Catholic Volunteer Work

[reallyok]

Can anybody please help me with this.

I have a friend in Canada who is now retired and wishes to do volunteer work here in Thailand. He is a practising catholic however not interested in missionary type of work.

He is a very versatile engineering and construction type of person, can build wells, buildings,carpentry, weld , mechanics, in fact just about anything with his hands.

He would dearly love to help here anywhere in Thailand but i cannot find any contacts for him.

Please, if there is anybody out there who can steer me in the right direction, let me know.

He is a very fit and able bodied man, recently widowed after 57 years who will be selling his property in Ontario to come to Thailand.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Orphanage?

[Spaniel]

Tell your friend to "google" Redemptorist, Thailand. The (Catholic) Redemptorist order has many projects in Thailand. I dont know how he would fit in but google lists many of their projects so he should be able to at least make contact with them and present what he has to offer.

[Maizefarmer]

Out of all the countries in the world he's decided its going to be Thailand ...... and he's decided he's going to sell his house in the process ??

Very honourable and after 57 years of been married, no question about this guys ability to follow through with a decision and/or committment, but honestly, I think you need to get him to sit back and broaden his options and alternatives before selling up lock stock and barrel to come to a country which he may not like after 6 months or so - then what?

Edited March 7, 2010 by Maizefarmer

[reallyok]

Out of all the countries in the world he's decided its going to be Thailand ...... and he's decided he's going to sell his house in the process ??

Very honourable and after 57 years of been married, no question about this guys ability to follow through with a decision and/or committment, but honestly, I think you need to get him to sit back and broaden his options and alternatives before selling up lock stock and barrel to come to a country which he may not like after 6 months or so - then what?

Well he can just "move on" birdbrain.

He now wants to do something with the years he has left, not just vegitate in front of the telly. So why not Thailand, i am happy here, how about you ?

[reallyok]

Out of all the countries in the world he's decided its going to be Thailand ...... and he's decided he's going to sell his house in the process ??

Very honourable and after 57 years of been married, no question about this guys ability to follow through with a decision and/or committment, but honestly, I think you need to get him to sit back and broaden his options and alternatives before selling up lock stock and barrel to come to a country which he may not like after 6 months or so - then what?

Well he can just "move on" birdbrain.

He now wants to do something with the years he has left, not just vegitate in front of the telly. So why not Thailand, i am happy here, how about you ?

And what does "in the process??" mean, or is that sarcasm? He has already decided to sell up wherever he goes.

[reallyok]

Tell your friend to "google" Redemptorist, Thailand. The (Catholic) Redemptorist order has many projects in Thailand. I dont know how he would fit in but google lists many of their projects so he should be able to at least make contact with them and present what he has to offer.

Thank you for a decent reply, much appreciated.

[Xangsamhua]

The Redemptorist advice is good, as they are perhaps the biggest non-teaching missionary order in Thailand (they do in fact have a few schools, including a major international school in Minburi, but schools are not their main business).

A Singaporean friend of mine worked with the PIME fathers in Chiang Rai for some months each year for several years, helping run a hostel for hill tribe kids who had to stay there during school terms. He also tutored them in English.

I don't know how you contact PIME directly (they're an Italian Pontifical order), but the Chiangmai Diocesan website might help. http://www.ucanews.com/dps/html/dps-th_chiangmai.php

I suppose the visa issue would be OK. He can get a retirement visa, but would still need permission to work. I understand younger foreign non-ordained/professed volunteers with missions sometimes have difficulties getting a one-year visa and have to do visa runs.

Fr Joe Maiers' Mercy Centre in Klong Toey may need a hand, too. http://www.mercycentre.org/

[Arkady]

Bear in mind that work is forbidden on a retirement visa and any kind of work with or without pay needs a work permit. I think it is possible to get a WP as a volunteer without pay, if you perservere and the charity has the right credentials and enough admin support, but you have to deal with the catch 22 that to get a work permit you need a minimum salary. Most volunteers end up working illegally without a work permit but the sh*t can hit the fan, if they get caught.

[TerryLH]

Have him Google NGO Thailand. There might be something there that would fit him.

[Maizefarmer]

Out of all the countries in the world he's decided its going to be Thailand ...... and he's decided he's going to sell his house in the process ??

Very honourable and after 57 years of been married, no question about this guys ability to follow through with a decision and/or committment, but honestly, I think you need to get him to sit back and broaden his options and alternatives before selling up lock stock and barrel to come to a country which he may not like after 6 months or so - then what?

Well he can just "move on" birdbrain.

He now wants to do something with the years he has left, not just vegitate in front of the telly. So why not Thailand, i am happy here, how about you ?

And what does "in the process??" mean, or is that sarcasm? He has already decided to sell up wherever he goes.

