The day I left Bangkok for the nearly 2 hour taxi ride to my destination, I asked the driver to stop at a wholesale food store named Macro to purchase as much food as I could reasonable fit in the taxi, along with the clothes donations and my luggage. It took about 45 minutes to finish the shopping and to my amazement the taxi driver did not increase the pre-negotiated (direct) fare, but as we were off loading the car at the hotel and when there was only one six-pack of noodles left on the back seat she looked at me and with a smile said “You forget, OK?”.  At a value of less than $2, I forgot it.

Checking in to the hotel caused some commotions in itself.  Rarely do guests check in with a car full of food.  Of cause all had to know what this was all about, and I explained that it was for a shelter for children with no moms and dads.  The head receptionists, Nat (Natcha) was really taken by this and asked if she could come.  Since the visit to the center was on her day off, it all worked out I was glad to invite her along.

On Wednesday morning Nat arrived at 10AM and do did a team from the center including Lhen Lhen, Liz and Ot.  Lhen Lhen is from the Philippines and though she is a single mom, she has devoted all her time as a full-time volunteer at the shelter; she is absolutely a remarkable lady.  Liz is from the UK and is retired. Her interest in The MERCY Center relates to finances, including the scholarship program.
Ot is one of a handful of employees at the shelter.

We loaded up the pickup truck with the goodies that I had purchased at Makro Drove to the center and offloaded the truck. Liz gave Nat and I a small tour of the office/activity side of the shelter, leaving the main part for later as we quickly were on to the next store (Tesco/Lotus) to buy the bulk of the supplies.

Arriving at Tesco/Lotus the four of us (Lhen Lhen, Ot, Nat and I) each gapped a shopping cart and paraded through the store, while the driver was ready with more carts.  The main focus was to buy food, milk, diapers and other essentials for the kids. Lhen Lhen asked if it was OK to buy some basic supply required to run the shelter, such as cleaning supplies.  She said that these were types of supplies that rarely are donated and they were in very short supply.  I agreed that they would know best what to buy and off the parade went with Lhen Lhen and Ot leading the pack. While shopping Nat, who had already donated a lot of clothes gave me 1,000 baht and said she wanted to give to the children too. I was absolutely floored as that amount is a significant percentage of a monthly salary in Thailand.

We managed to fill up 9 shopping carts with everything imaginable. Along the way I had tried to tally up what went in the carts and managed to be off only a bit (in the favor of the children), which I added to the funds. Leaving just enough for fresh produce and dinner for the evening.

While at Lotus Tesco we had shopped so much that we forgot a cart by the register, which Lhen Lhen and Ot went back to retrieve, however, it took them forever to come back so Nat went looking for them.  Turned out that they had come across two abandon children who apparent had been left behind by their mom earlier in the morning.  No one was sure how long, but at least three hours, maybe five.  This brought on a possible new mission for The MERCY Center offering to take the two children (estimated 3 and 7 years old) into the shelter as needed.  Lhen Lhen also alerted another larger and closer center as to the two abandon children, so at the very least they would have a place to go and be taken care of.

Then back to the shelter to offload the pick-up truck which was quite full by now and the shelves in the non perishable food storage were quite empty, but with now more than one truck load they were starting to fill up.
Lhen Lhen noted that while the center does receive a fair number of donations from individuals, it is rare that they have to opportunity to stock-up on a larger scale. Once a year the US military comes in and help out with some major shopping.  Not sure if those funds originate from the military or they are donations from service men and women, however, I think the latter.

Before we went to lunch I had a chance to talk some with Steven. Steven is from Canada and found himself battling a back injury which made it impossible to work fulltime, leaving him with a small pension he found difficult to live on. He came to Thailand to escape the winter pain caused by his spinal arthritis, and where his pension allows him a reasonable lifestyle and time to share his inner joy playing with and helping the children of the MERCY Shelter.

At lunch I had a chance to talk in detail with Liz about the scholarship program which is another part of the mission.  The MERCY Center runs a program that helps children of poor families enroll in and attend school. Initially the two main obstacles are that the parents do not have the ability to fill out the applications and provide documents as required, nor do they have the funds to purchase the required essentials such as school uniforms and supplies. For about 4,000 baht (US$120) per year a child can be sponsored and that amount will take care of the very basics.  The MERCY Center will monitor the progress and attendance of the child. 
Sponsorships are usually handled in one of two ways.
1. A sponsor agrees to pay for a scholarship over years for a specific child.  While there are no contractual obligations, but such sponsorship does require a serious commitment as if terminated there is a real risk that the child may not be able to continue school.
2. A sponsor may want to pay the amount, but not to a specific child.  These funds will be used to fill in "gaps" in the system.
Depending on the level of commitment from a sponsor he or she may elect to pay for additional tuition and assistance, but recognizing that most children in this program do have parents that, however, are just too poor to put their children through school.
Since the parents are as poor as they are one problem is that once the child reaches the age of about 12 there is a risk that the demands from the parents to have the kid work to make money (usually trash collection) is greater than the desire to keep them in school, so in the later years part of the sponsorship may include assistance to the family to allow the child to stay in school.
With a proper scholarship and a committed donor, the end result of this is that a child who finishes school and a vocational program will be miles ahead for a future life than just being another generation of the poor. Further is the child manages to learn reasonable English, at a premium cost, he or she will be prepped to start college/a carrier that is substantially better that the average. In turn, this will allow the child to upwards help the family in ways that otherwise would be impossible.
Liz told me that early March is the best time to initiate a structured sponsorship as the school starts late April or early May in Thailand.

