Dear Everyone,

Here are just a few quick notes about Mercy that we want very much to share with our friends.

First, as always, our new children:

Four children joined our Mercy family last week. The eldest, Miss Watermelon, age 9, had been looking after and protecting her three younger siblings as best she was able – trying to make sure they had enough to eat, a place to sleep, and a safe place to play – but that’s a lot of responsibility for a young child. To pay for food and clothes, she often could be found begging on the streets beside crowded pedestrian walkways.

Miss Watermelon is fearless. On her first day at Mercy, she taught herself how to ride a bicycle without training wheels. She didn’t look for an adult to congratulate her. She just kept riding.

Today Miss Watermelon is enrolled in our Janusz Korczak School of S.E. Asia for Street Children while her sister and two brothers – Ben, Baht, and Goff – now attend our Lock 6 Mercy Kindergarten. (Photo, from left, Twins -Baht and Ben, Watermelon, and Goff.)

The children of Mercy welcome US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius

This past Saturday morning, our Mercy children opened their hearts to welcome the US Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius and members of the US CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).

Our children loved the visit!

As Secretary Sebelius stepped inside our Mercy Centre, our children presented her with garlands of orchids while our Classical Thai Kids Orchestra performed their favorite old songs. A Mercy girl, Duangjai Meechai, age 21 – formally an abandoned child living in Lumpini Park and now enrolled at Assumption University in Bangkok – gave Secretary Sebelius a tour of Mercy Centre. Miss Duangchai was joined by her Mercy brothers and sisters in our art room, computer room, kindergarten, and the most fun room of all – our playroom (a delightful madhouse!) with 35 of our little ones riding on kiddy jungle gyms, slides, and rocking horses.

Secretary Sebelius and the CDC staff visited our Mercy Centre in recognition of our HIV/AIDS efforts throughout Bangkok’s poorest slum communities. Our HIV/AIDS programs started when we opened Bangkok’s first AIDS hospice for the poor, which we operated from 1993-2012. Once we opened our hospice, we also began pioneering community-based home care in the slums. Today we are recognized as leaders in community-based AIDS care, and our teams share their knowledge and experience in workshops they conduct throughout Thailand and Laos, and soon Myanmar. Here at Mercy, spread across all six of our shelters, over 60 children were born with HIV. And we care for hundreds more children who live with their families in Bangkok’s poorest neighborhoods.Photos from top - i) Children welcome US Secretary; ii) Secretary Sebelius with Mercy Child; iii) CDC, Fr. Joe and Mercy staff and children.

Our Mercy boys play soccer in Poland!

They didn’t win, exactly. But of the 21 teams that competed in the first international soccer tournament for children living in group shelters, our Mercy boys didn’t lose either. In a vote by all players and referees, our boys earned the trophy for sportsmanship and conduct on and off the field. They played competitively and won the respect of every team.

(Here’s something even more amazing and wonderful: two boys on our team take anti-viral medications every day. Born with HIV, orphaned early in life, left in the care of the State before they joined our family, they have been beating the odds for years. And they’ve only just started. )

Fr. Wirach and Fr. Jittipol chaperoned our children in Poland and they made sure our boys experienced the beauty of Polish culture. Anticipating our kids’ dietary needs, Fr. Wirach packed plenty of mama noodles and jars full of chili peppers. Can you imagine chili peppers in your borscht or on your pierogies? Our children not only can, but insist it’s the only way.

The Royal Thai Ambassador to the Republic of Poland, HE Bansarn Bunnag, gave our boys great honor. He attended their soccer matches, cheered them on from the crowd, and at the end of the tournament invited them to dine at one of Warsaw’s oldest Thai restaurants. If you ask our children, that dinner was among their finest moments off the field.

Another highlight was their visit to the orphanage where Janusz Korczak and his children lived until they were removed to the Jewish Ghetto in 1940 on their way to the Treblinka death camp.

Our kids – orphans themselves – were proud to give honor to Janusz Korczak and his children.

And we feel justly proud of our own children.

Thank you, as always, for all your kind words and every way you support our Mercy Centre.

Prayers,

Fr. Joe