I developed this blog to help the woman on the right.
Her nickname is Tij.
(every Thai person has a nickname, her full name is Arirat Thongorn)
She works a few hours per day as a household help for our family in Bangkok, Thailand.
On the picture from left to right: her father, son (11), mother and herself. She also has a daughter (14).
FYI: the pictures were taken with a camera that I borrowed her, because she does not own one herself !
Where is her husband, the father of their children ? Sadly her abusive ex-husband does not take care of his family and spent most of his time drinking or gambling.
Probably she is better of without him now, divorced, as when they were still married, she came to work several times, in tears and even worse : bruises.
This is the house where her children live with her parents. There is one room on the 2nd floor where they all sleep. In Thailand it is (sadly) common for poor people to leave their native village to seek work in the capital Bangkok. The children are then taken care by their grandparents. One day, when Tij is too old to work, she will probably take care of her grandchildren and get hopefully financial support of her own children.
No social security or welfare available in Thailand in contrast with most Western countries.
No surprise that every month, she sends most of her salary to her parents and children.
She has a morning job by 6 am until 11. In the afternoon she comes to help our family.
On a regular base, she asks her wages in advance for the entire or even next month (normall schedule is every two weeks) for unforeseen or emergency expenses. Off course we agree to help her out.
Above you can see a picture of the roof of the house. This is a tin roof and you can see that it is rich of holes and in a bad condition. End of the month May, it is the start of the raining season.
It needs an urgent replacement as the whole family sleeps overthere. This obviously costs a lot of money.
To have an idea what a Thai laborer earns per day, you can check out following link :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country
ranges from 148 Thai baht to 203 baht per day, depending on the cost of living in various provinces; set by provincial tripartite wage committees that sometimes include only employer representatives.
US $ 4.5 - 6 $ per day, not per hour.
Compared to the federal minimum wage of US $ 7.25 per hour in the United States.
The 'bathroom' : on the right you see a large barrel that collects rainwater.
No running water, bathroom, toilet in sight. Washing is done here with taking out some water out of the barrel.
The ground floor is partially covered with old tin plates (possibly from the previous roof)
The 'living' and/or 'dining' room
The kitchen ... no fridge, microwave oven ...
Cooking here is done in an open wood fire
You can see that luxery is a worth unknown here. It is more survival than actual living.
No holidays, no restaurant visits, no going to the movies for this family.
Any donation of any size would be greatly appreciated and can really help this poor family.
It certainly not an obligation.
I made this blog for her with the idea that there might be people our there who would like to help her, her children, family with a small donation.
Nobody likes a begger.
But that is not who she is ! She works 2 jobs to try to make ends meet.
I also asked her help when developping my 100% free project to learn Thai (and Dutch, French, English)
It took about 6 months to compile a database, make videos, uploading, ...
You can/will hear her voice on the many hundreds of voice clips to learn Thai.
For English speakers, you can surf to : http://learn-thai-language-lessons.blogspot.com/
Maybe you have a Thai wife / girlfriend / boyfriend that you want to help to learn some English words ? Than you can go to : http://learn-english-for-thai-students.blogspot.com/
or if you are planning your holiday to Thailand and would like to learn some Thai words before you come here ?
For people who would consider a donation, I created a paypal account in her name and Thai bank account.
She has no computer or internet, but I take care of the follow up.
If you live in Thailand or are on a holiday, you can directly deposit a donation into her bank account.
