Wow, it's pretty crazy here! There are about 500 children between the ages of about 4 and 16, and only 5 full time adults helped by about 30 volunteers currently. We wake up each morning at about 5AM to the sound of hundreds of children's voices praising the Lord in song just outside our room. If that doesn't wake you up, then the cement mixer might as the children go about their morning duties. It is a beautiful and chaotic place, full of smiles and hugs and love.
A little background on the Children of the Golden Triangle (www.childrengoldentriangle.org): The center in it's current location was started about 6 years ago by an Australian, David Stevenson, and his wife, Asa, who is from the Akha hilltribe (and one of the very, very few educated Akha in her generation). They started the center to give children from the Akha tribe, who are either orphaned or who's parents cannot afford to provide for them, a place where they can get proper living facilities, food, education (in English and Thai), and a chance to bring themselves and their tribe out of utter poverty. An average Akha family will bring in about 50 cents per week in income, they are subsistence farmers so they don't starve, but are very poor. Oh and they are stateless. They don't belong to any country so they don't have any of the rights that you or I have with citizenship. Because of these factors, the Akha people are frequently abused by druglords and pimps who will buy the children into slavery for a few thousand baht.
The center has grown a lot since then, with nearly 500 children living here and hundreds of volunteers coming in from churches and Rotary Clubs around the world to help construct more buildings and to teach the kids English. The center also teaches the kids about Jesus and they are all Christians. More info to come tomorrow, they are closing the office for now. Basically the men work on construction for 8 hours a day and the women are teaching the kids English. It has been wonderful and we are all loving working with these beautiful children!
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