By Heather Askew | Project Leader
In the past quarter, we have had two kids transition home successfully. Hannah has been with Heather for about 16 months, with a break during summer holidays last year. She graduated from junior high school in early April and had the largest turnout of friends and family of any student there! It was fun to celebrate her. Also in early April, her sister moved into their new house and we were able to collaborate with Faithful Heart Foundation and the Bethany Global University intern program to provide most of their necessities. The house was basically a shell, just walls and floors, so between the 3 teams and many donors who supported this move, we contributed beds, bedding, closets, a sink, washing machine, stove, fridge, drying racks, curtains, and kitchen and bathroom supplies. It was a fun day. Finally, on April 11, Hannah officially moved in with her sister and baby nephew. Immediately after that, the country went into lockdown as we experienced a new and the most intense wave of COVID so far. Hannah and her sister have been enjoying setting up their new place together.
In March, Butsaba and Jay had a foster son. His parents work in construction, which means they move from place to place as the jobs come. They moved to an area about an hour's drive from Pat's school, so he was going to have to miss his last month of 2nd grade and repeat the entire year again in a new school district. We have been helping his family in getting their citizenship cards for the past year, so they asked us for help in this situation. Pat stayed with Butsaba and Jay from Monday to Friday and was with his parents on the weekend. After school finished, they dropped him off in the village with his parents and where he has lots of extended family living as well. He will transfer and start at the school near there in May. Because he has so much extended family, if his parents need to move again, he will be able to stay with the relatives and not have to be disrupted further. During his time with Jay and Butsaba, they taught him the alphabet song in English and worked with him every day on his reading. His teacher said he improved a lot in just the month he was with them. We know from a psychological and emotional perspective that staying with parents is the best for the child, but it's difficult for the parents when they are illiterate and aren't able to help their child with homework. One of the benefits of Pat being in the village is he can get help from his older cousins and neighbors if his parents are unable to understand his homework. We are looking forward to him getting his Thai ID card later this year when the goverrnment offices reopen after the current lockdown.
Thank you for supporting our transition homes, it enables us to provide care and support for not only the children but their families as well, and provide assistance for a successful transition that they otherwise may not have.
By Heather Askew | Project Leader
By Heather Askew | Project Leader
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
