The Opening House ceremony was joined by our children of CPDC, some children of the Baan Jing Jai and the children of the slums as well as by some guests of honour, such as the President of the Father Ray Foundation, President and representatives of the local Rotary Clubs, the President of the Expats Club of Pattaya, representatives of the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime, President of French Club, plus many more. The festivities started at 10 am with a traditional Thai dance presented by some girls of the centre.

After that the director of HHNFT, Khun Radchada Chomjinda, held a short speech talking about the progress of their work and heartfully thanking the sponsor Mr. Hans G. Müller for his generosity as well as all the German supporters in general as they have been a big help all the time. She also announced the appointment of Mr. Parisorn Noja as the director of the Anti Human Trafficking  in recognition of his work and great effort in the fight against pedophilia and abuse towards children in Pattaya, while she will take over the position of the temporary acting director of the CPDC.

Mr. Hans Müller was called up on the podium to explain his motivation for being engaged at the CPDC with so much effort and why he had donated and sponsored the boys houses which thus requested him to be cutting the ribbons of the two new boy’s houses. Of course everybody had the chance to visit the houses and get an impression of how the children live like.   Afterwards the children presented two more dances as well as a Hula Hoop act.

The event ended with a great lunch including noodle soup, a rice dish, French fries as well as fresh fruits and little coconut cakes.

On behalf of the children and the staff of CPDC and the whole HHNFT team we would like to thank everybody who joined us on that special day. Very special thanks go to Mr. Hans G. Müller for his generous support during all the years and for sponsoring the two new houses.

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At about 11am the visitors arrived at the CPDC where they were welcomed by the HHNFT staff. Initially, they were given some introductive explanations about the necessity of child protective actions in Pattaya and about the goals of the work at this place. These include providing street children with protection, education and prospects for the future.

Few later some of the children used their school break time to come back to the CPDC and have lunch there. Hence, everybody together enjoyed the delicious food provided once more by Khun Eat and her team. This lunch had been sponsored by the guests who furthermore proved their generosity by bringing plenty of toys and food articles with them as presents. Well fed and happy about the children’s joy facing the toys, the group took a look at the various facilities of the CPDC ranging from accommodating houses to a nursing unit and the Education Center. At this point the friendly visitors also made use of the occasion to ask numerous interesting questions and thus showed their deeper solicitousness in the children’s fate.

Finally, the group headed further to the Drop-In-Center in order to get information about the immediate care for street children over there. Before, however, they surprised with a generous donation of 15.000 Bath to be used for the children “Education Fund” of the CPDC.

On behalf of HHNFT we want to extend our gratitude for this friendly and interesting visit as well as the generous support.

In spite of the long trip that started early from the Laem Chabaeng harbor, the group arrived in the morning at CPDC. However they did not show any tiredness, but directly started working. While half of them helped cleaning the houses, the others started picking up the garbage from the ground, weeding, cleaning the fish pond and washing cars. But not only the Navy was hard working, the children were highly motivated as well. They showed that they are able to take responsibility for their home and their environment, an important goal of CPDC. Soon a team spirit has been developed. Yet helping the children tidying up was far from being all the visitors did for the children, they also sponsored medical goods and impressed by the children’s engagement they donated some extra money.

Just as the quotation “business before pleasure”, after all the work was done the group joined the children for having their lunch. Subsequently the children could not wait to take their visitors by the hand directly to the sports court or the pitch. No doubt, this was great fun for both sides.

Unfortunately time flied and soon the Navy had to leave going on their long journey back to their ship.

We want to thank the whole team for supporting our children by their donation, but more by help taking care of their duties. As well we want to say thank you for the little souvenir, received by some staff members of CPDC and Khun Scheree Wilkie, representative of HHNFT. Though a special appreciation goes to Mr. Henry Green, who was in charge of the group, and to Khun Peter Thorand for managing the team.

Yet before the show began, everybody was offered to satisfy hunger by the great choice of food that has been provided for the guests: freshly roasted chicken, a variety of noodle soups, healthy fruits and, especially loved by the children, little coconut cakes. The show could start and older children entered the stage to present a traditional Thai dance, which was followed by a modern dance shared by the little girls. The highlight of the act was a 12 year old girl dancing with the hula hoop, though the song of the young boys was pretty good as well. The whole audience enjoyed the presentation of the little stars and could only be impressed with their talents.  

The performance only has been interrupted for the raffle. The children were able to win toys, stuffed animals, electronic musical instruments or some money. However the staff could win household articles such as a hot pot, jewellery or some money. Independent of what was won; everybody was quite content and happy. Thus a very successful day came to its end. It was successful, because the celebration was able to raise smiles in the children’s faces and because people were touched by the children’s talents and laughter’s.

Therefore we want to thank everybody, who joined us that day, as well as everybody, who made this special event come true.

