We want all our children to know where they are from – to have a strong sense of place and home outside of Mercy Centre -  and to understand and love their real families.

Mercy kids go home whenever possible. Sometimes our children may join their families for just a weekend, short holiday or school break. Other times, whenever the home life is safe, nurturing, and loving, our children stay home, and we can help from a distance, just when needed.

Over the recent Mothers Day extended weekend, we held a three-day family workshop in Suphanburi Province, which brought together 46 Mercy kids, 14 moms, 2 dads, 16 aunties and grandmoms, several Mercy House Moms and House Dads, plus  Ms. Wannee, our director of shelter programs, and Sister Maria. Every moment was dedicated to the strengthening of family bonds. And there were many joyous and tender moments.

(More photos at our Family Workshop gallery.)

When we first began working with the Mokan community on the island of Koh Lao two years ago, the villagers had never heard of “Mothers Day” or for that matter any other national holiday. They had no concept of a specific day, week, or month of the year because their culture bases the passing of time on the moon and the tides.

Once nomadic, living on the sea, they are now anchored on an island, impoverished and stateless. As we continue to help educate the sea gypsy children in this community and improve their health and welfare, we are also trying to introduce everyone in the village to the world they must live in now and forever in the future: a world with days, weeks, months – and holidays.

Many Koh Lao villagers, especially the elders, may never give much thought to our concept of a calendar, but Mothers Day is exceptional: it’s a day everyone believes in.

The villagers held their second annual Mothers Day Celebration this past week, where the children danced and performed for their moms and then knelt before them, expressing their respect and love. It is hard to understand exactly why this event hit such a huge emotional chord among this Mokan village. Everyone in the village cried in joy throughout the ceremony. Koh Lao Project details.

 

Father Joe recently presented the keynote address at the International Janusz Korczak Conference, held this August 5 - 9 in Tokyo, Japan. (Complete text of speech here.)

The bi-annual international conference is dedicated to the life and works of Janusz Korczak, a Polish-Jewish educator and pediatrician who introduced progressive orphanages to Poland and pioneered the legal rights of children everywhere. In 1942, when his Jewish orphanage was removed to the Warsaw Ghetto, Janusz Korczak refused an offer of help for his own safety. Months later Korczak and his children walked together in quiet dignity to the train bound for Treblinka, where they perished.

In his keynote address, Fr. Joe Maier presented a message from his own children – the 200 abandoned and orphaned children who live as family in Mercy Centre. When Fr. Joe told his children he would be speaking in Tokyo on the rights of children, they asked him to include the following statement:

“Every child has an absolute right to protection from each and every adult they meet. All children, when they see any adult anywhere – on the street, in school, and especially at home - can look at that adult and know they will be protected. Loved. Looked after. No matter what.  That they will not be harmed. They are safe.”

Keynote Address, International Korczak Conference, Aug. 6, 2010, Tokyo Japan

To be here today, of course I had to ask permission from all our children in our Janusz Korczak School in the Klong Toey slums of Bangkok, especially the ones in their early teens, both boys and girls; because in many ways, they are more fragile and vulnerable, and bruise more easily than the smallest and youngest.  The younger ones hurt for the moment, the older ones hurt for a lifetime.

I come before you from Bangkok with a nearly impossible task.

To imagine that Dr. Janusz Korczak is sitting here in the front row, listening to what all of us are saying. 

And of course, he is here in spirit.

I am here to give you a message from our children: the Janusz Korczak children of the Klong Toey slums of Bangkok.

And if my message rings true and clear – and you can hear the voices of our children - then I know Dr. Janusz approves, and more important, our children approve. And if our children approve, then the children of the whole world approve.

Our Children: (slide show)

These are our children, formerly street kids, used and abused thow-aways who live with us as family.

Our children have several messages: 

First, they wish to say, “We the Janusz Korczak children of Klong Toey are okay.  Not perfect.  Not 100%, but doing okay – and we hope that you are okay.”  And from the younger ones… they ask, “Do you know how to play ‘Rock-Paper-Scissors’ and how many times can you skip rope without missing a step?” 
And so the children ask you, do your children do this?

I do not come bringing a magical formula for protecting children – only a message from our children. But maybe it is magic:

RIP Khun Vinai, their daddy, dead from booze at 47. Husband of their momma Ms Dhang, five years now in prison for drug possession and distribution.