Education & Health for 2,500 in Bangkok Slum

CWEFT Ministry update from October – December 2021.

CONCORDIA DAY CARE AND COMMUNITY CENTER

We thank God that the pandemic situation in Thailand is improving. Since mid-April, the number of new infections continues to decline, with an average of 3,000 daily cases currently. We still need to watch and be careful, as the government can change policy by the day, with various restrictions. Thankfully, many businesses and including our school, the CDCC center in Bang Na, Bangkok have been able to reopen, which enables us to welcome children again for the first time in 7 months. Every day we serve about 21-25 children, which allows parents to apply for jobs or go to work so they can take care of their families. Children are given the opportunity to learn, prepare for elementary school, improve their nutrition, and care for their hearts and souls.

In addition to the daycare center opening, we continue to work with the Community Health Center, to be a center for ATK Covid-19 rapid tests, to help community residents who need negative test results to apply for jobs, as well as for children and their parents who need to test to go back to school. We thank God that we have been able to serve and help 147 people in this way, so they don’t have to pay the 750 baht per person (about $25) they aren’t able to afford. Of those test results, all 147 people were Covid free and were able to go back to work and school.

Thank you so much for your prayers and gifts, which made the playground development project possible! We were able to pour new cement, lay down turf over it to create softness, and purchase new playground equipment to replace the old playground that CDCC had used for more than 34 years. We also want to thank NIST International School who saw the need, and helped us to start fundraising, as well as all the individual donors who helped support the project and raise awareness. The project has now been 70% funded! We still need additional funds to raise for a sunshade and garden area. The remaining total needed is about $4,000 USD, or 132,000 Baht to complete the project. This project has already been a blessing to the children, who love to come out and play, enjoy the outdoors, and have a great time with friends.

With your support, and because of less restrictions, CDCC was able to gain permission to arrange Christmas outreach events, at 50 people per event from December 17 to 18, 2021. Thus, we arranged for 3 separate groups of children and their parents to come celebrate and praise God for the newborn baby Jesus our Savior. We started with small children from the daycare on Friday, the 17^th. Then, on Saturday morning, we celebrated with grades K1 – Grade 4, and finally on Saturday afternoon, Grade 5 – 9. Following the parties, the older children went into the Bang Na slum community for caroling, sharing the Good News, and praying over and blessing 40 elderly residents who are disabled with no family to care for them, with hygiene and other necessary supplies. Thank you to all partners and individual donors for supporting the Christmas outreach party, which allowed 111 children, 72 parents, and 109 elderly people in 4 communities struggling with 7 months of lockdown, to come enjoy and celebrate in joy, the true meaning of Christmas.

 Through the service we heard many stories from the children of parents out of a job, as they are from poor area, ethnic minorities without citizen ID cards and unable to receive the vaccine, which means they cannot travel and haven’t seen their family in almost 2 years. They said they are thankful to have the hostel so they can stay safe, no one has contracted Covid-19, and they are able to continue going to school and have good food to eat.

Testimonials

Guide, who lives with his mother, sister, and grandmother in Bang Na, was affected by the Covid-19 situation when his grandmother picked up the virus at her work. Due to hospital numbers, she was sent out of province to be looked after at another hospital, and Guide’s whole family had to quarantine. Guide is one of our Saturday students. When his school was closed, students were moved to online learning. His sister helped him to turn his work in, and when Concordia Daycare Center heard about their situation, we delivered school supplies, rice and food supplies, fresh food boxes, milk, and snacks to their family throughout their quarantine. Guide and his family, including his grandmother who was unable to work, were taken care of until their quarantine was finished. “Thank you so much for helping me and my family!”

 A big thank you to all donors  for donated funds to provide help and hope with CWEFT.