Father Ray Children's Village 2010

The Group!

OBJECTIVES

During the conference we had two service days so that all the delegates were provided with the opportunity to help and work with our local communities. I was allocated to the Father Ray Children’s Village service project. My aims for this activity were to work collaboratively with others to provide these children with nicely painted walls for their soon to be playground. Also, to learn more about the children who are there and brighten their day by playing with them.

WHAT I DID

When we got there most of the designs were already drawn on and our job was to paint them with colour. Not only were delegates on this service project but some children from one of our local Thai partners came along as well. One of the kids helped me work on my section of the wall and even though I don’t speak much Thai it was really nice painting with him and just laughing with him at silly things we could both understand.

WHAT I EXPERIENCED

While we were having a break I walked around the village and all of a sudden a little girl ran out of one of the houses and gave me a hug and wanted to play. I was so touched by the fact that the children who are staying there are so open and friendly to people they have never met before when I minutes before I had learnt that some of these children had been abused. The second day I went back the same thing happened again as a young boy invited me into his house to watch TV. I will never forget how sweet he was and how he cuddled up to me moments after we had met. It felt amazing to know that I was making these childrens’ lives better.

The Litte Girl from the Village :)

CHALLENGES

The biggest challenge I encountered was crossing language barriers but having previously encountered this issue I was confident in my ability to overcome it. When talking to the children at the village as well as with the children accompanying us on the project I used hand signals and made use of the little I knew. Apart from this I also asked help from people who speak fluent Thai when there was something I really couldn’t communicate on my own.

WHAT I LEARNT

I feel that I have reached my objectives because I worked well with both the delegates and the children and the walls look really nice. I learnt a lot about the children, where they come from and their stories and just by playing with them for a few minutes I felt that I was able to make a difference.

YouTube Video on Father Ray Children's Village: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyucO9R5RGE