Nope - no sarcasm at all was mean't - and to answer your question: yes - I am 100% happy here, and have been happy in Thailand since my childhood - and that really is part of the point I was trying to make: every one's circumstances are different. You see, you have added something in your reply above that was not evident in the thread opener - "where ever he goes.....". Thats not the issue is it (?), the point as you conveyed was that he has decided to come to and settle in Thailand, and what I was trying to say was that it was my opinion (only my opinion - take it for what you think it worth) that he should perhaps come out here, spend some time, see if he likes what he finds etc etc ...... then make the decision/committment. After all, he could undertake work for the Redemptorist order in parts of Africa, or other parts of Asia, or parts of Latin America ........

Nothing more than that - makes sense doesn't it?

Over the years I have come to meet loads of ex-pats who have come out to Thailand with intentions of staying. Some with the intention of starting a business, quite a few in retirement, many who have lost a partner or been through a messy seperation/divorce, some with limited means and some with considerable means. Whatever the reason was that motivated them to come out originally, and however long they stayed, the original intention of many of them was to stay - but at the end of the day, most of them left for one or other reason. Their health declined and they discovered the security that was avalible back home in old age outweighed what they got out of staying in Thailand, for some the business venture didn't work out how they had hoped, for many it was the relationship they got involved in with a local that ultimately failed, or their financial circumstances changed ... but whatever it was it was not what they thought would happen or what they planned for - and one other thing was for certain: those that had a home to back home to move back to found it a lot easier.

I am not making any judgements here - just saying that to sell up up lock stock and barrel to go and stay in any country, let alone one with the contrasts and cultural differences to Western lifestyles that Thailand has, with little to no previous experience of Thailand, is probably not how I would go about things, and is not how most of the ex-pats I have seen come and go over the last 20 odd years would have gone about it - with the benefit of hindsight.

You asked, so here is my advise: by all means come out to Thailand with the intention of staying, but stay open minded for a year or so before making a committment and final decision.

[reallyok]

Out of all the countries in the world he's decided its going to be Thailand ...... and he's decided he's going to sell his house in the process ??

Very honourable and after 57 years of been married, no question about this guys ability to follow through with a decision and/or committment, but honestly, I think you need to get him to sit back and broaden his options and alternatives before selling up lock stock and barrel to come to a country which he may not like after 6 months or so - then what?

Well he can just "move on" birdbrain.

He now wants to do something with the years he has left, not just vegitate in front of the telly. So why not Thailand, i am happy here, how about you ?

And what does "in the process??" mean, or is that sarcasm? He has already decided to sell up wherever he goes.

Nope - no sarcasm at all was mean't - and to answer your question: yes - I am 100% happy here, and have been happy in Thailand since my childhood - and that really is part of the point I was trying to make: every one's circumstances are different. You see, you have added something in your reply above that was not evident in the thread opener - "where ever he goes.....". Thats not the issue is it (?), the point as you conveyed was that he has decided to come to and settle in Thailand, and what I was trying to say was that it was my opinion (only my opinion - take it for what you think it worth) that he should perhaps come out here, spend some time, see if he likes what he finds etc etc ...... then make the decision/committment. After all, he could undertake work for the Redemptorist order in parts of Africa, or other parts of Asia, or parts of Latin America ........

Nothing more than that - makes sense doesn't it?

Over the years I have come to meet loads of ex-pats who have come out to Thailand with intentions of staying. Some with the intention of starting a business, quite a few in retirement, many who have lost a partner or been through a messy seperation/divorce, some with limited means and some with considerable means. Whatever the reason was that motivated them to come out originally, and however long they stayed, the original intention of many of them was to stay - but at the end of the day, most of them left for one or other reason. Their health declined and they discovered the security that was avalible back home in old age outweighed what they got out of staying in Thailand, for some the business venture didn't work out how they had hoped, for many it was the relationship they got involved in with a local that ultimately failed, or their financial circumstances changed ... but whatever it was it was not what they thought would happen or what they planned for - and one other thing was for certain: those that had a home to back home to move back to found it a lot easier.

I am not making any judgements here - just saying that to sell up up lock stock and barrel to go and stay in any country, let alone one with the contrasts and cultural differences to Western lifestyles that Thailand has, with little to no previous experience of Thailand, is probably not how I would go about things, and is not how most of the ex-pats I have seen come and go over the last 20 odd years would have gone about it - with the benefit of hindsight.

You asked, so here is my advise: by all means come out to Thailand with the intention of staying, but stay open minded for a year or so before making a committment and final decision.

OK fair enough, but you need to realise that this man is a well balanced, intelligent. much travelled person and does not really need to be told how he should live his life. He is not the type (which i think you suspect) who comes here for a good time till the money runs out.

Having been to many countries including East Africa and Sth America he has made his decision by probably comparing cultures. So lets just let it rest at that.

And once again thank you to all those constructive replies. I think he is in contact with something called "Dragonfly"