For 3 years, COVID had a massive impact on Thailand. We reached out to those who struggled most. With your help, we helped thousands of people in need. And we want to thank you for that.
All travel restrictions have been lifted in and to Thailand. Schools are open, people are meeting and eating outdoors again and big gatherings are allowed to take place again. In other words: at least for now, the COVID-crisis in Thailand seems over. And thus, it is time that we close this project.
In this final report, we would like to share some photos with you. Photos of families who received help. We have handed out thousands of food boxes, to ensure no one went hungry. We were only able to do so, because you decided to reach out to someone in need. This will not be forgotten. Thank you very much for your donations!
So what is next for our foundation Siam-Care? We will go back to what we never stopped doing and did long before COVID: making a difference for people in need. We support the education of hunderds of children. To learn more about our work, please see our other projects on GlobalGiving, this website.
Thailand has fully reopened for tourists. Borders are open, and there are zero entrance requirements. Meaning that the economy is slowly being boosted again. Hotels are reopening and businesses are getting more work to do. Hopefully, this will lead to more jobs, which our families can hopefully benefit from.
During the COVID-pandemic, many of the people in our program lost their jobs. Especially in the south of Thailand, many people rely on tourism and work in the tourist industry. Mainly as cleaners in hotels. Those jobs all suddenly dissapeared, but are now slowly coming back. Hopefully in the coming months, we will see people find work again.
Thank you for supporting these people while they were out of work. Many of them struggled hard to survive, and with your support, we were able to ensure no one went hungry.
As you may have noticed, Thailand has pretty much fully reopened. Tourists can enter the country without having to do any testing or quarantine. This will hopefully lead to more jobs and more income for the poor Thais. Many of them have been without work for 2 years.
We have an office in Phang Nga province, a province much relying on tourism. The families we work with in that region, have been without work since the start of the pandemic. Tourists stayed away, hotels and restaurants all closed down, and thus there was no work. This region was one of the hardest hit. Now that tourists slowly start to return, we are hoping to see an effect of that on the number of jobs available.
Many of the families in our program are uneducated, making it difficult to find a job. They mainly work are cleaners in hotels, or in little restaurants, serving local food to hotel staff. The last 2 years have been extremely challenging for our families and they were all struggling to make ends meet. We have been making sure that no one went hungry, by providing food, clothes and other basic necessities. With your support, this was made possible. Thank you for that!
It will take a few more months (or years) before numbers of tourists will start increasing and more jobs will be created. Until then, we will keep on looking after the most vulnerable.
COVID is still affecting many lives in Thailand. Many people are still without work, although the situation slowly seems to be improving. The country's borders are slowly opening up and hopefully more jobs will be created.
In the meanwhile, the families we look after, are still struggling to survive. Most of them wor as day laborers. Which means they get paid only on the days they work. And thus no work, means no income righ away. They seriously struggle and thus we keep on handing out support boxes. They consist food, such as rice, oil and other basic necessities. Thank you for making this possible with your support! Let's hope that this crisis is behind us as soon as possible!
Here are some photo's of families receiving support
As you probably haven't missed: Corona is still going strong, and with this new mutation, it is not clear when we will be out of the woods. Thankfully the rules have been eased somewhat, here in Thailand. This leads to more tourists entering into the country and hopefully more jobs in the future. But at the moment, our families don't see the results of this yet and still struggle hard to survive.
Our staff in both Mukdahan, Phang Nga and Bangkok have continued to look out for those in need. We have been doing this for almost 3 decades, but with this world-wide crisis, more people struggle. As you can see in the pictures, we continue to hand out food and other basic neccesities. We never hand out money, as we can't be sure how it is being spend. And thus we always donate items and give practicial support.
We would like to thank you for being part of this. It is sad to see how many people are unemployed and really struggling to make ends meet. But we are thankful for your support, which helps us ensure, that no one goes hungry. We hope you will keep on standing with us, as we very much need all the support that we can get! There is light at the end of the tunnel, but it's still a long drive!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
