MERCY Pattaya

MERCY CENTER staff joined delegates from the University Scholars Leadership Symposium, being held at Hilton, Pattaya, when they visited the school that the MERCY CENTER children attend, in Pong District..

The Mayor of Pong Municipalities, Khun Pannawat Chai Yangyen pictured with the Academy directors and delegates from the UK organised ‘Power Of Dreams’ Symposiums and joined by nine students from Concordia University in Canada and other delegates from the seven day U.S.L. S event.

The purpose of the visit to Pong was to provide lunch for the entire faculty of students of Wat Sawangarom School and that included the residents of the new Mercy Children’s Home, Baan Khong Por.

Next month, the new Mercy home will be officially opened, with a party to thank all past, present and future supporters. The date set is 25 September to celebrate Mercy Center’s tenth anniversary of caring for some of the most needy folks of Pattaya.

Students, ‘cooks’ and helpers thoroughly enjoyed the experience, as you can see. (pics)

The U.S.L .Symposium had been opened, earlier in the week, by Pattaya Mayor, Ittipol Khunplom .

The 7-day affair, organised by British NGO ‘Humanitarian Affairs’ was designed to provide future leaders, from all over the world, with opportunities to better serve disaster-prone and poverty- stricken countries. Nearly forty countries were represented and one of the international speakers was Geraldine Cox, reknowned for her courageous work in creating the SunLife Orphanage in Cambodia…against a mountain of odds.

Feeding the students in Pong’s Wat Sawangarom school, was not the first meeting of Mercy staff with the nine leadership scholars from Montreal, Canada. They had visited the new MERCY offices located by Big C South, to help the volunteers by gathering together packages of all the mainstay foodstuff ingredients needed to support hungry families in Pattaya slum areas.

Concordia University students, Nadine, Michael, Ines, Kenza, Joanne, Fernando, Echo and Diana worked together under their team leader, Teresa, and members of the Mercy volunteer force. They packed the ingredients ready for delivery to some of the one hundred families who Mercy provides for every week. And on 4th August they also managed top over the road to the Mercy Center ‘forever home’ and meet some of the pre-school members of the Mercy Family, too.

A bag of rice, bottles of fish sauce and cooking oil with two tins of fish (most often sardines) with tomato paste costs 150 baht and the Mercy project costs 6,000 Baht per month to fund. Of course, the price increases if there are special medical needs or children’s milk. Help is needed to maintain this life vital project and increase its coverage.