After lunch, we went to the market to finish shopping for fresh produce.  At this point I handed over the remainder of the budget to Lhen Lhen as pricing is not necessary the same for Westerners and for Thais. As it goes with perishable foods you can only shop for a couple of days supply, but this was an important part of the mission.  Lhen Lhen and Ot knew exactly what they were looking for and in not much more than 15 minutes time about 1,400 baht had been spend on fruits and vegetables.

At the time of my visit there were 22 children in the shelter and about seven were too young for pre-school so at this early hour of the afternoon they were the only once at home.  I honestly did not know what to expect other than that I by now knew that the shelter was a wonderful looking home in a nice private setting on a cul-de-sac.  The house was originally the home of the owner of a diamond cutting factory, with the factory adjacent to the house.  The "factory part" now serves as offices, activity center and storage, where as the main house was the home for the children. Would the children be shy or afraid? Would they be playful? As I walked to the back entrance I saw two boys playing in a sand box and went over to say hello.  One of them turned out to have a small cut near the eye and was told he should not be in the sand until it was looked at. I offered to help getting him out of the box and first he gave me this look: "who the heck are you?", but it didn't take long before he wouldn't even let me set him down.  It was quite an amazing moment, here I was as a complete stranger and in no time we were best of friends, so the next while as I wandered into the house to look around him was determinedly hanging on.

The house inside was absolutely beautiful with hardwood all over the place.  I was told that prior to the shelter opening up three years ago the house had been vacant for several years.  It was the type of home that if updated a little bit could be a small luxury home, but with a factory adjacent not the most attractive combination, though perfect as a shelter for the children.  The next hour or so Nat and I played around with the toddlers and actually had a jolly good time and they were all children of different personalities. Some reaching out for for personal contact and love, some very shy and some more playful and even a bit aggressive.  Just like you find kids everywhere.

For a moment I quite forgot that I was in a home for children without families or at the least broken families. Some of the children are truly orphans, while other are "at risk" and are there sheltered from the world they came from. One child is there because his dad was killed and the mother was getting threats from the people that took the dad, so to protect the child she gave him up for the time being.
As sad as it is to face the hard facts of children being neglected or abused, as heartwarming is it to see and experience the love of the people who make it their mission in life to take care of them.

A bit after 3PM the preschoolers arrived home and with the bigger boys and girls around the house quickly became a bit more rowdy, just interrupted by a moment for a sweet tooth treat.  Unlike what I would have expected in America where a large slice of cake may have been in order for each, here it was one bite per kid, all sharing a couple of small slices of cake. Quickly back to play it was. 
I think the noise was a bit much for Nat and when the offer came for us to jump on the minibus with Patrick (from Belgium) to go to the two other schools to pick up the older kids, it took her but a second to accept that offer. So off to the schools we went.

Patrick participates in making sure that the children are picked up from school. As we were driving along Patrick explains his interest with The MERCY Center with great enthusiasm and as we get to the first school and pick up the youngest group he being so ever playfully with them as the kids scream for ice cream. Patrick laughed and said: "I give the ice cream every Friday, but they all try their luck every single day if the vendor is near by.
On we go. Patrick puts on some Thai version of Christian music to which all the kids cheerfully sing along to. It was actually quite enjoyable to listen to them sing, though here went the chance for Nat to have a quiet moment and to the contrary it seemed as if the louder the kids sang the more exited Patrick got; trying to speak a bit louder than they sang he said: "They are just kids".
We got to the last school to pick up the oldest of the kids which was in a section of town that was largely Muslim.
Poor Nat, with the bus now full the rest of the drive home didn't get any quieter.
When we arrived back at the shelter Patrick whiffed out a can of vitamins and give each kid a couple before they ran into the house. In good Thai style each kid politely thanked him with a wai. Not to leave anyone out Nat and I received out dose of vitamins too.

It is now about 4:30PM and dinner is in 30 minutes. Before dinner Patrick invited Nat and I over to the office for a cup of tea and a quiet chat, guess he needed to escape the noise too. Still, all he could talk about was the children.

The dinner for the night was McDonalds, not exactly my first choice, however, for the kids it was a big treat something that they very rarely get. Before dinner it was time to say grace and the oldest of the kids came up to me, held my hand while she expressed the thanks on behalf of the kids and the seniors of the shelter. The grace was in Thai so I obviously did not understand much, but sweet it was.  Afterwards she went to Nat and kneeled down where she sat and said grace again.
The MickyD's dinner was a huge success.

