A overcast morning, we were lucky to aloud the rain. Many babies stayed at home but quite a few still showed up.
We registered two new babies in Rang Moo and have out a total of 23 boxes of formula. Later, in Suan Ooy 16 bags of powdered milk and we even got some sunshine there…
Sister Cecilia came from Rathaburi to join us and help out on this Rice Run. Trini also joined for a full day, shopping in the morning, packing mid day and the distribution from 4 to 5:15pm. As we used to, we had so many generous hands to help give asistence in Rang Moo
We gave out 80 packages of help where it is really needed.
Where did the half of 2020 go!!!??? With all the bad news of a pandemic and civil unrests, it is great to have a place to go to where things are cordial and friendly and done with complete lack of fear. Today’s Milk Run was like that, a true treat for a person looking to forget all the bad in our current reality.
We helped 22 moms in Rang Moo and distributed another 18 packages of milk formula in Suan Ooy. There was a new baby there as well, a tiny little son of a 19 year old mother. Here are the pics…
Today’s Rice Run was sponsored by the kind ladies of Soroptimist International Dusit Club. I met with June and her husband Robin at Makro and they paid for the cooking oil, fish sauce and sardines for our 86 seniors from Klong Toei.
At the same time, Khun Rambha who is another Soroptimist Dusit member organized a delivery of rice from outside of Bangkok and brought it to Boss Mansion so we can pack it in individual bags and distribute at 4 pm. We had 9 people come to pack, starting to get the number of volunteers we used to regularly have at the Rice Run.
The ladies continued to Rang Moo and delivered 83 packages to seniors of Rang Moo and Suan Ooy. A great effort and here are the rest of the photos… as you can see – amazing work!!
Today in Rang Moo, we had 22 moms come and we added a new baby as well.
On a beautiful, sunny and breezy morning, Thais were showing up a few minutes apart as if planned, keeping their distance, most wearing their masks – the distribution was so easy… the same thing happened in Suan Ooy community where we gave baby formula to 9 seniors and 8 moms.
Everyone who showed up with no mask was given one – thank you Nikola for donating over 60 masks to the mission… Here are more photos of the morning…
On May 15th we celebrated the return of our Rice Run volunteers to the weekly event. Covid may have put a pause on their attendance as many followed the reccommendatinos to stay away from crowds but as Thailand is seeing new lows in infections and deaths (this was the first week of days with zero new cases), the climate is changing and everyone feels more hope that we can resume parts of our “old normal”.
So we had 7 volunteers show up to pack and deliver food packages and 80 Thai seniors and their family members showed up to collect. We are still spacing the recipients by asking them to show up at 4 different times depending on the color of their registration cards but we can see how this too will eventually go back to the old way of seeing everyone at the same time… some day soon, I hope. Thank you ladies for great photographs and the amazing compassion you are delivering.
This week saw the Rice Run, Milk Run and the School Run participants all come together to the same event. I don’t think this has ever happened in almost 30 years since Sister Joan Mission was started and what a great time we had.
Best, our Thai volunteer suggested that we offer a lunch to all of our registered recipients and she, her husband Pum and a group of their Thai friends and family members raised money for 200+ large packages of lunch, additional cans of sardines, snacks and sanitizing alcohol. They delivered everything at 9:30 as planned and we were able to quickly set up and start at 10am.
Our Rice Run and Milk Run volunteers raised 23000 baht this week to support the effort. Shannon and Paul used some of that money yesterday to get 130 large bags of white rice from Makro and deliver it this morning. We also brought out all the adult and baby items (about 20 boxes) that have been donated to Sister Joan Mission since Covid pandemic started and we had plenty of hands to distribute it all.
Five of our School Run project students shower up to help pack the food items for everyone before they too received their share. The sun was brutal, we were all rushing to finish and by 11:30 we served a total of 115 people and their families and everyone was quickly gone after we got this great group shot taken.
Thank you Shannon, Paul, Helen, Grace, Susan and Janna for coming to help and represent our group. It was a great effort and I really hope we can add more of these.
Here are more photos from this morning:
A great event in the times of Covid-19 – we had 23 moms come to collect in Rang Moo, lost 2 babies from the program because they just had their 1st birthday but we added one in Rang Moo and another one in Suan Ooy.
In Suan Ooy we gave away 17 units of milk formula, 7 went to the seniors and the rest to moms. I may have been alone at the distribution but all the volunteers that have helped us over the years were there with me in their own unique way – their financial, morral, spiritual participation is felt in every step.
We recorded a death in Rang Moo – an elderly man passed away as we were distributing the milk. The temple van arrived shortly after to carry the body away and Khun Jim asked if we could assist man’s widow with a 1000 baht donation and some food, until the widow (who is also handicapped) can figure out what to do. Fortunately we were able to raise 3000 baht instantly and also provide her with one of the RIce Run food packages (5kg of rice, 5 cans of sardines, a bottle of fish sauce and a bottle of cooking oil).
Here are the rest of the pictures from the May 8th Milk Run:
This May 3rd is Sister Joan’s 88th. We were lucky to talk on the phone thanks to Sister Nora and Sister Lucy who take such an amazing care of our Joan. She was in good spirits, just came out of the noon mass and was very happy to hear me on the phone.
She knew it was her birthday and we spoke about the state of her projects and about the life in the slum for about 20 minutes. She recognized my voice and was happy to hear that the Milk Run and Rice Run are going well and that volunteers keep coming to help. She was happy about the School Run too, excited that more young people from Klong Toei will get a chance to finish University and have a better life then their parents. She thank me and others for the work and asked that we continue it.
Then, at the end of the call, she said: “… what is your name?”
We had a great Rice Run with a large group of volunteers composed of 4 adults and 4 of the students we sponsor through the School Run program. They all showed up spontaneously to lend a hand on a hot Friday afternoon.
The shopping at Makro was another unpleasant experience – the price of rice is now 99 baht per bag – a stunning 30% more from 74 baht we used to pay just weeks ago. Our total bill for supplies was almost 20,000 baht and these increases if they persist will greatly impact our ability to help the poor in Klong Toei.
