Street kids find refuge and hope in Pattaya
Street kids find refuge and hope in Pattaya
by Weena Kowitwanij
Run by Sister Woranuch Pranomjit, the Redemptorist centre is home to more than 150 children and teenagers. Thanks to it, they get food and shelter but also an education for the future.
Pattaya (AsiaNews) – More than a 150 kids have found a refuge in the Redemptorist Street Kids Home in Pattaya, a tourist resort area well known for its nightlife in Chonbury province. The youth centre is run by Sister Woranuch Pranomjit.
“These kids have had no luck,” the Sister said. “They should be the responsibility of their families and society. They should be helped to build a better future for themselves and develop their physical and mental skills to become honest and respectable citizens. This is why we hold ethics classes every day in the centre.”
“We gave them shelter and send them 18 different local schools based on their aptitudes,” she added. “A bus takes them to each every day.
“We do this for them,” she explained, “until they complete their education to enable them to build a professional future and become self-sufficient. Currently, two of our kids have gone to university. When they graduate, if they want, they can go back to their families.”
“Food, a roof over the head and health are the kids’ priorities,” noted Suchart Suthinak, a psychologist who works with the centre, “then comes a better quality of life through professional training.”
For him “it is important that the children and teenagers work [with the centre] and participate in their own development; otherwise, they might go back to what they were doing outside the centre”.
“Many kids come from Bangkok and arrive with a lot of problems, but in Pattaya they can survive,” Suthinak said. “They come with family problems, after fights, or are involved in sex, prostitution, law-breaking, drugs, HIV infections, pregnancies, abortions; problems caused by society’s and the authorities’ neglect.”
Yet, for Suwannee Sap-paem, who teaches at the centre, “it doesn’t matter how well they are at the centre, this ‘home’ cannot replace the love they might have had from their families”.
“I have been living at the Redemptoris home for 13 years,” said a girl. “My parents split up and my mom’s new husband is very stern. Quarrels are frequent. I left home and found a job at a Pattaya club. Here I had some problems with some of the other employees and so I decided to come to the centre and meet Suthinak. Now I am studying to become a hairdresser and hope I can make a living with this trade.”
The Redemptoris Street Kids Home was founded in 1989 and now houses more than 150 children, aged 5 to 19 years.
Dear Rev,Pastor. Holy Greetings from Freetown , Sierra Leone in the name of Jesus Christ our soon coming KING.
I thank the Lord for this divine opportunity granted to me to know about you and ministry. It has been my prayer that the Lord will give me a Father that will mentor me into spiritual maturity for the advancement of the Kingdom of God . HALLELUJAH!!
I want to thank the Lord who has make us to know about your Ministry and your organisation for such a time like this and for knowing what He the Lord is doing through you which is a blessing to the Body of Christ. I thank God for your life.
We are an indigeneous Ministry and organisation seeking God to give us a pastoral covering for our Ministry and organisation here in Sierra Leone . We are a Bible believing Mission .
We are also believing God to have you among us in february the 15 to 21th 2009 to come and speak to the Body of Christ in the nation of Sierra Leone .
My country has a population of 85% dominant muslims which we are believing God to have them converted and burn into the Kingdom of God .
Minister, I believe that by association with you ministry and organisation in a Fatherly and son relationship, we can raise a standard in this nation in JESUS NAME.
Our vision is to reach the unreach peoples group in our nation with the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ this is our life style of preaching.( HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS ORGANISATION )basing on confrences, Revivals, cruisade and also taking care of orphans and the poor
We are running also and interdominational Bible school and also an orphanage where have about 175 orphan children and who lost thier parent dureing the past 11 years of war in our country sierra leone and we are also asking you and the ministry and organisation over there to help this orphan children and (as the bible says who so ever give to this little ones he has done it to me ) and that why want you to be a help to this children and what so ever little the lord laid in your heart we will thankful ok .
and we are asking you to please send us some of your materials like Bibles, books magazines and teaching tapes and CDs that will be of help to up grade our library here in Sierra Leone.
May the Lord bless you mightly as we await hearing from you soon.
Shallon.
Yours In His Service,
Rev Andrew Favour Bobor
THE HOPE FOR THE HOPELESS ORGANISATION
P.O.BOX1099
7 Fergusson Street
Freetown,
Sierra Leone
West Africa
Tel +232-76-779-124 or +232 77 966 041
Comment by Rev Andrew Favour Bobor — November 26, 2008 @ 1:26 pm