By the Rev David Clark
Jakarin Chaowattananon was one of the first live-in students in the Pakpingjai Home Development Project in Thailand’s poor rural north.
Typical of students assisted by Pakpingjai, Jakarin is from an isolated hilltribe village, with no access to secondary education beyond Year 9. The sub-sistence-farming villagers’ children remained trapped in poverty.
Pakpingjai assists over 200 children and youth from poor Thai and isolated hilltribe families with school uniforms and supplies. Attending the local primary and secondary schools, those living nearby remain at home. Those from farther away, first only boys but now also girls, live in Pakpingjai.
From four students in 1999, Pakpingjai (the Thai word means “home for the heart”) now accommodates 70 young people, aged between five and 18. It’s a safe and nurturing community where they develop social skills and lasting friendships.
For some, orphaned by AIDS or removed from abusive families, Pakpingjai is the only home they know. They all learn self-sufficiency and agricultural skills, their formal education is supplemented with other classes, they receive Christian education, some learn music through the band and singing, and, for all, games and sports keep them active.
Without Pakpingjai, many would not begin, let alone complete, secondary schooling and certainly not higher education. Better-educated young people obtaining higher-paying jobs can support parents and younger siblings.
Easing poor families’ financial burdens enables their greater self-sufficiency. And, importantly, it helps stem the flow of young women into the Bangkok sex industry in order to support their families.
In 1999, Jakarin was in Year 10. The first Pakpingjai student to reach Year 13 and qualify for university, St Luke’s covered his fees and accommodation for a four-year computing for business degree. He now financially assists his family, who live in a village that still lacks running water and mains electricity.
St Luke’s became involved at the project’s beginning in 1998 through my connection with the founder, Samarn Marksuk, at a 1996 Christian Conference of Asia gathering. St Luke’s gives support from our annual outreach budget, youth group fundraising, and gifts some of my time.
St Luke’s youth fundraising bought and fenced land for rice fields, vegetable gardens, a fish farm, banana plantation and “the SLY Sty”– pig pens where piglets are regularly born and sold cheaply to families, encouraging self-sufficiency. Currently, St Luke’s Youth pays three university students’ fees.
Three groups from St Luke’s have visited Pakpingjai since 2004. In 2006 we cunningly took the Rev Stan Stewart from St Heliers. He was hooked!
St Heliers are now also keen Pakpingjai supporters, raising funds to build and equip a hostel for girls, complete with new kitchen and dining area for all the students. They have committed to ongoing support of the hostel girls.
Like St Lukes, two St Heliers groups have visited Pakpingjai. Games with and working alongside PPJ youth in the vegetable and rice fields, sharing with them in worship, and participation in high school English classes, gives privileged Kiwis a taste of another way of life.
During St Luke’s visits, our youth each spend a night with a Thai family. One comment sums it up – “I didn’t know that people could have so little, and be so happy!”
Pakpingjai is a Christian project. I baptised by immersion Jakarin, and 16 other students, just before his 2006 graduation, and five more this past January. St Heliers’ the Rev Pauline Stewart has also baptised students.
I think of Jakarin’s journey from August 1999. His father was the village headman, whose role included communing with the spirits in a clearing in the jungle. In 1999 I tried, but wasn’t allowed, to go into that clearing. In 2006, Jakarin himself took us there. It could have been any jungle clearing.
From spirits to the Spirit; from subsistence farming to computers in business – it is a privilege to be part of such journeys.
St Luke’s and St Heliers invite other churches to share the privilege and support Pakpingjai through the Global Mission Office. But only for the long haul. There is much need, and many opportunities to make a difference through ongoing commitment – this is our 11th year, and St Heliers’ fourth.
Why not join us in developing the work of this “home for the heart”.
Anybody who would like to know more or join the programme can contact the GMO