About the Human Development Foundation
How We Help The Human Development Foundation, a non-denominational, community-based organization, began in 1974 with…
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Father Joe’s Articles
The latest articles and letters written by Father Joe, from 50 years of life and work with children and communities in Bangkok.
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Building Stronger Communities: How Local Partnerships Protect Children in Bangkok
Protecting vulnerable children is rarely something a single organisation can do alone. In practice, it depends on a web of relationships across a community: schools, local leaders, families, businesses and charities all playing a part. Looking at how these partnerships work helps explain why community-based approaches tend to succeed where isolated interventions fall short. Why...
Why Charity Transparency Matters and How to Check Before You Give
Deciding where to give is not always straightforward. With so many organisations asking for support, how do you know a charity is actually using your donation the way it says it will? Transparency is one of the clearest signals of a well-run organisation, and it is easier to check for than most donors realise. What...
The Legacy of Father Joe Maier: Five Decades of Service in Bangkok’s Slums
Few individuals have shaped a single community as profoundly, or for as long, as Father Joe Maier has shaped Klong Toey. For more than fifty years, this American Redemptorist priest has lived and worked in one of Bangkok’s largest slum communities, and his story is inseparable from the history of Mercy Centre itself. Arriving in...
When Disaster Strikes: How Communities Recover After Fires and Floods
In densely packed, low-income neighbourhoods, a single fire or flood can undo years of stability in a matter of hours. Understanding what recovery actually requires helps explain why fast, community-based emergency assistance matters so much in places like Bangkok’s slum communities. Why Fires and Floods Hit Hardest Here In communities where homes are built close...
How Charities Keep Children Safe: A Look at Child Protection in Practice
Every charity that works with children should have a child protection policy. Far fewer can explain, in practical terms, what that policy actually looks like day to day. Understanding how safeguarding works in practice can help donors, volunteers and parents judge whether an organisation is genuinely putting children’s safety first. What a Child Protection Policy...
Kindergarten and Poverty: Why Early Education Changes Everything
Of all the interventions that can change a child’s future, few are as powerful, or as underrated, as access to a good kindergarten. For children growing up in poverty, that access is often the difference between falling behind before school even starts, and beginning on a level footing with their peers. The Hidden Cost of...
Inside a Children’s Home: What Residential Care Really Looks Like
When people picture an orphanage, they often imagine something out of an old film: rows of beds, a strict routine, and children waiting for a family that never comes. The reality of a well-run children’s home today looks very different. Why Children Enter Residential Care Children come into residential care for many reasons: the loss...
Volunteering in Thailand: What to Know Before You Help Vulnerable Children
Volunteering with vulnerable children can be one of the most rewarding experiences a person has, but it also carries real responsibility. Before you sign up for a volunteering placement in Thailand, it is worth understanding what responsible volunteering looks like, and why good intentions alone are not always enough. Why Short-Term Contact Can Be a...
How to Sponsor a Child in Thailand and What It Really Means
Child sponsorship is one of the most common ways people choose to support a charity, but it is not always clear what that support actually involves. If you are considering sponsoring a child in Thailand, it helps to understand what happens behind the scenes, and what kind of difference your support can make. What Child...
Life in Klong Toey: What Bangkok’s Largest Slum Community Is Really Like
Ask most visitors to Bangkok about Klong Toey, and they may not know the name at all. Yet it is home to tens of thousands of people, tucked between the city’s busiest port and some of its most expensive real estate. For more than fifty years, Klong Toey has also been home to Mercy Centre,...
About the Human Development Foundation
How We Help The Human Development Foundation, a non-denominational, community-based organization, began in 1974 with the works of Father Joe Maier and Sister Maria Chantavarodom in Klong Toey, Bangkok’s largest slum. Their first project was a one-baht-per-day kindergarten. Within the next two years, they opened Klong Toey’s first outreach health clinic as well as a...
Samlee’s Triumph
“All of your stories are so sad,” a friend said. “Are there any happy stories in the Bangkok slums?” He’s from a nice neighborhood, doesn’t know Klong Toey, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and told him the happiest story I could think of at the moment—about a thirty-one-year-old woman named Samlee....
Fragile Strength for the New Year
Miss Kanok-tip is President and Pioneer/Founder of the Klong Toey Slum Chapter of the Physically Handicapped, that is, the Five Kiosk Workforce. At thirty-eight years of age, she’s tough in some ways but very fragile in others. Never went to school. Lost one leg from bone cancer years ago. Just recently her husband, while working...
Slaughterhouse at War
Miss Teacher Froggy called three times in ten minutes. Her messages had been totally clear and blunt as always, but I didn’t get it. The fourth time she phoned, it sunk in—and boy, did her words hurt: “Fire!” Miss Teacher Froggy said. “There’s a fire next to the school. The drug smokers set the slum...
The Saga of Miss Teacher Froggy
The slum kids in her kindergarten class call her Miss Teacher Froggy—Kru Kee-it—and every year she tries to get them to call her by her proper title and given name, three beautiful syllables in Thai. But the name somehow sticks to the roof of the mouth and kids forget it. Kru is Thai for teacher...
Shootout in the Not-So-OK Corral
Nowadays, when people say they’re from Klong Toey, they get a funny look, like they’ve just stepped on something smelly and tracked it on someone’s nice, clean rug. The fast food chicken and pizza joints won’t deliver here after five o’clock anymore. As for taxi drivers, forget about them. Their policy hasn’t changed for over...