Gift of Happiness Foundation - Making thousands of people happy in the wonderful land of smiles
Full charitable status for Gift of Happiness Foundation in Thailand was granted by the Royal Thai Government on the 15th December 2009. Membership of the League of Foundations of Thailand under The Royal Patronage of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej was granted in March 2010. Foundation Registration number: Kor Tor 1914. VAT: 3-0337-6259-4
Full charitable status for Gift of Happiness Foundation in Thailand was granted by the Royal Thai Government on the 15th December 2009. Membership of the League of Foundations of Thailand under The Royal Patronage of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej was granted in March 2010. Foundation Registration number: Kor Tor 1914. VAT: 3-0337-6259-4
How did it all start?
In 1995 a British professional circus and cabaret clown, Eddie Haworth (AKA Clown Eckie) decided to run away from the circus to start a new life as a travelling performer. Following several very successful years performing in theaters, circus and other popular venues all over Europe, USA, Scandinavia, China and the Middle East. He started to look around for somewhere new to put down roots with a determination to let the show go-on without any further need to keep traveling the world.
He was delighted to be invited to Bangkok for a charity performance which was being held at the British Embassy. When it became clear that the invitation was to entertain some orphans from a Bangkok city slum, he couldn't resist the offer. It didn't take long for him to decide that this may be the right place to continue doing what he does best, which is making people laugh. He also soon realized that this was probably the right place to put the past behind him and re-start his life by devoting himself to bringing a little laughter and some positive memories to people whose lives often lack these important pleasures.
Since that momentous realization in the year 2000, he's been busy finding ways to offer this simple gift of happiness to as many poor people as possible in Thailand. By the year 2005 he had gathered a small group of friends, and together they managed to raise enough money to start the long drawn-out background checks and legal proceedings which eventually lead to the establishment of this registered charitable foundation.
Happy children become confident children. Confident children grow into productive people!
Smiling and laughing triggers the secretions of morphine-like chemicals known as endorphin's and this relaxes the body. Humor also works because it distracts people from their worries and pain. It restores perspective and encourages children to gain self-confidence which helps to develop their potential and become useful citizens in later life. Just a little laughter and some positive memories for people whose lives often lack these important pleasures.
Our Priorities and mission.
We serve happiness by giving simple slap-stick comedy shows and useful goods to people whose entire lives as innocent victims of fate, may be filled with only negative, abusive or unhappy experiences. We know that positive experiences like having a good old-fashioned laugh, helps children living in difficult circumstances to cope and gives them a great memory that no-one can steal from them.
Who benefits.
The people we serve live in orphanages, crisis centers for abused women and children, Bangkok slums, HIV/AIDS centers, homes and schools for physically & mentally challenged children, poor Thai or migrant schools and medical centers in Thailand. We also serve refugees along the Thai/Burma border, communities of migrant workers, their families and people displaced by civil war.
We give these people very much needed new & used goods like clothing, toys, educational equipment and medicines. Since 2005, we have given hundreds of truck-loads of donated goods to around half a million people in Thailand. Donations come from International Schools, Social Groups, Rotary Clubs and individual families in Bangkok, Australia, UK, Europe, USA, S.E. Asia and other countries, worldwide.
A summary of our performance so far (It’s not just Clown shows?)
We also gather truckloads of useful goods to hand out at locations where we perform our shows. We regularly deliver tons of clothing, toys, educational equipment, bedding, medical supplies, agricultural equipment and any other goods that can help poor people to survive the daily hardships that they are forced to endure. These goods are collected weekly from International schools, small companies, social groups in Bangkok or overseas and friends of the foundation travelling to Thailand on holiday.
Used toys & clothes are vital to these children
Some children don't get too much to hold onto in their young lives. When we finish the shows, it's just like Christmas and birthday time all together for the poor children. We also bring this unique and important gift of happiness to poor people in very remote parts of Thailand.
We do this by giving them free, simple slap-stick comedy shows involving the children as helpers in each story during the shows.
