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Published: December 18th 2007
Party night
The boys in the community room the night of one of the two parties we had whilst I was there, they love having visitors stay as they get a party and a treat. On this night they had ice cream and you can see in front of each boya blue packet of biscuits they were each given.In my last blog I’d just arrived in boystown and was rather overawed by the place itself as it was not at all what I expected but then I’m not sure what I had expected. My only experience of a children’s home before coming here was one I used to visit in Long Hanborough occasionally where social workers looked out for the children’s welfare and house keepers ran the home. Ironically, although this one lacks the material comforts and is run with minimal funding and staff I find it has much more of a buzz about it. It is a happy, purposeful environment. What has so impressed me is how the boys look out for themselves and each other. They are remarkable boys and a tribute to Dr Anukul who with gentle discipline and quiet authority directs the organisation and running of the home. In 15 years, he has had to expel only one boy, a football fan who was using the Internet to gamble on the English premier league. When the debt collectors came to collect the debt they and the boy were sent away.
The prospect of keeping 6 teenage boys disciplined and in order seems pretty
Old MacDonnell
Eei eei oh- they found easy but learning the rest of old macdonnell's farm was more of a challenge and quite a laugh. It turns out that Thai animals make different noises. daunting to me but here there are 60 teenage boys and there seem to be few problems. The boys accept the strict daily routine of tasks that start at 5:30 a.m. and finish at 9 p.m. They don’t argue about the work or duck their duties because they all know how lucky they are to be here and that they have been chosen to be in boystown because they are expected to succeed in school and to go to a good job. Being around the boys with their gentle nature and joy in the simple things of life it is easy to forget the troubled backgrounds from which they have come.
Dr Anukul retired from his lecturing post at Khon Kaen University a few years ago and took on the task of director of boystown, it falls to him to select the boys. They are taken in once a year at the start of the academic year, they come at 11 and leave at 18 when they start work or go to college which means about 8 new boys start each year. Many more children than can be accommodated are referred to Anukul by village elders, social workers, teachers
Going to school
Loading into , on top of the school bus. etc and so over the years Anukul has evolved a tough but practical selection criteria
Firstly he selects boys so poor they are unable to go to secondary school. As I understand it, schooling is free in Thailand but the associated costs for secondary schooling such as uniforms (compulsory), shoes, books, pens, lunches and so on all have to be paid for and there is no 'welfare system' or 'hardship funds' here. Also a child in school is not earning money. Here in the North East of Thailand where the main industry is farming (very labour intensive - small fields no mechanization) field workers live at subsistence level, an 11 year old child will be able to earn 80 baht (1.20GBP) a day working in the rice field and that goes a long way in feeding a family.
Anukul gives priority to boys who are orphans or have crippled parents or parents who have gone away to find work in the city. As this doesn’t make much of dent in his list Anukul then chooses the 8 boys who he feels show the greatest potential to succeed in their education such that when they leave they
Undergraduates at Khon Kaen
Dr Anukul with four boystown young men who are currently undergraduates at Khon Kaen University. The boys work to pay for fees and live with Dr Anukul or friends whilst at University. boystown they can get a job with sufficient income to support their extended family. So his second criteria is based on the boys likelihood to succeed at school. This may seem harsh but it makes so much sense as there is little point paying for the upkeep of a boy for 8 years if he just returns to poverty.
Anukul and the trustees run the home on a 1 for 8 basis that is 1 boy from boystown with a trade may be able to raise 8 or more people out of poverty (his extended family, his eventual wife, her family, his children). The boys know that this is what is expected of them. They have ambitions to be policemen, welders, teachers, postal clerks - their ambitions are naturally limited to the jobs of people they have seen in the community and they work darned hard without complaint to achieve their ambition and more.
Anukul is so proud of those boys who have gone onto study at University. It must be just the greatest feeling to attend the graduation ceremony of a young man destined to be a physiotherapist or mathematics Teacher who 15 years earlier
Patipan
Patipan came out to boystown to meet me, has just graduated in Mathematics from Khon Kaen University. The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) at Oxford Brookes University supported him through his education. . arrived at boystown blighted with skin sores and rickets, too nervous to raise his eyes from his grubby sore feet. He is rightly proud of what boystown has achieved for all the boys, many of whom were returning the week after I left for a re-union and to discuss what they could now do to help the boystown that gave them their chance in life
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Ali
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Very uplifting news
Thank you so much for going there. Great to see you with the lad who was sponsored by Oxford Brookes University. I just spoke to Rhia Lay who gave me some lovely Boy Town news today too! All very encouraging.