Last Sunday was "harvest day" for our boys living on our farm. Former street kids, these boys now grow their own vegetables, catch their own fish, and plant and harvest the rice they put on their dinner table.  Early on the morning of harvest day, our Mercy girls dropped by the farm to prepare lunch for their Mercy brothers. Once they saw how hard their brothers were working, they decided to pitch in, and in the end, everyone, both our boys and girls, harvested together. It's amazing how our boys have taken to a country lifestyle. In the past they had no confidence, no self-esteem, yet now they are thriving in school, sports, friendship and life.

The Golden Triangle Multi-Challenge: Hike -2 days, Cycle-3 days, and Kayak-2 days. 350 KM

This year a wonderful Dubai-based charity - Gulf for Good - will be sponsoring a Holiday Challenge around the Golden Triangle. Proceeds will go to the Human Development Foundation for capital improvements, specifically for building urgently needed shelters for our boys living on our farm. Gulf for Good has been sponsoring challenges for our foundation and others for many years,  helping disadvantaged children all over the world. We invite all our friends to join in the Golden Triangle Challenge. Dates to be announced.  Full challenge details here.

On Dec. 24th, HRH Princess Srirasmi celebrated her birthday together with our hospice patients, our Mercy children and our kindergarten students. Over 500 children joined together in a joyous outpouring of song and dance and birthday wishes. As a gift to the Princess, our Mercy children made several promises: they promised to be good, to study hard, never to take drugs, never to harm the environment, to spend wisely, to work together in harmony with society, and, most importantly, to do everything with with a generous heart. The Human Development Foundation is under the Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Srirasmi. Photos: Above: in our hospice with Mae Jiap and her baby named "Big." Below, with Mae Moiee.

We hosted World AIDS Day at our Mercy Centre on Nov. 27 - a community-wide event that brought together six local HIV/AIDS organizations, twenty three community leaders, five government schools (400 school children) and the Thai Health Ministry Director of AIDS Programs, Dr. Piyathayda Samuphrphut. It was the perfect day to get communities and organizations working together - organizations that included The HIV/AIDS Network of Thailand, Duang Prateep Foundation, Siam Care, Emergency House, We Understand Together, and, of course, our Mercy Centre. Together we used every tool at our disposal, from computers to sports to puzzles and games, in teaching the school children about prevention, understanding, and compassion. Please see our gallery of this event for more details.

Bangkok, Thailand: Father Joe Maier, C.Ss.R., a Co-founder and Director of The Human Development Foundation-Mercy Centre, was named an Ambassador of Child Protection in an award ceremony held at the Thai House of Parliament and presented by Prime Minister of Thailand Abhisit Vejjajiva on November 22, 2009.

Fr. Joe was nominated for the award by the Child Protection Taskforce of Thailand  (a coalition of groups working with street children throughout Thailand) in recognition of his continuous four-decade commitment to the protection and education of the poorest slum children in Thailand.

Father Joe, a Catholic Priest ordained in the Redemptorist Order, first arrived in Thailand in 1967, ministering to the poor Catholic communities in Northeast Thailand and to the Hmong in Laos before settling permanently in Bangkok as the Parish Priest in the "Slaughterhouse" neighborhood in Klong Toey, Bangkok's largest slum community.

In 1973 Father Joe co-founded The Human Development Foundation to protect and educate the poorest children of all faiths. Under his direction, the foundation now oversees the largest network of slum kindergartens in Bangkok; provides shelter to 200 orphan children; represents and defends poor children in police stations and courts; protects street children throughout the city; and advocates for the fulfillment of the 1999 Thai Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The award as Child Protection Ambassador 2009 follows a Lifetime Achievement award presented  to Father Joe  in 2004 by Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand as the foreign resident who, "over the long-term, has contributed the most to the promotion of status and protection of women and children in Thailand."