Donations for orphans and abused in children Thailand
Our week-long show tours are regularly given to children at refugee camps, migrant and Thai schools, as well as health centers and safe houses for women and children who've suffered abuse. We always have volunteer helpers attending these aid giving and show tours...Some of the volunteers are teachers or entertainers while others are sponsoring supporters and hands-on assistants. Just imagine what fun the children have when some big fat Western clowns or lady entertainers come along and make complete fools of themselves. Even better, after the shows the entertainment team hands out loads of goodies to the children and their parents, teachers or guardians. All this leaves whole communities and school children with some fantastic positive memories that no one can ever take away from them. More importantly, it also gives them a strong feeling of self-confidence following the experience of helping the silly old clown and other similar entertainers to get things right during the shows.
Sustainable projects already delivered since charitable status granted in 2009
Our vision of sustainable changes and impact to deliver by 2015
Our Priorities and aims for the coming years
Of course there are all the usual CSR & Tax benefits for companies providing funds for these essential projects to make children happy.
Contact us now and make a difference.
Thank You.
We serve happiness by giving simple slap-stick comedy shows and useful goods to people whose entire lives as innocent victims of fate, may be filled with only negative, abusive or unhappy experiences. We know that positive experiences like having a good old-fashioned laugh, helps children living in difficult circumstances to cope and gives them a great memory that no-one can steal from them.
Who benefits.
The people we serve live in orphanages, crisis centers for abused women and children, Bangkok slums, HIV/AIDS centers, homes and schools for physically & mentally challenged children, poor Thai or migrant schools and medical centers in Thailand. We also serve refugees along the Thai/Burma border, communities of migrant workers, their families and people displaced by civil war.
We give these people very much needed new & used goods like clothing, toys, educational equipment and medicines. Since 2005, we have given hundreds of truck-loads of donated goods to around half a million people in Thailand. Donations come from International Schools, Social Groups, Rotary Clubs and individual families in Bangkok, Australia, UK, Europe, USA, S.E. Asia and other countries, worldwide.
A summary of our performance so far (It’s not just Clown shows?)
We also gather truckloads of useful goods to hand out at locations where we perform our shows. We regularly deliver tons of clothing, toys, educational equipment, bedding, medical supplies, agricultural equipment and any other goods that can help poor people to survive the daily hardships that they are forced to endure. These goods are collected weekly from International schools, small companies, social groups in Bangkok or overseas and friends of the foundation travelling to Thailand on holiday.
Used toys & clothes are vital to these children
Some children don't get too much to hold onto in their young lives. When we finish the shows, it's just like Christmas and birthday time all together for the poor children. We also bring this unique and important gift of happiness to poor people in very remote parts of Thailand.
We do this by giving them free, simple slap-stick comedy shows involving the children as helpers in each story during the shows.
Donations for orphans and abused in children Thailand
Our week-long show tours are regularly given to children at refugee camps, migrant and Thai schools, as well as health centers and safe houses for women and children who've suffered abuse. We always have volunteer helpers attending these aid giving and show tours...Some of the volunteers are teachers or entertainers while others are sponsoring supporters and hands-on assistants. Just imagine what fun the children have when some big fat Western clowns or lady entertainers come along and make complete fools of themselves. Even better, after the shows the entertainment team hands out loads of goodies to the children and their parents, teachers or guardians. All this leaves whole communities and school children with some fantastic positive memories that no one can ever take away from them. More importantly, it also gives them a strong feeling of self-confidence following the experience of helping the silly old clown and other similar entertainers to get things right during the shows.
Sustainable projects already delivered since charitable status granted in 2009
- Around 2,000 sets of agricultural hand tools have been given to five refugee camps, two HIV/AIDS centers, Mae Tao Clinic. We have also supplied the same hand tools to 27 poor Thai government schools and migrant schools in Ayutthaya, Samut Songram, Angthong and places all over N. & N. E. Thailand.
- Sewing machines for women & men in poor communities so they can modify the many tons of clothes and cloth that we give them on our regular aid giving projects.
- Vocational training and schooling for people who live in places with enough land to grow food crops and flowers/plants that they can sell on at local markets.
- Rent paid up-to 2015 at migrant schools, educating more than 800 children.
- Rent paid up-to 2015 for land to grow food crops at a Women & Children HIV/Aids Health Center.
