Help Keep Families Together

As part of our Keeping Families Together (KFT) program, we make home visits following each training to ensure our families are implementing what they learned. During our home visits with one mother of five children, we quickly learned how difficult life has been for her; but also, how resilient she has become!

Muay has a daughter with her first husband, whom she is separated from. She married her second husband, who works as a daily-wage truck driver with an unstable income of 350-500 baht per day (between USD 2-3 per person per day). In 2020, according to the World Bank, the average poverty line in Thailand was 2,762 Baht per person per month. Muay’s family is living below the poverty line.

Muay and her second husband have a total of 5 children. The eldest child is a 19-year-old male named Phairoj, who has had a congenital heart defect since birth that cannot be cured. He completed his education up to the 9th grade but is unable to continue studying due to his weak and frail body.

The second child is a 17-year-old girl named Fern, who is currently in her first year of vocational school (Prathom Chum). During her free time, Fern helps take care of her younger siblings while maintaining her academic studies.

The third child is a 5-year-old girl named Kaofang, who is currently studying in Kindergarten 3.

The fourth and fifth children are twins named Faiya and Mayu. They are now 2 and a half years old and attending preschool.

When we decided to assist Muay’s family through the KFT project, we provided immediate, urgent assistance to cover water and electricity bills, dry food support, and powdered milk for their youngest children. On some days, Muay would call our hotline and inform us that there was no rice or food available. In response, we allocated a budget to purchase rice, essential dry food items, eggs, canned fish, and instant noodles for her family.

When Muay started taking her fourth and fifth children to preschool, we provided necessary learning materials for the both of them. We’ve also supported Fern’s education who is studying at the vocational level (Prathom Chum).

Before joining the KFT project, Muay did not have a job and worked as a housewife, taking care of her children. She wanted to work to help support the needs of her family and wasn’t sure what she could do and still care for her family.  We spent time together to brainstorm and explore her interests and talents, aiming to help her establish her own livelihood in the future. Muay chose to pursue a career in beauty enhancement, specifically studying hairstyling.

Currently, Muay is studying hairstyling and hair drying techniques, and she plans to learn nail art as well. In order to support her in her studies, we’ve allocated a budget to purchase basic equipment, such as a professional hair dryer that is suitable for hairstylists, and a training mannequin for practicing hairstyling at home. We’ve also discussed future plans to purchase nail art equipment.  Muay has expressed her joy and gratitude to the KFT project for helping to support her family.

Muay also shared that she’s never had any social connections that support and encourage her family.  She loves the monthly KFT meetings with other families to learn from each other and support each other. She is determined to study and practice what she learns in order to pursue a career and contribute income to increase support her family in the future. She is deeply grateful that the program has given her this opportunity. We look forward to coaching her over the next year to see her small business bloom.

Three years ago at the beginning of the Covid-19 outbreak, Sutasnee’s (Su) husband caught Covid-19 and after just 5 days of being infected, suddenly passed away. Su shared with us, “After my husband’s passing, I had a lot of anxiety since I then had to figure out how to raise my 2-year-old son, August, on my own. It was especially stressful since my husband was the sole provider for our family while I stayed home to raise August.” When we first met Su, she was selling sushi in front of the local school. In order to start her sushi business, she needed money so she went to a loan shark which she is now still trying to pay back. Thankfully, we see that Su is a very determined woman. From day one when she first joined our program, she has been diligent not only in attending our trainings, but we see her trying hard to implement the things that she has learned into her daily life. During one of our home visits Su even told us, “I want August to receive a good education. When August arrives back home from school, I help him with his homework every day to make sure that he completes it before I allow him to go outside and play with his friends.” In February, we began working with each family in our program to decide how best to invest in their current business or help them find a new career. Su was passionate about selling sushi so we bought her a large industrial size umbrella so that she would be protected from the sun while selling her sushi in the middle of the hot Bangkok days. We also were able to provide her with many of the ingredients that she needed to make her different types of sushi along with take-away boxes. Su is very happy to receive support from the project. Earlier this month, Su told us that she is now earning a profit of about $12 per day, which is more than what she was making before she joined our program. Thankfully, that has been sufficient to cover food costs and to send August to school. She is still working on paying off her debt, but we are encouraged to see how she is trying to budget each month as she works toward becoming debt-free. “I am grateful that I have been able to learn new things through the KFT program. My son has especially enjoyed the activities that we’ve done for the fun days. Thank you KFT for these special days that I get to spend time together with my son. I’m so thankful that my family was chosen to join the KFT program.”