The Human Development Foundation (HDF) began on an early morning in 1972. When Father Joe Maier became the Parish Priest of the Slaughterhouse neighborhood in Bangkok where an enclave of poor Catholics worked as the butchers of pigs and other livestock. When Fr. Joe first arrived, few children in his Parish were enrolled in government primary schools.

Joined by Sister Maria Chantavoradom, who was the founding pioneer of The Daughters of the Queenship of Mary Immaculate, where she has been the Mother Superior in one form or another for over fifty years. Together they took their first walk throughin the slums beside the Slaughter House. They greeted everybody, as they have for countless days since, and asked, do you have enough to eat? Are your children in good health? Is there any way we can help?

Sr. Maria and Fr. Joe transformed an abandoned eight-room wooden structure into a one-baht-per-day preschool open to all children regardless of their backgrounds and religions. The Imam of the local mosque and the Abbot of the local Buddhist temple joined Fr. Joe and Sr. Maria and together, no child was turned away.

Word of this first preschool spread to other poor communities, whose leaders asked Fr. Joe to open kindergartens for the children in their own neighborhoods. More Mercy preschools soon followed. By 2001, HDF-Mercy Centre was operating 33 preschools spread throughout the poorest neighborhoods of Bangkok.

 

The HDF Initiatives and Achievements:

1972- First HDF - Mercy School opens in the Slaughter House neighborhood.

1975 – Our street children outreach program formally begins.

1976 - First shelter for street children opens. 

1977 – We begin operation of Klong Toey's first free outreach health clinic for the poor.

1981 – Our housing program commences. Hundreds of landless families begin moving into self-built homes co-financed and co-constructed by HDF for the indigent and elderly and those forcibly evicted. 

1982 – Father Joe establishes prison visitation program for the Archdiocese of Bangkok and begins 27-year tenure as Prison Chaplain at Bang Kwang Maximum Security and Klong Prem Lat Yao Federal Prisons for men and women. 

1982-1989 – Our housing program continues to expand. Mercy preschools are operating in over 20 slum communities. We keep an open-door policy in our shelters for abandoned slum and street children. Following devastating slum fires, The HDF-Mercy Centre rebuilds entire squatter neighborhoods. We continue organizing slum communities, begin credit unions and women’s groups, working together with community organizations and government.

1985 – Father Joe received the Most Noble Order of the Crown of Thailand, Fifth Class.

1989 – The National Housing Authority of Thailand recognized HDF housing as a provider of model homes for low-income communities throughout Thailand—a series of designs that are still followed throughout the provinces today.

1990-1994 - As AIDS enters Bangkok’s slum communities, we pioneer AIDS awareness and education in a door-to-door two-year campaign to talk about AIDS and the dire needs of children and adults afflicted.

1994

– We open Bangkok’s first free AIDS hospice. Fr. Joe becomes Founding Member of Asian Coalition for Housing Rights.

– Father Joe received the Justice & Peace Award from the Redemptorist Order in Denver.

1995 – We help found the Thai Confederation of Street Children.

1997

– Our Klong Toey Women's Group and Savings and Loan opens, providing low interest loans and empowering poor women through financial security.

– Father Joe received the ESCAP HRD Award as the best NGO among 41 Asian nations, based on the quality and sustainability of HDF programs and their positive impact on the community.

– Father Joe received the Shining Diamonds of Bangkok Award from the Governor of Bangkok for outstanding citizenship.

1998

– The Mercy Preschool System continues expansion: over twenty-five preschools throughout Bangkok.

– The HDF-Mercy Centre opens Thailand’s only Legal Aid Centre dedicated solely to poor children.

– The National Council of Thailand for Child Development presented HDF with a Special Achievement Award.

1999

– We organize the Klong Toey Handicapped Group, uniting the physically handicapped in seeking their rightful benefits and gainful employment.

– Father Joe received the Koman Kim Tong Foundation Award for outstanding citizenship.

