The right help at the right time
Mission partners Elise and Jon Fletcher are helping people on the edges find strength and community
Photo: Elise Fletcher on a home visit for the Keeping Families Together programme.
Here in Bangkok, Thailand, we have some great opportunities to serve families. Our local setting is the wonderful Khlong Toei slum community where our family has lived for 10 years.
by Elise and Jon Fletcher in Thailand
With the help of Thai case workers and a local church, we run a Keeping Families Together (KFT) programme to support and equip overwhelmed adults to improve the lives of children in their care.
The current cohort of families are smashing their goals in areas such as budgeting, positive parenting and healthy living. The family fun days and training sessions are great, with weekly home visits allowing us to go deeper in applying family strengthening principles. We are super grateful to journey with these families who have so much to teach us about resilience.
Aunty Song was in crisis when a community leader nominated her for the KFT programme. She had recently taken on the care of her niece, Manao, alongside her own children, providing refuge from an abusive home in a different province. There was a clear bond between them and a desire to make the situation work, but nobody had counted on Aunty Song losing her cleaning job and falling behind on rent. With no qualifications and no savings, an extra mouth to feed and school costs for the new term now seemed an impossible burden.
Aunty Song’s first thought was to approach a big foundation in the slum community, known for its resources. She had to swallow her pride but she was determined to provide for Manao and shield her from worry. “She’ll be better off with us,” said the officer. “She can go to one of our residential schools outside Bangkok and eat three meals a day. Think of the education she’ll get and the opportunities… just sign here.”
It was so matter of fact. Aunty Song felt shame turning down this offer. It was “help” but not the help she wanted or needed. She knew family ties were the one thing Manao had and should be protected at all costs.
Now, approaching completion of the 18-month KFT programme, Aunty Song’s laundry business is thriving and Manao is settled in a local school. They have a new puppy and there is plenty of laughter in their little home. They are exploring faith in a small house church that meets on Fridays. Though their problems haven’t disappeared and slum life is far from easy, they are well connected and equipped for future crises.
Speaking about her experience in the programme, Aunty Song said: “The money [a small income generation grant] gave us a boost, but mostly the KFT team helped me to find strength in myself and my community that I didn’t know was there.”
Poverty is the biggest factor for placing children in institutions worldwide. In Thailand there are over 120,000 children in orphanages and it is estimated that 90 per cent of them have living parents. There are active orphanage recruiters in some areas, with overseas funding of unregistered orphanages reliant on keeping numbers high. Adults in situations like Aunty Song are finding they have little choice but to hand over the care of their children to “experts”. The risks of attachment disorders, developmental delay and abuse in these settings are not widely acknowledged.
We believe that God places children in families; all children deserve families and institutionalised care should be a last resort. Families should be empowered to care for their own children. Poverty is complex and multifaceted but it should never be the deciding factor in separating a child from their family.
The KFT project enables our team to get alongside a handful of vulnerable families in Khlong Toei and see the balance of power shifted at grassroots level. Making a difference for a few always has value, but systemic change is needed to redirect resources from institutions to strengthening families.
Jon works with the government pressure group Alternative Care Thailand (ACT) to advocate for reform in the Thai care system. Among other things, ACT is partnering with the government on a pilot project to safely rehome and reintegrate children from a large orphanage. It is slow work but results are promising. One teenager returning to his village after a decade in care said, “If you had helped our parents initially, we could have stayed with them instead of growing up in an orphanage.”
Seeing children become aware of their rights is what fires our determination to work for justice and demonstrate God’s deep care for the disempowered.
We are so thankful for your prayers and support enabling us to be present and engaged here. Change is possible and there are many signs of God’s kingdom coming. May you be encouraged to champion the needs of marginalised people in your setting and be blessed in walking alongside those others may overlook.