After it was time for all to shower and get into their PJ's.  The smallest got a little time for play before bed; also a volunteer at the center is a nurse at Bangkok hospital and took care of any first aid and medical attention needed, including my little friend and his cut above the eye.  A little iodine and a bandage and he was all ready to go.
The older kids went over to the activity center to do school work and finish the the day with a bit of traditional Thai dancing. 
It was time for Nat and I to say night-night.  I made my plans with Lhen Lhen to come back the next morning to join the efforts to bringing food to the families living in the slum.

The day I went with the center they had three stops.  The center tries to seek out slum areas that others do not attend to.  From time to time they learn that a particular one area supported may start receiving scheduled food from other donors, in which case they try to seek out a different slum that no one else is attending to.  In other words they try to distribute their limited resources to those that are absolutely in the greatest need of help.

After arriving at the center I was quickly put to use bagging up food. Each bag was filled with a few cups of rice, a small bottle of fish sauce, a small bottle of cooking oil, two packs of noodle soup, and a can of tomato paste. The content of the care packages change from time to time as I noticed that canned fish was also an option.  Part of the shopping the day before included lots of rice and lots of noodle soup so that was put to instant use.  All the care- package bags were put in to larger sacks and loaded onto the pickup truck.
Since the plan was for me to be dropped off at my hotel at the end of the trip, I said my goodbyes to the adults and to the toddlers. Lhen Lhen was busy as ever, it seemed to me as if she never has a quiet moment, constantly doing something; an absolute delightful and amazing lady to have met.

Off we went. I really did not have much sense of what to expect during these stops and to my surprise many of these slum areas are very close to higher end homes or reasonably nice residential areas.  The first stop in particular was right across the street from what looked to be an upper middle-class home. the picture to the left is Tina, from Korea, who visited MERCY Centre for 4 months, and one of the Centre employee. Notice the very nice home across the street, and just behind me (taking the photo) was a small slum area with the residents living in tin sheds. The number of decent photos that I took were limited as as they were all taken "inconspicuously" with the camera in my hand at hip level. Yes I have several pictures of just dirt and of my shoes. 
A detailed log was kept by the MERCY Center associate of all food that was handed out and to whom.
At this particular stop a little boy came up to the truck for some milk.  It turns out that he is about three years old and has no mom, no dad, in fact no family at all.  He did not have a lick of clothes and was running around naked in that slum area getting a little food from other poor people.  The MERCY Center is currently working with city hall to get permission to pick him up and put him under decent care. At that moment it was hard to contain oneself.  Seeing this and not having any more power than to hand out some milk was so very sad. I don't think I have ever felt so humble in my life.  Hopefully by now as I am writing this, the boy is in the care of the good people at the center.
Before leaving, the MERCY Center employee too had to sit for a moment on the tail of the truck to compose herself and finally got up with a big sigh. For her too, it was a bit much to bare.
Later in the day there would be another trip to the slum areas for distribution of clothes, so I guess that by the end of the day the boy would at least be dressed. Many of the donors in the US as well as Nat gave clothes. This little boy just may be wearing some that you gave now!

We had two more stops at some larger slum areas and at each stop there was about 40 families receiving food.  While the role calls were made, it became my job (with the help of Tina) to actually hand the bags of food to each individual who came forward.  For each bag that I handed out I received sincere thanks; sometimes verbally, sometimes with a wai and sometimes with a sincere and captivating eye contact. Actually a few managed to say "thank you" in English. All the children received a small carton of milk, with the youngest getting a special formula. Even though it may have been poor psychology, I remember when my mom used to say that children in the poor countries would be happy to have the food I wouldn't eat or the milk I wouldn't drink.  As I was watching these children noticeably  appreciating what was given to them, those memories became vivid flashbacks.
Watching the expressions and bodylanguage of each and everyone from the young to the old told a story in and of itself.  While one would have expected somber moods and depression, there to the contrary was joy and appreciation. There was even room for a few laughs.

While the encounter with the little boy was about as sad of a moment as I have ever experienced and while the whole experience was somewhat depressing, it was of some consolation that most were cheerful, appreciative and seemingly happy.  It is arguable whether money can buy you happiness or not, but one thing is clear; without money there is still room for joy.

I am glad I went and again I want to thank all who supported this effort. Those efforts brought on some smiles, many thanks and lots of appreciation.
It goes without saying that I would do this again and I hope that the next time I will be as successful in raising funds for The MERCY Center supporting the children and the poor.

If you would like me to contact you the next time I have a fundraiser, please send me an e-mail.  Remember, none of this can be done without financial support. And in this case 100% goes to the children and the poor.

To those who supported, I hope that I have lived up to you expectations in delivering your message and reporting my experiences.

Nat sent me this message and the pictures below:

How are you?
I hope you not busy to much about your job and have a good easy life na kha, this the photo when I visit mercy center with my old friend and very good friend. His name Mr. Cliff Martinez (American man), we visit there not long time because I have to go back to work, no have time in there. I got the towel from my boss (Mr.Kim) for 1 big box. Then I met Lhen Lhen and that lady .
take care and see you November
Nat