Already for a longer time Dr. Johannes Peterlik and Dr. Uschi Peterlik have supported the CPDC and they now took Christmas as an opportunity to give the children a pleasure. They invited all the children to an excursion to a toys store of the Central Festival Shopping Mall. However the children could not only inspect all the toys, but also select one as their very special Christmas present. It was no surprise that facing the big choice of toys it took some time to find the right one. Eventually there were big smiles on the children’s faces and everybody was happy, whether with a remote-controlled car, a dollhouse or cuddly toys.

Finally the cherry on the cake of this day was a lunch at a restaurant sponsored by the Austrian Consul Rudolf Hofer.

To thank their generous sponsors the children gave them little dolls made by themselves as a present.
HHNFT wants to extend its gratitude towards the charitable Austrian sponsors as well.

A major reason of Mr. Hofer visiting is the request of H.E. Ambassador Peterlik who kindly wishes to see that Austria though being a small country regarding the size was a big one as far as giving help is concerned.  He mentioned that the Austrian community in Thailand is very active and may be able to support the work of the CPDC.  To give an example, the Austrian Ambassador paid visits to the CPDC earlier and also invited our children and the director of HHNFT to be present at the Austrian National Day reception in Bangkok in order to inform about our work. Additionally, Madame Ambassador organizes the selling of T-Shirts to the benefit of the children at the CPDC.

We feel highly honored having been supported by the Austrian dignitaries.  Thank you very much.

Last year a group of young football players of the Pattaya Orphanage had the chance to visit Germany and enjoy their holidays there. Now the time had come to answer the visit. Therefore, a group of children living in socially difficult circumstances started its journey at the 27^th of October. During the whole visit they were accompanied by the HHNFT-team and we are very happy that we could help with the organization.The patron of this initiative is the successful German football manager Reiner Calmund. The team was housed at the Thai Garden Resort, the owner of which, Gerrit Niehaus, had proven his generosity by sponsoring the whole logging.  Thanks to him again, the children also had the possibility to spend some time on his sailing yacht and enjoy the sea. Further examples of the activities are the visits of the “Flight of the Gibbon”-high ropes course and of the Big Buddha statue. However, the main focus was – as mentioned – the exchange with the children from the HHNFT-projects in Thailand. Hence, the group visited the CPDC on Monday, the 31^st of October, and had a look at the facilities, especially at the sleeping rooms of the children.

At this occasion the German visitors also handed out the money they had collected by playing football; it allows to buy Christmas presents for all the children in the CPDC.  Afterwards, the children had time to play together which of course ended up in playing football. What is more, the whole weekend was determined by the exchange with the children from the Pattaya Orphanage. On Saturday, the children who had visited Germany last year went to the Thai Garden Resort to join the German team for a pool party. This day will remain in the memories of everybody not only because of the great food, but most of all because of the huge fun while playing in the water. Eventually, on Sunday, the final day of the exciting journey, a football game took place between the team of the Pattaya Orphanage and the German group. After this amicable competition everybody came together for a nice farewell dinner. Thus a trip ended which offered both, great fun and rich experiences, and which will not fall into oblivion.

In the name of all participants we want to express our gratefulness towards everybody who made this little summer fairy tale possible. Special thanks go to Reiner Calmund and Gerrit Niehaus.

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Mr. Dave Boulanger, chairman of the The Supplierpipeline company, proved his kindest generosity by financing the whole project and donating a number of eight solar panels.  Together with an excellent cooperation from Mr. Anurut Vongvanich, chairman of the British dispensary company, the engineers from the Italthai company were called to install the panels together with batteries of very good quality.

Meanwhile being installed they provide clean and climate-friendly energy and thus relieve the financial budget. What is more, this represents a further step towards self-sufficiency, independence and sustainability. From the beginning of the CPDC this was an important goal and has been approached by establishing farm land as well as a fish pond and mushroom-, chicken- and pig farms.

The two women from Colorado, USA, pay yearly visit for three weeks and help taking care of the children. Not only do they play with them but they also assist in the nursing facility, help with bringing the children to bed and many more activities. Thus they follow their convincing credo “Learn, laugh, love” which now also embellishes the dining hall’s roof as lettering.  Their aim is to spread the three L’s among the children:

Learn how priceless and cherished they are
Laugh in joy and fellowship despite the decay that surrounds them
Fear no risk of Love, given or received

Thanks to their great generosity the hall had been built and is now an important part of the CPDC. Their visit this year began last week and will end on October, the 20^th.

Update:

Meanwhile, the two benefactors left the CPDC and are on their way back home. In order to make the children once more happy before their departure and thus solacing them they hosted a special menu for the children: The meal consisting of pork noodles, French fries and snacks like crispy rice crackers and watermelons, pleasured everyone. But still not enough, Ashley Sims made the children’s favorite cookies. Already now, the children are looking forward to their next visit in February.

Split into four groups the children had fun by playing bowling, lucky container, quoits and dart. What is more, the sponsors hosted a great lunch with sticky rice, papaya salad, barbecue chicken and even ice cream with herb drink. All of this was prepared by the CPDC kitchen team. Beginning at 9 o’clock the activity ended at 2pm. As a great surprise for all the children having birthday in October, the visitors brought a huge birthday cake and sang a happy birthday song.