Happy Birthday

Thanks to a family from Mae Sai who chose to celebrate their son's birthday by bringing some food and sweets to our children. The children really appreciated the extra food and got a further treat when the ice cream man visited and our guests purchased ice cream for the children.

If you are looking for a good birthday gift for someone why not contact us about providing the children with a special treat for the occasion.

A day of fun and mud!

Yesterday a very fun and muddy sports day was held at the shelter. The children were separated into 5 groups – Red, yellow, orange, blue and green. There were many sports and activities ensuring the children had lots of fun!
There was a round robin soccer (football) competition, Takraw, volleyball and swimming races. Novelty events included a water balloon relay, who could find and hit a tin whilst blindfolded, and a race to complete series of tasks including finding 1 baht under some flour with your mouth, eating some sweets and blowing a balloon till it burst!

This day we also had a visit from Leelong, who is currently wheelchair bound and being cared for by Childlife. The visit brought a big smile to his face as it was his first visit back to the shelter. The Japanese superstar also dropped in, getting stuck into it not afraid of the mud!

A star in the making!!!

One of the children at Childlife has been chosen to star in a Thai film! A-Song, a
beautiful and photogenic boy was chosen to star in the film which also stars one of the Thai princesses. He has been to 2 filmings so far, one in Bangkok and one in Chiang Mai and will continue to film over the next year.

All the children and staff can't wait to see the completed film and see A-Song in action!!!

Japanese Superstar visits Childlife

In conjunction with the visit of the Japanese TV Program (see previous blog article), a Japanese superstar visited the shelter for 2 days. During her visit Azusa Yamamoto (Japanese model/actress) toured the shelter, spoke and played with the children, ate at the shelter, got involved with the sports day, learnt some traditional Akha dancing and competed in the Son Tam competition.

The children and Azusa were very sad to day goodbye with tears all around.

Childlife bound for Japanese TV Screens

Over the last 10 days Childlife has been under the camera lens with a TV crew from Japan visiting. Childlife will appear in a TV show about different shelters for children across the globe. Shelters from Indonesia, Mongolia and Mexico will also be featured in the show.

Childlife was chosen to be a feature in this TV show due to the role of the Children's Council* at Childlife. The crew spent their time learning about how the Children's Council run and manage many of the activites and operations at the shelter.

The show also aims to educate people about Childlife and the impact we can make with children's lives - from street children to running the shelter and teaching other children.

We are all looking forward to seeing the finished product, which will be screened in Japan in October/November.

* The Childlife Childrens Council is a group of the senior children at the shelter. They meet weekly and discuss isues at the shelter and are heavily consulted for any major decisions ensuring the children are empowered and have a significant input into the running of their shelter.

Recently the Children's Council has been given greater responsilities and now oversee the major operations at the shelter. This move has seen many of the older children step up to the responsibilities and develop some great skills for the future.

Learning from Pee

Yesterday at the shelter mini workshops were held by the children's council* to teach the younger children a few of the things they have learnt over the years to improve practices at the shelter.

The workshops included:
- How to wash clothes
- How to wash dishes
- Caring for minor medical issues
- Respect and polite behaviour

The children were split into 4 groups and rotated through the workshops, learning from the older children at the shelter.

The Childlife Children's Council is a group of the senior children at the shelter. They meet weekly and discuss issues at the shelter and are heavily consulted for any major decisions ensuring the children are empowered and have a significant input into the running of their shelter.

Recently the Children's Council has been given greater responsilities and now oversee the major operations at the shelter. This move has seen many of the older children step up to the responsibilities and develop some great skills for the future.

Exciting news!!! Our new home :)

Childlife are very excited to let all our friends and supporters know we have reached an agreement to purchase the land for our new home with the land owners and a very generous donor.

We are very sad that we need to leave our current premises as it provides a safe and loving environment for our children and holds plenty of great memories of achievements and milestones.

Our new land is located next to Sankong School which will allow us to build a stronger partnership with the school and the community. This relationship has already been fantastic for our children providing them with the vital education that they would otherwise not have the opportunity for, due to their identity status.

We are now working very hard to raise funds so that we can start to build on the land. We have 1 year left at our current premises and desperately need the help of all our friends and supporters to ensure our children have a safe home.

To donate to our building fund please click here
Otherwise keep an eye out for our new building campaign coming soon!