I just returned to Nang Rong yesterday from Bangkok where for a week I was in a number of meetings. Anita is here in Thailand and set up meetings with foundation staff for future social work issues, budgeting and government regulation compliance.
I spoke of Anita in a previous post (29 July 09), so you may be wondering how she is doing. After a week of meetings, some of them pushing eight hours, I’d have to say she is much better. At least her endurance in long meetings exceeds mine. There was a lot to talk about as we projected our plans and budgeting out through the next year.
Pon, our acting director, came in for a day of budget and management discussions. Included in this was planning for the first child home, whose construction we hope to start very soon. There are also various details related to the first few houses, such as a water supply, running electricity in, etc.
The longest meeting was with Walai, our new director of social work. Walai came to us just a few months ago after getting her master’s in social work from Baylor University in Texas. Not that she is a green recruit just out of school. In her previous life she worked nearly fifteen years with several NGO’s in Thailand, including working with relief projects after the tsunami hit two years ago. She is still involved in a bit of that work.
There was a lot to go over both in the issues with our current girls, new ones to come and how our families should run. A lot of this was interesting stuff. I’ve been after Walai to get some of this information into the blog and website, since her English is very good. Hopefully she will be able to squeeze in some time soon.
Why did we have these foundation staff meetings in Bangkok instead of Nang Rong? Anita had other business to attend to there, but the main reason was the additional meetings we had with other organizations. These days you cannot just come to Thailand, say you’re a nice person with a big heart, and start taking care of children. There have been a few problems in the past with some that did this, in rare cases even abuse has occurred. In the last few years the Thai government has revamped the laws and qualifications for working with children in ways that are similar to the laws in the U.S. Progress has been fast, which is good, but which also can lead to a little confusion at times as to just what exactly are the requirements in a particular area. The people and organizations that know the most about these things are in Bangkok.
