LOOK WHAT WE DID THIS CHRISTMAS!
Christmas 2015 at the Thai/Burma Border...
Quite simply, we made a lot of children very happy!
Pictures tell the story...
Quite simply, we made a lot of children very happy!
Pictures tell the story...
A lovely card from the Children at SAW to the Gift of Happiness Team & Founder Eddie Haworth
Gift of Happiness Foundation Founder/Director, Eddie Haworth
wishes to personally thank all those who made this wonderful Christmas project work so well for around 1,1000 very poor children.
Thank you!
wishes to personally thank all those who made this wonderful Christmas project work so well for around 1,1000 very poor children.
Thank you!
Volunteers on this project; Ian, Judy, Yak, Eddie & Amarin.
Sponsors; Generosity/Indigogo Crowd-Funding donors. Monroe Consulting Group Bangkok (Logistics), Goeffroy Van Innis Memorial Fund (Christmas hats). Kids Academy Bangkok (Toys and money). Len Penn Music Academy Bangkok (Goods and services).
Sponsors; Generosity/Indigogo Crowd-Funding donors. Monroe Consulting Group Bangkok (Logistics), Goeffroy Van Innis Memorial Fund (Christmas hats). Kids Academy Bangkok (Toys and money). Len Penn Music Academy Bangkok (Goods and services).
Next project to visit 8 similar locations from 11/01/16 to 15/01/16.
Please support this massive project (SUBSCRIBE) below...Thank you.
LATEST NEWS...ABSOLUTELY MUST READ THIS...(Right to the end!)
21-30hrs 26/12/15.
A Festive Blog: Christmas is a time for giving ……… it back!
As a long-term expat, working in Supply Chain across the Middle East and Asia for 15 years, I found myself in the unfortunate position of being made redundant 12 months ago. I then took up a consulting project in Malaysia throughout this year, which ended recently, so I began to look for a suitable next challenge in my career, and entered initial discussions with a number of potential employers. As a result, I made the difficult decision not to head back to UK to see my children for Christmas and to prioritise securing a new role to support the family. An extremely tough decision to make, but ‘Dad has to focus on the future’.
Not wishing to party with friends in Bangkok, knowing my own children would be having their first Christmas without me, I resigned myself to a solitary time, focusing on the job search. Then I saw Clown Eckie’s ‘cry for help’. He needed somebody to accompany him on the long drive to Mae Sot, and assist with shows at a few schools and a surprise Christmas Dinner for 100 children at an orphanage for Burmese refugees. That struck a chord with me. If I couldn’t be with my own children at Christmas, perhaps I could help bring a smile to the faces of some quite desperate children. However, that wasn’t the only reason that Clown Eckie’s appeal interested me. It was also the fact that I had been adopted as a baby, and had been extremely fortunate to have been chosen by a great family. In many ways, I feel that my family actually ‘saved’ my life. Had I not been picked out from the crowd of babies in a room all those years ago, my life may have turned out very differently. For that I am eternally grateful, so perhaps the trip with ‘Clown Eckie’ was an opportunity for me to ‘give it back’.
So, I volunteered, packed a bag, and found myself on a 7 hour drive to Mae Sot. Day 1 of 4, venturing into the unknown. It was a pleasant drive, and I learned a lot about Eddie and the Foundation
Day 2 was spent helping out with Clown Eckie’s performance at two schools. It was unbelievable to see the smiles and hear the laughter of kids that have nothing, have likely lived through some quite painful experiences before they left Burma and, to be brutally honest, whose futures are extremely uncertain and without a lot of hope. After each performance, we provided ice cream for them all. Needless to say, they enjoyed that! The schools were unlike schools that you and I are familiar with. In fact they reminded me of something from my ‘past life’. I served for a number of years in the British Army (Royal Military Police, and the Royal Logistics Corps). During my service I visited two training establishments, known to us as ‘Tin City’. They were essentially just mock towns, made up of empty shells of building, with nothing inside, and were used to train soldiers for FIBUA (Fighting in Built-up Areas, ‘street-fighting, to the uninitiated’!). These schools were just like that. Empty shells of buildings, with perhaps a blackboard and antiquated wooden benches. A far cry from many schools with IT labs, Science Centres, state-of-the-art sports facilities etc. However, the school timetables, posters, artwork, and other educational posters were signs that these places had teaching staff and volunteers that were battling against the odds to try and give these kids a start in life. Quite a poignant moment to look around at these small signs of hope for the lives of these desperate children. They clearly need all the help they can get.
