PROJECT OVERVIEW:
This four day trip will include visits to four remote village communities close to the Thai Burma border, but within 50 kilometres of Mae Sot. We will also visit the Mae Tao Clinic before we return to Bangkok on 02 May 2014.

“We appealed for funding to build a new toilet block for the children and their families".
We will go to a jungle bamboo hut village called Bo Den Village.  This is an isolated village where children are unable to reach any school except for a bamboo hut school room where they receive a basic education be volunteer teachers.  These people are very poor and living deep into the jungle, so depending on the conditions it might test our trucks, but we will get there and get the new toilets built this week!  We will also provide a Clown Eckie show and some educational goods and toys for the children.
(Having reached our target on 25/04/14) We have already instigated proceedings to start work on this project and we expect it to be finished before we leave for Bangkok on 02 May 2014).
Thank you to all those who helped!

All the people we visit after this village are also living in very poor or desperately poor situations and volunteers assisting on this project must be prepared to experience some sights that may be uncomfortable.  We have learned through dealing with the Migrant communities and refugee camps that nothing ever goes strictly according to plan, but usually ends-up OK at the end of the day.

As usual, we will be using the GOHF Director’s own truck to transport donations and some volunteers on this trip.  We have also organized an extra vehicle and driver, supplied by a good friend of the foundation. We have donated toys, clothing, educational equipment and some medical supplies which were donated by the children of many individuals and families in Bangkok and other cities worldwide.

Sunday 17th April.
We will spend the whole day sorting, packing and loading two trucks with gifts of educational equipment, toys and used clothing, plus show equipment for the Clown shows to be given at each location. Then first thing Monday morning we will drive the seven hour journey to Mae Sot and book into a cheap guest house where we will spend three nights before check-out and return to Bangkok on Thursday 02 May 2014...
Full Itinerary below:

ANZAC Day 2014.
Gift of Happiness Foundation gave their annual performance for the children, teachers and assembled AustCham members and guests who came along to take part in the commutation services at Hell Fire Pass, 60 kilometres north of Kanchanaburi.

We were delighted to have received sponsorship for this project from OPUS RECRUITMENT THAILAND via our great friend Mr. Gary Woollacott from Opus.

This was our 10th anniversary performance for the children, teachers and members of the Australian Chamber of Commerce.  We know that everyone had a great time to remember and enjoy this years performance, almost as much as they did when we were honoured to give our annual performance in the presence of Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC - Governor General of the Commonwealth of Australia on a past occasion.  

Stay tuned to this news page for our next exciting projects during April and May 2014.
(Next big aid & show giving tour is 27th April to 02 May 2014).

Landowners have moved an entire village located in the forest near the Thai/Burma border.

The village is called Naung Bo Den.  A remote and difficult to reach jungle community only accessible by foot, 4x4 trucks or off road motorcycles. The village is home to ethnic Karen people.  Go-Happiness have been serving them since 2005 and we understand the name of the village will stay the same in the new place which is further into the jungle from where they were before.

There are already basic bamboo hut dwellings being built by the villagers, using locally available bamboo and large leaves for roofing. The toilet block cannot be built to a hygienic standard with locally available materials and the village elders have requested our help to build a decent toilet block for the whole village to use (Not just the bamboo school).

We are looking to build four separate toilets with hand basins and four cold water shower heads.  Water will be provided by four rain-butts and one 1,000 litre header/storage tank (Industry standard - Polyethylene-Hexene-Copolymer).  Sewage will be provided by a 1,600 litre low maintenance septic tank containing microorganisms that help decompose waste (Industry standard - 816-2538). The construction materials and basic squat toilets, hand basins and shower amenities will be purchased locally and the villagers themselves will build the structures.

ANZAC Day

Go-Happiness gave hundreds of bottles of clean drinking water to around 200 very needy people who live right on the massive garbage dump in Samut Prakan on the outskirts of Bangkok.  The 150 rai of land that serves as one of the biggest garbage dumps in Thailand was engulfed by a massive fire recently. 

The poor 'Garbage Picker' families were evacuated for more than a week while the fires were brought under control.  Many of the children and others living nearby were temporarily troubled with breathing difficulties caused by smoke inhalation during the period of the fire.  They were eventually able to return to their shacks on the dump where they have been busy rebuilding their lives and 'homes' without much help from outside their 'Low cast' community.

Happily, the children have now received medical check-ups and have been given a reasonably clean bill of health. So the older siblings can take care of the little ones while their parents are back to work, raking through the garbage for anything that can be recycled.

The gift of fresh new drinking water was very much appreciated by the whole community.
The water will last them a couple of weeks and help them recover from the effects of the fire that raged for many days during the already hot season leading up-to Thailand's annual Songkran water festival. 

We plan to revisit the 'Garbage Pickers on dump'.
We could not leave them without promising to continue helping as much as possible now that we have discovered the dreadful conditions they are living in before and especially since the big fire broke out.

Just as soon as we have gathered enough food and useful goods like rice, high protein tinned fish, more water, clothing, toys, basic hygiene/toiletries and medical equipment to help them survive their hard life on the burned-out dump.  We will return and give them all we can, including one of our fantastic 'Gift of Happiness Buffoonery Shows' to help bring a little joy and simple happiness into the lives of these poor people.