Why did you decide to start the Charis Project?

When you start talking about taking care of a bunch of kids, long term, there are a number of specific problems that arise. How are you going to make sure that there is enough money to help take care of these kids from one month to the next? How will we make sure that they are well taken care of where they are? Between that and all of the needs in the villages themselves that need to be addressed in a long term, well considered way, it seemed that the best plan was to start our own non-profit organization, both to make fundraising easier and to build an infrastructure that would support long term child sponsorship, which really is the best solution at present.

Me: Do you have any idea how many children you have helped so far or that you propose to affect this year?

There are 2 levels of impact this year. First, that of the children in the orphanages that we are in close interaction with. The other level of impact is through the training for the village workers, which, with with our current network disseminates to about 20 villages, which affects approximately 2000 children with improved social situations through education. We plan to be doing that by August which is when we plan to get there.

We have been able to get almost 40 kids Thai immigration papers so far, which is nigh unto impossible, and not likely to happen again. Even though some of those kids have papers now though they have no where to live because the home they were staying at has been in crisis since mid October. At that time, the man who is taking care of these kids, his name is Chala, lost all the help he had. His parents in law had been living with him and his wife, as is customary for their culture. His wife’s parents, particularly his mother in law, were tired of helping him take care of the kids for free, and wanted him to pay them. He couldn’t afford to do that so they annulled the marriage, something they have the power to do in a tribal marriage that isn’t legally binding. They left him alone taking care of 40 children, which is where the real crisis began because he was no longer able to work and earn anything, he had the full child care load. His mother in law already arranged for his wife to be remarried and he is in agony over his daughter living with a step father. She isn’t even going to school, they have her selling flowers, which in Thailand is one step away from prostitution. The kids in his care are the first priority. Once they are all sponsored, and all of them are back with him, we move on to the next home and so on. The potential for how many children we could help this year is only limited to how many people are willing to be sponsors.