. My fiance (Erica King) and good friend (Brian Cochran) will also complete the walk. Prior to law school, I visited the home for 2 months and helped build a library, a classroom, and a play structure. Since my visit, I have kept in touch with the home and organized some small efforts to raise money. I continue to be drawn to Baan Dada because 100% of donations directly benefit the children. Additionally, I've never encountered children who are so eager to better their own situation through hard work."

 Gaelen:

"A 'Walk For Education' is actually taking place on October 12 [in Thailand] - check out the link on my wall for more details. It is basically a 138 mile walk to the nearest city with the goal of raising enough money to start building the school. And because volunteers and the director of the Home have found so few sponsors, things aren't looking good - therefore, the founder of the Home has decided to continue walking until enough money is collected. This could take months, or it could take over a year. And if anyone on this planet would take such a drastic, selfless measure, this is the guy. He will walk across the continent if that's what it takes."

Ben:

"The man who runs Baan Dada, Ricardo Zoleta, has little overhead costs and gives selflessly of himself. As one example, he sleeps on the concrete floor of a 6'x8' room that also doubles as his office and storage space. His goal is to put each child through college or vocational school, in addition to supplying the kids with medical care, shelter, and food. Because they are Burmese refugees, they are restricted to living and working in a small area of Thailand along the border with Burma with few educational and economic opportunities. There are no technical schools nearby, so this will enable the children in the area (boys and girls) to learn trades so they can support themselves.

In Thailand, Ricardo is walking over 200 kilometers (the equivalent of walking from Boston to slightly beyond Portland, ME) with some volunteers and children who chose to participate. Afterward, Ricardo will continue his walk alone until the entire $1.8 million is raised. It seems like a lot, but he has to comply with Thai building codes and buy equipment for the school. He hopes to be back to the home in time for Christmas.

If can you afford to help, please make pledges to me via email and then complete donations through the website: http://prsarkartechnical.wordpress.com/donate/. Any amount helps, no matter how small. If you have any questions, you can visit http://www.baandada.org."

Gaelen is going back to Thailand on November 30th and I'm going to try and join her during my three week break at the end of January to early February. Every dollar truly does count when it goes to Baan Dada, from every account I've read and heard Ricardo Zoleta sacrifices everything for these kids. If this post raises even $1 (30 Thai Bahts!) for them, it was worth it. Hopefully, Gaelen can find a way to upload her documentary online (anyone know how to do that with huge files?) at which point I will definitely link to it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Stephen "Scuba" Lauer