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Random Musings

.baan dada 2.0*
by joycekim
November 16th, 2008

its been a long time since i last posted here! since i last wrote, i returned to Baan Dada to do some more volunteer work and so much has changed!

first, THANK YOU to all the wonderful people who donated to the $10,000 fundraising campaign.  not only have they practically finished the second floor of the boys home, but the money was enough for the foundation and some additional construction on the girls home (they were able to get a good price on concrete so it went further!)

BEFORE FUND RAISING - 3 years with no second floor!

AFTER FUND RAISING - Tada! Notice the blanket in the window? The boys were so excited, they started moving in before it was finished!

it was great seeing the kids and seeing all the progress on the construction that is going on.

we also spent some time brainstorming on the commmunity development projects that baan dada is running.  at the moment, they have a dairy goat lending program (where they lend a female goat to a poor family for 2 years and let the family keep the offspring of the female goat), a fish farming and homestay program (based in the remote fishing village of piloki) and the community weaving center (burmese refugee women make woven goods for sale).

of the three, the fish farming program is doing the best.  the weaving program, however, is not doing very well as the cost of shipping the goods out of sangkhlaburi is actually higher than the cost of the goods.   so, we ended up using one of our empty suitcases to bring back some woven items to the states in hopes of helping the women find some buyers here.  if you are interested in checking out their products, take a look here.

dada is also trying to run an immunization program this january on the burma side of the border. since the burmese government has not offered immunizations to villages on the border that are considered to be hostile to the military government, there are now thousands of children who have never received basic immunizations.  they were raising money to send a medic across the border to offer immunizations in over a dozen villages. however, the latest population statistics show an additional 1000 children which were not in projections. unfortunately, donations for this program have pretty much stopped coming in since the international financial crisis broke about 1 month ago.    if you have an interest in this worthwhile program and can spare even $20, then i encourage you to visit baandada.org and make a donation.

on the technology front, we brought a ton of donations (laptops, monitors and a mac mini). they were all a big hit! the monitors were both flat panels donated by jen myronuk and jeff gordnt - the first flat panel monitors at baan dada ever.  the mac mini had the boys entranced right out of the box:) we had loaded it up with some video podcasts, such as learn to play guitar, drums, some english lessons etc.  after they all held the mini in their hands and asked me about 100 times if it was a computer, we set it up and taught them all how to get around a mac.  we couldn’t get them off it after that!

thank you everyone for your support and please check out my flickr photos for more pics of the kids.

.social media fund raising*
by joycekim
August 6th, 2008

UPDATE:  Thanks so much to the following donors so far! You guys are quick!

those of you who follow me on twitter, facebook or this blog know that i spent a good part of july on the thailand/burma border volunteering at an orphanage there that is home to many burmese refugee children and abandoned thai children.

i was expecting some pretty tough conditions there - after all, it is an orphanage. i spent my time teaching the children english, learning about their lives and wishing there was a functioning toilet (!) :) the time flew by faster than i expected. and on my last days there, i spent a lot of time wondering and worrying about their futures.  they are in a tough situation - undocumented in thailand, limited access to schooling and medical care, lack of enough indoor space for the children to sleep comfortably.  but if the children had not found a place in this home, then they could have likely ended up in sweatshops in thailand or the sex trade for some of the young girls. if they were sent back to burma, they could be killed or used as child land mine sweepers - a disgusting practice.

my experiences motivated me to commit myself to running my own fund raising campaign.  they are applying for grants for some of the educational and health programs which are potentially fundable. however most foundations will not fund capital campaigns - which means no money for building buildings and the kids are sleeping on the ground, all crowded together.

so here is my plan: i am going to use all my social media and social networking tools to raise $10,000. this money will be used for the expansion of their building.  i will be using facebook, twitter, google groups, wordpress, digg, etc to see if i can reach this goal.  here are my flickr pics from my trip if you want to see.

i have rebuilt their website on wordpress (so they can update it themselves) and rejiggered their paypal to they can give US donors charitable donation receipts - (side note: it was fun building my first website - if you see major mistakes, let me know). and now its ready for all the amazing donations that all you lovely web 2.0 people are about to send over!

DONATE TO BAAN DADA HERE!


i will regularly post updates on donations and donors here. so come on, be charitable and take a moment to give to some really great kids that really need our help. thank you!

List of Awesome People who Donated - Thank you so much!

8/7: We are at $2000 raised thus far! Amazing!

8/8: wowie, wowie:) $4222 as of today!

8/11: gosh, i really love you guys, i really do.  we are at $6300.

8/14: the grand total now stands at $6542:)  over 65% of the way to the goal in 1 week!!!

8/20: we are now at $7872! and i spoke with the folks at Baan Dada, they already bought bricks with the first batch of money sent over:) real bricks! not the mud ones that they used to make by hand and use for walls.  just over $2000 more dollars to go!

8/24: Yay! Over $1000 came in this week in donations. Total now stands at $8972. woot!