EMPOWERING THE POOR WITH EDUCATION AND SKILLS

There seems to be no end to the closing down of more businesses in Pattaya, Thailand which was once a famous tourist town but is now a ghost town! The number of unemployed people grows daily and the opportunities to find work are becoming harder. Families are so desperate that Thailand has now reached the highest number of suicides per capita in Southeast Asia. This dramatic rise is due to the hopelessness people feel with no means to feed their families and they have lost hope for a future.

The Hand to Hand Foundation is employing 22 people in its micro-enterprise projects. Ten people are engaged in making fabric face masks after receiving training and all the materials they need. Workers are paid per mask they complete and these are then given to the poor for free. For the last month, our workers have been making plain masks which have been given to Thai students who are about to return to school. The students have had the opportunity to decorate their own masks to personalise them. (In Thailand mask wearing is still compulsory in some situations.)

We have 6 people in our construction program. These men are building everything from planter pots, stools and over the past month, have been building a chicken pen. These men are mainly construction workers who have no employment.

We have 4 women and 2 men involved in our cooking program. The participants are being trained to cook so that when the economy recovers they will have new skills to reenter the workforce. They are being taught to make both western and Thai dishes. The food they cook is used to feed over 200 people several times per week and also their own families. 

In addition to this, there is a small agricultural project where participants are taught to grow food. All the training and resources are provided freely by Hand to Hand and the gardeners sell their produce at the market or to the foundation to provide an income for their families. 

Training, equipping and giving a bringing hope to a hopeless situation.

Links:

• Hand to Hand Foundation

Pattaya Thailand has just experienced another 3 weeks of lockdown due to covid outbreaks which have resulted in more loss of income and a lot of desperation for the basics of food and housing. Unfortunately, this has also led to an increased amount of suicide and crime as people feel there is no hope and no way out. Giving out emergency food care packages certainly helps in the short term, but meaningful long-term assistance requires finding employment to build self-worth.

As we are cooking over 300 meals per week, we are employing uneducated and jobless people to assist us with the task of preparing and packaging food. We provide training which can also be used in a post covid world too. Our trainees transform from people without hope, to people full of self-esteem knowing they are not only helping themselves but others too.

Pre covid an elderly man sold ice creams from his cart to feed and educate his 4 grandchildren and also provide for his disabled wife. The mood for buying ice cream is non-existant and although he desired to work, he was unable to provide for his family. Our solution was to invite him to our centre 2 times per week to give ice cream for free to the 100's of people who come to receive food. Upon completion Hand to Hand pays him for the ice creams he gave out. Happy faces and tummies and a man who can now provide for his family. 

Finally as a part of our food growing project we needed stands to place our planter pots into. These were very expensive so we have been employing 3 jobless builders to make them using scrapwood lying about our place. We have tailor-made stands and they have an income.

Every day wear looking at new situations and creating new employment opportunities!