Day 3 (Christmas Day): Quite an experience. I awoke feeling sad that I couldn’t be with my own children, but we were soon ‘in action’. A frantic shopping trip to purchase the remaining items we need for the a surprise children’s Christmas Party at the orphanage, and for other items that are desperately needed. Then, with a fully-loaded convoy, axles bending with the weight of all the goodies we had for the kids, we set off for the orphanage. On arrival, we unloaded the vehicles and set about the task of preparing a Christmas Party for 100+ kids in a 2-hour window. New cooking equipment assembled, vegetables cleaned, chicken chopped and boiled, huge pots of spaghetti cooked and stirred, tables set up and decorated, gifts laid out, juice made, crisps de-bagged and biscuits plated up! A number of older children and helpers got involved with the preparation. No complaints from them at all. They obviously accepted the fact that, as the older ones, they had responsibilities in their small community that were far beyond their young years. Finally, the first school bus arrived back at the orphanage. The kids were aware of our impending visit, but they didn’t know what the plan was. When the bus arrived at the front gate and they saw the tables laid ready with decorations, a huge cheer rose from the bus. It was absolutely amazing. For most of us, it would not be so significant. Nice, but nothing grand. For these poor kids, it was amazing! They leapt off the bus and came charging into the yard, faces beaming with anticipation. Off they went to change into the best (least dirty) clothes that they could find and then they took their seats to wait for the feast. As we served them with food and drink, the older ones again stepped upto the mark and played their part as ‘mother’. When I observed this hierarchy of age, and the duties expected of the older children, it was then that I realized that they had to be ‘mother’ because none of the children had mothers of their own. They worked together in support of each other. Even when drinks and cakes were handed out at the table, one by one, they were grabbed by eager hands but not held in those same hands. They were passed down the table first, nobody keeping the drink in their hands unless the person next to them had received their drink first. Absolute teamwork! Adversity drives that. It’s a vital aspect of military life that you ‘look after your mates’ before yourself. I’ve grown up with that ideology, but I’ve never seen it in children before, not to that extent. I suppose that they have seen terrible things in their young lives that many of us did not experience until adulthood or, for most people, have thankfully never seen. It’s a tragedy, but most of them seem to have overcome it or are at least coping with it. Anyway, the party was a great success. Smiling faces everywhere. When we left, they beamed smiles at us and waved continuously until we were out of sight. Such a relatively small thing we had done for these kids, in the scheme of things, had brought genuine happiness into their blighted lives.
To conclude, I’d like to share with you what was, for me, the most poignant moment of the trip to Mae Sot. You remember the parable in the Bible about the Widow’s Mite? For those not familiar, it is a comparison between the rich man giving a lot to charity (but a very small % of his wealth), and the widow giving a tiny amount to charity (which represented 100% of what she had). Essentially, the widow gave more.
When I was serving the children with drinks and biscuits, enjoying the small part I was playing, I felt a little hand tugging at my arm. I turned round to see a little girls face looking up at me. She smiled sweetly, said ‘thankyou’, and handed me her balloon. That may seem insignificant, but she had nothing, none of them have anything. But she handed over the balloon she had received that day, as a gift for me. I’m sure you can imagine that my heart melted and my eyes became strangely moist! That was a fantastic reward for me for the little time I had spent in Mae Sot to ‘do my bit’. I felt I had ‘given it back’ as I had planned, but in the twinkling of an eye, a poor, desperate little girl with not much hope of getting a real chance in life, had just ‘given it back’ to me again! I was humbled. That was probably the best Christmas gift I have ever received. A simple red balloon, but the act of giving was immense.
I hope, by this quick blog, that I have painted a picture of the reason why the Foundation, and others like it, are so important. When you’re having a nice dinner with friends and you decide to have that one last glass of wine… don’t! Save that money, and give it to an organisation that could use it for so much more than your small window of enjoyment sipping the last glass. It could provide a simple meal for 10 children. A much more rewarding investment…. don’t you think?
Merry Christmas.
21-30hrs 26/12/15.
A Festive Blog: Christmas is a time for giving ……… it back!
As a long-term expat, working in Supply Chain across the Middle East and Asia for 15 years, I found myself in the unfortunate position of being made redundant 12 months ago. I then took up a consulting project in Malaysia throughout this year, which ended recently, so I began to look for a suitable next challenge in my career, and entered initial discussions with a number of potential employers. As a result, I made the difficult decision not to head back to UK to see my children for Christmas and to prioritise securing a new role to support the family. An extremely tough decision to make, but ‘Dad has to focus on the future’.
Not wishing to party with friends in Bangkok, knowing my own children would be having their first Christmas without me, I resigned myself to a solitary time, focusing on the job search. Then I saw Clown Eckie’s ‘cry for help’. He needed somebody to accompany him on the long drive to Mae Sot, and assist with shows at a few schools and a surprise Christmas Dinner for 100 children at an orphanage for Burmese refugees. That struck a chord with me. If I couldn’t be with my own children at Christmas, perhaps I could help bring a smile to the faces of some quite desperate children. However, that wasn’t the only reason that Clown Eckie’s appeal interested me. It was also the fact that I had been adopted as a baby, and had been extremely fortunate to have been chosen by a great family. In many ways, I feel that my family actually ‘saved’ my life. Had I not been picked out from the crowd of babies in a room all those years ago, my life may have turned out very differently. For that I am eternally grateful, so perhaps the trip with ‘Clown Eckie’ was an opportunity for me to ‘give it back’.
