Songkran. Traditional Home is the New Year celebration which starts on April Each year and lasts for thirteen of 3 days. Songkran is a Thai word which means “move” or “change place” as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the “Water Festival” as people believe that water will wash away bad luck.

The Songkran Festival on April thirteenth is. Maha. Songkran Day. or the Day to Mark the End of the Old year, on April 14 is. Wan Nao. which is the Day after and April fifteen is. Wan Thaloeng Sok. which is when the New Year begins. At this time, people from the rural areas who are working in the city like Bangkok usually return home to celebrate the festival.

The Songkran tradition is recognized as an important custom for the Thai community, society, and religion. The value for family is to provide the opportunity for family members to.

gather in order to express their respect to their elders by pouring scented water onto the hands of their parents and grandparents and to present them with gifts, including making merit to their ancestors. The elders in return wish the.

The grounds have been all graded and the concrete pad on the side of the house finished.

Here are a couple of the latest photos. Click to see a larger image.

Also thanks to David Cavanagh and his Internet Marketing Team for donating the bunks

Please use the link below if you can help and choose your donation amount towards the building project.

Please use the link below if you can help and choose your donation amount towards the building project.

The Mercy grounds are looking good and we have ordered the gates.

We want to thank European Flagpole Co., LTD for the flag poles and flags donation. They are really appreciated!

They were placed that they will be in front of the early learning center school.

Thanks to all those who supported the building project and now we can start on the earling learning center and the housing for the staff.

Please use the link below if you can help and choose your donation amount towards the building project.

This letter is from our daughter Liana who is 9 years and old and lives in United States of America.

When my husband went to Thailand the second time he shared on the phone about the need of the support for the orphaned children, she was touched the most when she heard that they sleep on the floor on the thin mattresses she came up to me with the tears in her eyes and said: “mama please take my money and send them to the kids so they can have their own beds”.

So here is her own story:

“Hello, my name Liana, I’m 9 years old. Since I was little I always wanted to help poor people, I always collected money.

I always bought stuff for my self, then one day I heard about the poor people again, so I want to give you $100 I love you, may God bless you.”

Liana – USA

We just want to say thank you Liana and we have added your generous donation to some funds raised from businesses earlier last month and will be starting to build the beds this month.

They are in good company in this large Municipal District of Pattaya and neighbours include Siam Country Club and Pira Car Racing International Circuit.

The Mercy kids can enjoy the beautiful Pong countryside around Mabprachan Reservoir which is home to many restaurants, bars and Villages. Popular tourist attraction The Romance of the Three Kingdoms Park is also close by Baan Khong Por, the name chosen for the new Mercy Children’s Home.

Pong Mayor Khun Pannawat Chaiyangyuen has graciously agreed to attend the official Opening of Baan Khong Por which is to be celebrated in fine style to also mark the ten year anniversary of Mercy Center, Pattaya on 25 September.

Mercy directors, Fred & Dianne Doell extend their thanks to our readers for their continuing support in the forms of thoughts, words and deeds. They trust that their new neighbours will be good neighbours and help them to find the means to complete the fencing, concreting and landscaping of the four rai of land on which now stands our Mercy children’s ‘forever’ home.”

The number of abused, misused, abandoned and orphaned children cared for by Mercy’s dedicated staff and volunteers, can now rise to around fifty with the completion of Baan Khong Por. Mercy Center currently provides a home and loving care for twenty high risk children.

The Mercy/Pattaya Street Kids scholarship initiative provides funding to enable over 220 students to attend school and the slum support project provides basic foodstuffs and essentials for seventy families in Pattaya’s poorest areas.

Please contact: on 038 422 678 to find out how you can help support Mercy Center projects .

Visit: www.mercypattaya.com

You’ll be glad you did!

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.

That day came on May 14th and although Luknam left us to go to her grandma’s village some 12 hours north of Pattaya, we are delighted to be able to report that one of our regular volunteers with whom she has formed a special bond over the years, has agreed to sponsor her education and hopes to keep in touch and give us reports on her progress.

Just look at her beautiful face – to see such happiness brings tears to your eyes. We will miss her, but this is a day we hope all our children may experience – to know they have a family that loves them who wants them home with them forever. No-one, no matter how caring, can ever replace their real family. “

Liz Shepherd

MERCY Center – Scholarship project