Special Events
What a fabulous way to start the weekend!
10 July 2010
Our children rushed home from school last Friday afternoon to receive a group of special guests – The US Third Marine Expeditionary Force Band – a traditional 12-piece military marching band of the highest caliber and spirit.
Thanksgiving Day for Our Teachers
25 June 2010
Today we celebrated “Wai Kru” Day at our Mercy Centre – the day students throughout Thailand give thanks to their teachers. On this day, all students enrolled in our Korczak School for street children and representatives from eight of our local slum kindergartens invited their teachers to celebrate in a pageant of thanksgiving, music, dance, gift-giving, and blessings.
It takes a village: Songkran at Mercy Centre
19 April 2010
Even though our Mercy Centre is located in the middle of Bangkok's largest, most densely populated slum community, our home often feels like it's far away from the city - as if we were living in a traditional Thai rural village.
Mercy Kindergarten Graduation Day!
11 March 2010
They put on their robes. Donned their caps. And with great pomp, circumstance, plus a few giggles, 702 children celebrated their Graduation Day at Mercy Preschools throughout the slums this week. It was an especially joyous day for their families as moms, dads, brothers, sisters, aunties, and grandmoms joined their children in the celebrations.
A Gift for the Children of Klong Toey
28 January 2010
This past Sunday 40 children from the Human Development Foundation’s Mercy Centre attended Mass at Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok. It isn’t unusual for these former street children, who are raised in the Buddhist religion of their mothers and grandmothers, to join in a Christian ceremony. Their home at the Mercy Centre, founded by Father Joe, is a religious house; and the Mercy children are brought up to respect all religions.
New Preschool for Children of Zone 9
20 January 2010
What a beautiful day! The children living in the Zone 9 section of Lat Krabang industrial estate now have a brand-new Mercy Preschool. The old Mercy school, which had stood for eighteen years and graduated over five hundred poor children in preparation for government primary school, was destroyed by one-too-many termite attacks. Its second floor had been rendered unsafe, which meant that all one-hundred-and-five children enrolled in the Zone 9 Preschool were crammed into the first floor. It was a difficult learning situation. Our school children urgently needed a safe place to learn to read and write.