So, I volunteered, packed a bag, and found myself on a 7 hour drive to Mae Sot. Day 1 of 4, venturing into the unknown. It was a pleasant drive, and I learned a lot about Eddie and the Foundation
Day 2 was spent helping out with Clown Eckie’s performance at two schools. It was unbelievable to see the smiles and hear the laughter of kids that have nothing, have likely lived through some quite painful experiences before they left Burma and, to be brutally honest, whose futures are extremely uncertain and without a lot of hope. After each performance, we provided ice cream for them all. Needless to say, they enjoyed that! The schools were unlike schools that you and I are familiar with. In fact they reminded me of something from my ‘past life’. I served for a number of years in the British Army (Royal Military Police, and the Royal Logistics Corps). During my service I visited two training establishments, known to us as ‘Tin City’. They were essentially just mock towns, made up of empty shells of building, with nothing inside, and were used to train soldiers for FIBUA (Fighting in Built-up Areas, ‘street-fighting, to the uninitiated’!). These schools were just like that. Empty shells of buildings, with perhaps a blackboard and antiquated wooden benches. A far cry from many schools with IT labs, Science Centres, state-of-the-art sports facilities etc. However, the school timetables, posters, artwork, and other educational posters were signs that these places had teaching staff and volunteers that were battling against the odds to try and give these kids a start in life. Quite a poignant moment to look around at these small signs of hope for the lives of these desperate children. They clearly need all the help they can get.
Day 3 (Christmas Day): Quite an experience. I awoke feeling sad that I couldn’t be with my own children, but we were soon ‘in action’. A frantic shopping trip to purchase the remaining items we need for the a surprise children’s Christmas Party at the orphanage, and for other items that are desperately needed. Then, with a fully-loaded convoy, axles bending with the weight of all the goodies we had for the kids, we set off for the orphanage. On arrival, we unloaded the vehicles and set about the task of preparing a Christmas Party for 100+ kids in a 2-hour window. New cooking equipment assembled, vegetables cleaned, chicken chopped and boiled, huge pots of spaghetti cooked and stirred, tables set up and decorated, gifts laid out, juice made, crisps de-bagged and biscuits plated up! A number of older children and helpers got involved with the preparation. No complaints from them at all. They obviously accepted the fact that, as the older ones, they had responsibilities in their small community that were far beyond their young years. Finally, the first school bus arrived back at the orphanage. The kids were aware of our impending visit, but they didn’t know what the plan was. When the bus arrived at the front gate and they saw the tables laid ready with decorations, a huge cheer rose from the bus. It was absolutely amazing. For most of us, it would not be so significant. Nice, but nothing grand. For these poor kids, it was amazing! They leapt off the bus and came charging into the yard, faces beaming with anticipation. Off they went to change into the best (least dirty) clothes that they could find and then they took their seats to wait for the feast. As we served them with food and drink, the older ones again stepped upto the mark and played their part as ‘mother’. When I observed this hierarchy of age, and the duties expected of the older children, it was then that I realized that they had to be ‘mother’ because none of the children had mothers of their own. They worked together in support of each other. Even when drinks and cakes were handed out at the table, one by one, they were grabbed by eager hands but not held in those same hands. They were passed down the table first, nobody keeping the drink in their hands unless the person next to them had received their drink first. Absolute teamwork! Adversity drives that. It’s a vital aspect of military life that you ‘look after your mates’ before yourself. I’ve grown up with that ideology, but I’ve never seen it in children before, not to that extent. I suppose that they have seen terrible things in their young lives that many of us did not experience until adulthood or, for most people, have thankfully never seen. It’s a tragedy, but most of them seem to have overcome it or are at least coping with it. Anyway, the party was a great success. Smiling faces everywhere. When we left, they beamed smiles at us and waved continuously until we were out of sight. Such a relatively small thing we had done for these kids, in the scheme of things, had brought genuine happiness into their blighted lives.
To conclude, I’d like to share with you what was, for me, the most poignant moment of the trip to Mae Sot. You remember the parable in the Bible about the Widow’s Mite? For those not familiar, it is a comparison between the rich man giving a lot to charity (but a very small % of his wealth), and the widow giving a tiny amount to charity (which represented 100% of what she had). Essentially, the widow gave more.
When I was serving the children with drinks and biscuits, enjoying the small part I was playing, I felt a little hand tugging at my arm. I turned round to see a little girls face looking up at me. She smiled sweetly, said ‘thankyou’, and handed me her balloon. That may seem insignificant, but she had nothing, none of them have anything. But she handed over the balloon she had received that day, as a gift for me. I’m sure you can imagine that my heart melted and my eyes became strangely moist! That was a fantastic reward for me for the little time I had spent in Mae Sot to ‘do my bit’. I felt I had ‘given it back’ as I had planned, but in the twinkling of an eye, a poor, desperate little girl with not much hope of getting a real chance in life, had just ‘given it back’ to me again! I was humbled. That was probably the best Christmas gift I have ever received. A simple red balloon, but the act of giving was immense.
I hope, by this quick blog, that I have painted a picture of the reason why the Foundation, and others like it, are so important. When you’re having a nice dinner with friends and you decide to have that one last glass of wine… don’t! Save that money, and give it to an organisation that could use it for so much more than your small window of enjoyment sipping the last glass. It could provide a simple meal for 10 children. A much more rewarding investment…. don’t you think?
Merry Christmas.
