Operations-Report

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The following are some of the observations to date...these change often as more information and more details comes to me, but an initial assesment follows:

Volunteer Program
Dorm Space, Program, English Curriculum

I spoke to Rotjana the other day by telephone. She is expected to be back in a few weeks time and it can’t happen soon enough. There is going to be a change over in the volunteers from Singapore with Kat going home and a new girl coming in her place in the next week. The new volunteer will be here for one month as well, then another changeover.

The Sing volunteers are supposed to be teaching English but the staff that are here are making it all but impossible for them to do anything. They are dissuading the time set aside for the teaching and only offering a 15 minute period after 8pm for the little ones to learn. The older kids, most of who have a school base in English form already need conversational English, but are not allowed to participate.

The focus on the English need not be a structured program. I don’t think in addition to a full school day the children require even more study. This is their home after all, not an educational institution. But the idea that bothers me is that there is an agreement in place with the Buddhist Fellowship in Singapore which is sending volunteers to teach English.

The organization is going to expect some sort of positive response in exchange for financially backing a few of the orphans as well as sending volunteers at their expense. I worry that the orphanage is setting itself up.

Things were sort of held in check when Dr. Ton and Khun John were around, but I have seen nothing of them at all since getting here. I don’t expect that this place needs a supervisor, it IS Thailand and I AM a foreign visitor, but I also know of Rotjana’s plan and her reliance on international sponsorship. There needs to be transparency and feedback to the sponsors.

So far, all I have seen of that is the scattered track record of sponsor involvement and a few unhappy volunteers who feel left by the wayside when their impressions were to actually make a difference, or, at the very least, have a busy involved schedule. This is not happening. Kat, who is the volunteer here currently, is the second to come from the fellowship. The previous two were here together, Perry and another. I don’t know of their feedback on the events, but I am aware that Rotjana was here during their stay. From the reports I have things were much better organized and the volunteers busy and accepted.

Staff Training
I am hoping to encourage the idea of staff training with Rotjana. The following could be beneficial here and would raise the standard of care now that there are 44 children.
Early Childhood
Reception/English language
First Aid
Someone to run an International Sponsorship program

New Foundation
Sponsorship Issues/Program
Primarily organization is the biggest issue. I know that some of the issues are continual, but things are changing here and not for the better. The orphanage is still operating but with no apparent direction or plan for the future.

From what I can figure, there is no plan for the older kids once they reach adulthood; there is no training for the staff that has occurred besides Thet who isn’t even regular staff here.

With Rotjana’s apparent plans to dislocate the orphanage from the Foundation and create her own independent foundation to operate the orphanage, and with the sponsorship issues happening, I am really concerned about what’s going to happen in the future.

There has been a hush hush attitude about the change in governance of this place. I would suppose primarily based on the lack of onsite leadership.


Medical First Aid
Another issue I am seeing regularly and others have in the past is the adequacy of daily medical care. The first aid station they have here is incredibly inadequate. They misplace medicines and have no clear awareness of any first aid beyond cleaning a wound with iodine, placing a bandage, and giving insane amounts of antibiotics. It is going to be one of my missions to make sure they are properly outfitted with first aid items in a locked glass case labeled and stored away. Currently they have a messy shelf in the small fridge that is shared with juice and old treats and a wall shelf that is overflowing with odds and ends and left over medicines from volunteers from all over the world. Half of it expired or unrecognizable.

Yesterday, little Nen scratched a bad rash she has on her elbows bleeding raw. She was bawling from the fear and reaction of the older kids. One of the staff cleaned her bloody arm and settled her down. I took her into my lap and sat with her for an hour or more while the staff tried to locate the prescription cream that she was supposed to be using daily for a month, but was expired and nearly full.

I checked her over (thank you paramedic training!) and quickly located further spots on her body that were badly infected. Her other elbow is covered in a large grayish scab about a loonie size across and filled with pus, her tongue is covered in thrush and her lower tummy has patches of the same scaly scabbing. The medicine she has, a topical ointment, is for a bacterial infection, but if I’m not wrong she is suffering from a full body infection of Candida that has turned into a bacterial skin infection.

We ended up just bandaging her up and I lent them my bactroban ointment for the night. The next day they took Nen to the Takua Pa clinic and refilled her prescription and gave her a full body medicinal bath. (Now THAT was interesting!)

Children’s Education/Health and Welfare
So in the past few days, I’ve noticed the boys keep disappearing…the older ones at least. The volunteer from Singapore is staying in Champ’s room out of necessity of space, so he is sleeping in the hall. This makes it easier for the boys to be “away” or out at lights out. Some of them aren’t coming home until really late hours. It’s a concern because the staff that overnights tends to bed down only a couple hours after the kids go to bed.

I have no idea where the older boys are going, but no one else seems to be aware they are out and the boys tend to be a bit sneaky after dark.

If I could recommend what staff training needs to be done initially, it would include a first aid trained person. Other training should include personnel such as:
Office secretary
International communications person
Marketing/sponsorship person

One of the good things that I am seeing happening is the tutoring of the younger kids by the olders. They break away after dinner or earlier on a Friday and set up in varying places around the orphanage to work on reading, numbers, alphabet or some other necessary item.

This seems to be working well and I am happy to see that the schooling at least is under good control…now if they would only let someone develop an English plan that would accommodate revolving volunteers……

Children’s Future
Two sponsors visited today (22/09/07). It was their first time here at the orphanage. The were from Brighton, England.

They raised a number of questions and well illustrated the issues the orphanage is having or going to have with the sponsors.

Initially, they were greeted and then I was asked quickly to take them into my care for the duration of their visit. While this is fine and a most welcome job for me, it begs the question of what is going to happen when I (or any English speaking volunteer) is not here? No one outside of Rotjana speaks English and hers is limited.

Often volunteers are locating the orphanage by the address on a card or brochure put out by Duang Prateep Foundation; sometimes we are aware of their impending visit before hand, but certainly not always.

The next point that was raised was sponsorship funding. Obviously there are too many “cost schedules” out there by the varying agencies that are working with sponsors or managing them to have a clear picture of what amounts are needed and where the funds go.

The sponsor who visited (Scott) told me the amount he was paying monthly and what he expected or understood that amount was covering. From other sponsors I have different numbers.

Don’t misunderstand, I am not suggesting impropriety, but rather there needs to be a regulated schedule with the accurate amounts of the children’s necessity, the items required, the fees paid or the costs etc. This needs to be part of a package of materials that EVERY sponsor receives from the orphanage. It is a clear and concise way to disseminate the information…and…it allows for accurate recording and changes that may need to be made as children progress from primary in high schools for example.

The most important question that Scott raised was the one that most concerns me as well. What is going to happen to these kids once they reach adulthood? What is the next step for them, where will they go, what will they do?

Some may be able to work at something and help support what living family they still have, others will inevitably find some basic wage employment to sustain them, however, how do we guide them past childhood? There are currently 42 children here, half of them are over the age of 10 years, a quarter reaching adulthood or there already.

From my understanding Rotjana has “hired” two of the oldest children as staff now. This maintains their “home” and offers them a wage, but the orphanage cannot hire all of its children as they grow.

One idea was to pose it to the sponsorship community for trades or vocational training costs, but that is an enormous program to develop. As the population of the orphanage grows…and it will, the program must grow as well. It would require space, time and trained staff etc.

More to come…

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