Joy and Merdy, current caregivers
Joy is a Thai Karen man and he stated the boarding house, which is their self-funded activity. They started after they found that there are many Karen people living in the surrounding area who are living a hard life and not capable of taking care of their own children. Some of them were totally abandoned by the parents as well. Therefore, out of empathy, they offered to take care of their children. The land is an inheritance property from his forefathers and they build their own building to take the children in. Most of the children are visited by their parents and they also brought some food for their children but not regularly. Therefore, they provide the children full meals and transportation to the school with other activities as necessary for them. Although they do not have any regular donor or funder, they sometimes received some donation from some voluntary individuals. Therefore, although it might not be a perfect one, they are trying their best to take care of those children in need. They mentioned that they started to give humanitarian assistance to the Karen people who initially fled the fighting in 1997 and lost their status. Many Karen people used to stay in their compound before but they later moved out one after another after they found their ways to survive or able to make their own choice. Previously there were about 50 children staying with them but gradually some children went back to stay with their parents as they are capable of taking their children back to them.
Merdy mentioned that they did not have their own children and if she saw the children who are living a difficult life she could not ignore and want to give some care as much as possible before their parents are ready to take them back. She therefore asked her husband to provide this kind of assistance towards the children and he agreed to it. They decided to take care of these 6 children when they realized their family situation and they were brought to them by the maternal grandmother since the family members will not be able to take full time care of them.
The children are the only ones who do not have any legal documents staying with them so that they have to closely care for them. However, they just stay and play in the compound which it is not very close to the main street. Joy mentioned that the children can go to school because he guaranteed the school for the children’s welfare and the school master is also his colleague and all of the children from their boarding house go to that school. The school has until pau 6 (grade 6) and they will have to move to another school for the higher grade with the certificate given by current school. However, he is a bit worry for the children about whether they would be able to get into higher grades because they have no documents. They also said that they want child 1 to go back to school but he already lost his interest in education already. At the moment, child 1 assists them in taking care of the youngest child who is still too young to go to school. They will however try to see if child 1 could get any education to get while staying with them for example, some vocational training class. Merdy said that the mother told her that she wanted child 1 to work and earn for additional support to the children but she suggested the mother that the child should not be working at his age. She opined that if the children are staying with the mother, they might not be able to go to school or live a peaceful life since she heard that the mother is staying at her workplace with a new husband.
They mentioned that they will look after the children well as long as they are staying with them and at the moment, the mother is visiting them at least once every two weeks, and their aunt Bae Wah also came regularly and brought food and vegetables for them. Joy said that Bae Wah used to stay with them in the same compound before they got their job and then moved out. Merdy also said that the children are also blood related to her father-in-law (father of Joy) so they willingly took responsibility for them. When asked they said that the father is also allowed to visit the children anytime if he wanted to.