- Provided school bus for the street kid’s safe shelter and school in Mae Sot.
- We also give generators, engineering equipment, seeds and mechanical equipment that can help people to become self-sufficient in more remote rural areas.
- Regular supplies of basic hygiene and simple medical supplies to health centers, thousands of school children and even individual families living in desperate situations. Sustainable because…These supplies are vital to help stop common infections and lice attacks, that can prevent people from working or studying without being constantly sick.
- Circus skill workshops for children living in Bangkok Slums, orphanages and poor communities around Thailand.
- Opened our first charity shop in Bangkok where we sell some of the goods donated by dedicated friends of the foundation. We generate a little cash from the shop which helps us cover some of our logistics costs when we distribute goods around Thailand. We also use this premises for storing and sorting goods to be sent onto poor people in Thailand.
Our vision of sustainable changes and impact to deliver by 2015
- To develop vocational workshops in some of the poorest parts of Northern Thailand in order to foster a positive workforce able to continue training their children into the same sustainable fields of work.
- To provide more tools, sewing machines, and other machinery. Plus training in how to run and main-tain small-holdings for food production, mechanical or tailoring skills that will help the poor to provide for themselves and families well into the future.
- To employ part-time administration and charity shop staff and to acquire two small trucks and part-time drivers to assist in the fast growing amount of goods to be redistributed around the North of Thailand.
- To rent premises in Mae Sot to serve as a warehouse and temporary accommodation for volunteers to stay during our monthly visits to the region. This place to be self-sustaining by volunteers paying small amounts for accommodation when helping at our aid giving and show tours.
- To employ low paid overseas volunteer teachers to improve English standards in light of the upcoming merger into the A.S.E.A.N. Community and to continue building on this until we have a worthwhile base of professional educators for many years to come.
- To set-up a fee based system of education at good schools where parents who cannot afford the fees are able to supplement by giving community service in return for a guaranteed education for their children. Sponsoring companies to receive advertising on site in those communities and via our web based publications CSR results and tax benefits.
- To develop aid giving and show tours into much larger productions that has been so far. The aim is to give even more essential goods to even more people. Whilst at the same time, to give regular large scale road shows and training for the people in remote parts of Thailand. These people will never get a chance to experience the delights of Western style comedy entertainment. More importantly, they will be encouraged to try it themselves and attend circus skill workshops with a view to becoming paid entertainers themselves.
- To provide enough volunteer performers who are willing to travel from Western countries to provide unique performance productions for the people we serve. The aim is to thrill the children and engage them into each production which will leave them to develop wonderful imaginations as to what they can achieve themselves with just a little basic training.
- To employ low paid longer term overseas volunteer entertainers to continue providing important fun entertainment and teaching their unique skills to children who will grow to become paid entertainers themselves.
- To provide skilled craftsmen to teach young adults the unique art of designing and producing hand-made juggling and other circus type equipment. There is no place in Thailand where these things are made and there is great potential for small enterprises to start-up manufacturing and trading in these products all over the country.
Our Priorities and aims for the coming years
- Our priorities will remain to offer free healthy, clean family entertainment given by professionals from all over the world, to those who never have a chance to enjoy such experiences. We are also dedicated to continue providing many thousands of poor people in Thailand with tons of recycled goods during every show tour.
- We will continue foster our good relationships with even more of the groups and organizations like the Rotary and Women’s Clubs that have already stepped-up to help us. We will expand our great list of major International Schools, British, Australian, French and Belgium Embassy’s and many Chambers of commerce who have all been very generous sponsors so far.
- We aim to build on our successful performance so far by establishing more centers where young people can study all kinds of easy to learn practical forms of work that will keep them out of poverty for generations to come.
- Our longer term plans will include the development of our own education centers where children can study their way out of poverty by having access to top class teachers and high standards of school buildings and equipment. We will also help people acquire some unusual skills that may take them on to become popular entertainers or technicians in the entertainment industry.
- Our organization will track the progress of these strategies, including milestones and indicators of success and make changes where necessary.
Of course there are all the usual CSR & Tax benefits for companies providing funds for these essential projects to make children happy.
Contact us now and make a difference.
Thank You.