2000 - A new home for mothers and children living with HIV/AIDS is opened, with Her Royal Highness Princess Galyani Vadhana-Krom Luang Naradhiwas Rajanagarindra presiding at the opening ceremony.

2001 – HDF-Mercy Centre Homes and Shelters are rebuilt and expanded, with former Prime Minister, His Excellency Khun Anand Panyarachun,UNICEF Representative to Thailand, presiding at the ceremony.

2004

– HDF-Mercy Centre opens the Janusz Korczak School for Street Children, providing basic literacy and trade skills for children who have no other place to go to school.

– In response to the devastation of the massive tsunami, The HDF-Mercy Centre initiates emergency relief and housing projects; and transfers its slum-community organization skills to the Thai southern provinces affected. Working together with 20 villages, by the end of 2005, The HDF with community carpenters co-built and renovated over 500 homes damaged or destroyed; provided long-term education assistance to 500 students; manufactured and installed over 3,000 industrial-size water jars for individual homes; repaired and replaced fifty village wells and school water tanks, and installed twelve water purification systems; built over 250 toilet facilities for schools and homes; and created income-generating projects for the destitute. We formed a federation of twelve primary schools along the sea coast, where its teachers selected Mokan (Sea Gypsy) children for education sponsorships who were the poorest of the poor.

– Father Joe received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand for HDF programs in the field of protection of mothers and children. He was recognized as the foreign resident who, "over the long-term, has contributed the most to the promotion of the status and protection of women and children in Thailand."

– Father Joe received the Outstanding Citizenship for Social Work and Community Development in the field of HIV/AIDS award from the Red Cross AIDS Research Centre, presented by Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsavali Phravorarajatinuddamatu."

2005 – In response to the devastation of the massive tsunami, The HDF-Mercy Centre initiates emergency relief and housing projects; and transfers its slum-community organization skills to the Thai southern provinces affected. Working together with 20 villages, by the end of 2005, The HDF with community carpenters co-built and renovated over 500 homes damaged or destroyed; provided long-term education assistance to 500 students; manufactured and installed over 3,000 industrial-size water jars for individual homes; repaired and replaced fifty village wells and school water tanks, and installed twelve water purification systems; built over 250 toilet facilities for schools and homes; and created income-generating projects for the destitute. We formed a federation of twelve primary schools along the sea coast, where its teachers selected Mokan (Sea Gypsy) children for education sponsorships who were the poorest of the poor. 

2007

– HIV/AIDS Homecare Program expands to reach over 450 patients throughout Bangkok.

– We rebuild two poor neighborhoods - over 100 homes - after devastating slum fires. In other neighborhoods, 30 homes for the elderly poor are renovated. By 2007, The HDF has built and renovated over 10,000 homes for the poor.

– The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority awards three Mercy Preschools with certificates of excellence as exemplary schools for poor children.
 

2008 - Mercy boys, ages 9-13, move to a farmhouse in a patch of countryside just 30 minutes from Mercy Centre. Our boys grow their own rice, fruit, and vegetables; catch their own fish for dinner; and gain skills and self-esteem while improving their performance in school.

2008-2009 - In a joint signing ceremony between parents, community leaders, and slum kindergarten school representatives, the HDF-Mercy Centre formally entrusts eleven former Mercy preschools to the care and management of their own slum communities. These communities are now able to oversee their children's preschool education and preparation for entry into primary school. The hand-over demonstrates the power of a preschool to transform and strengthen poor communities.
 

2009 - Father Joe was named Child Protection Ambassador to Thailand 2009 in an award ceremony at the Thai Parliament House, presented by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. He was the first foreign resident to receive this honorary title.

2012

- The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Thailand honored Father Joe at its annual awards ceremony. The award recognized national heroes who have the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of those who cannot fight for themselves.

- Our HIV/AIDS teams begin teaching and mentoring HIV/AIDS NGOs and government organizations, holding workshops throughout Thailand, Burma, and Laos.

2016 - Expansion of construction camp schools for the children living in construction worker camps, primarily the children of migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar who have no documentation and cannot attend public schools.