Gift Suggestions For Children

[Khutan]

I am looking for some ideas here;

I have seen 2 children in the village who are nice and polite, very keen to learn and are totally impoverished. Normally when my wife and I are in the village, these 2 kids come over for a feed, and we give them little jobs around the house to do to make some pocket money.

On Saturday they made the vast sum of 120 Baht from us. It was 60 Baht for each child, one 12 the other 7. They worked well all day, and sure had a couple of free meals, but the thing that made me so happy was they kept asking the English words for things and repeating the words over and over. I was very imopressed and thought the 120 B was well spent.

I was shocked at, im my opinion, the morally reprehensible behaviour of their parents. Not 5 minutes after the girls got back home, mum and dad had releived them of their days wages. Not to buy food, not to but anything of good, but rather to stock up with wiskey and smokes. I was so angry at this behaviour, the only thing I could do was come home. I knew otherwise I would say something that would reflect badly on my wife's family. These kids parents don't work much, and the step-father, has never had any regular employment. In fact they are both so lazy they don't work heir own rice-field, they get share-croppers to do the work.

I want to help these kids, and give them some rays of hope. The only way I can think of doing this is to buy them stuff. The problem I have is that mum and step-dad will then sell it, which is the result I do not want.

So what gifts can I buy these kids, to help them with their day-to-day life, like home and school aprticularly, that their parents cannot sell, to then buy booze.

My Ideas are books, but have every page stamped with their name, school gear like rulers pencils etc, also personalized. Beyond that I have no idea.

So any suggestions are appreciated.

[Neeranam]

The evils of alcohol - it should be banned.

One thing that I think would happen if you started giving them books(good idea) is that the kids would not be allowed to come and work in your house. They may get a beating if they came back with no money.

Why are they so keen to learn English? Seems strange to me.

Buy them cds of cartoons or discovery type programs, let them use your computer. Giving money is a bad idea, I think.

Tell their parents you will buy them a bike or something if they work for you for a few months.

[BambinA]

- dress /t-shirt

-toy/dall/robot

-school gear is cool also .. when i was kid i like a pencil box

[The_Other_Mac]

I imagine even a book stamped with their name can be sold, after all it can still be read. For that matter, so can clothing.

If you're thinking of doing this long-term and trying to make a real difference, maybe you could consider making an arrangement to pay their wages to the local temple as an educational fund, or something along those lines. And teach them all the English you can, just by talking to them while they're around. If you think what native speaker "conversation lessons" cost (I presume a few hundred per hour), it's worth far more to them than any wages.

[The_Moog]

Yes ! Bubble wrap. Its great, kids love it, they pop the bubbles.

makes a nice gift and its cheap too.

[BambinA]

Yes ! Bubble wrap. Its great, kids love it, they pop the bubbles.

makes a nice gift and its cheap too.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

moogy you "guan teen" mak mak .. yah know ..

oh that's my compliment

[Davey]

I am looking for some ideas here;

I have seen 2 children in the village who are nice and polite, very keen to learn and are totally impoverished. Normally when my wife and I are in the village, these 2 kids come over for a feed, and we give them little jobs around the house to do to make some pocket money.

On Saturday they made the vast sum of 120 Baht from us. It was 60 Baht for each child, one 12 the other 7. They worked well all day, and sure had a couple of free meals, but the thing that made me so happy was they kept asking the English words for things and repeating the words over and over. I was very imopressed and thought the 120 B was well spent.

I was shocked at, im my opinion, the morally reprehensible behaviour of their parents. Not 5 minutes after the girls got back home, mum and dad had releived them of their days wages. Not to buy food, not to but anything of good, but rather to stock up with wiskey and smokes. I was so angry at this behaviour, the only thing I could do was come home. I knew otherwise I would say something that would reflect badly on my wife's family. These kids parents don't work much, and the step-father, has never had any regular employment. In fact they are both so lazy they don't work heir own rice-field, they get share-croppers to do the work.

I want to help these kids, and give them some rays of hope. The only way I can think of doing this is to buy them stuff. The problem I have is that mum and step-dad will then sell it, which is the result I do not want.

So what gifts can I buy these kids, to help them with their day-to-day life, like home and school aprticularly, that their parents cannot sell, to then buy booze.

My Ideas are books, but have every page stamped with their name, school gear like rulers pencils etc, also personalized. Beyond that I have no idea.

So any suggestions are appreciated.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How about a football (soccer ball) depending on where you are from. I recently saw a documentary about the children of mozambique, they had nothing except from a home made football they had made themselves from rubber bands and something else. Despite their lack of just about everything we take for granted, they seemes like the happiest kids I've ever seen with their 'make-do' football.

I think the educational things, such as books are probably the best gifts in these circumstances and personalising them is a better option yet. How about story books which are available in English and Thai script, so they can learn English too.

What do the children seem to be interested in? I have a thai cousin (I think he is 7) he absolutely loves spiderman.

[britmaveric]

Mattnich - anything can be sold. Definitely need new parents if you ask me.

[fxm88]

Lazy!? These folks are entreprenurial indeed! OK, so they've got limited resources but look what what they've done with what they've got:

1) Kids. Instead of sitting around their own house all day they're out getting fed, learning english, and even making some money -- and it's every Thai girl's dream to be able to bring home some money for Mama and "Poppa"! I'd worry more about the girls themselves selling your gifts to raise cash.

2) Land. Instead of toiling away they've partnered with some sharecroppers. "Return on assets" I believe those in the west might call it. Capitalism at its finest, no?

All together this allows them to live a comfortable non-working life amply suppiled with life's "finer things" i.e. whiskey and smokes. You would deny Thailand a leisure class? Talk about ethno-centrism!

[chownah]

If you give the children an object the parents might not sell it. You gave the children (between them) an entire days wages....that's alot of money and I'm not surprised that the parents spent it. Like it or not this is not so strange in Thai culture especially for small village people....at least in my opinion. Children making money give it to the parents if the parents have none...that's how money works....but....giving a gift to a child is a different thing and it might not get sold...try it and see. If it doesn't work then reward them with things kept at your house as was mentioned before like cd's they can listen to or computer games they can play at your house....but then you will be cultivating a closer relationship which might be good for the kids (given your description of their homelife) but might not be what you would want.

[Khutan]

Thanks for the sugestions and input. There does not seem to ba an easy answer for this one.

I have also been cautioned to this line : Do nothing, and don't give them anything, same as the rest of the people in the village...... Its not your problem and you should not interfere in other people's family.

I think I will buy them some nice clothes and personalised stationary. I can also get the clothes tagged with their names.

[Jai Dee]

I have also been cautioned to this line : Do nothing, and don't give them anything, same as the rest of the people in the village...... Its not your problem and you should not interfere in other people's family.

Sad but true Matt.

There's so much more you can say on this subject, but I'm sure you've heard it all before. We can only help so much...

[cdnvic]

Or you can look at it this way...

- The parents are going to be lazy regardless of what you do.

- If the kids bringing home money makes them feel good and their family life easier, why not let them keep working?

-You don't want the kids thinking they did something wrong by not letting them work.

-If you pay them some cash and some toy, or clothing, the parents might just take the cash.

Regardless of what their parents do, the kids actually have a work ethic and should be encouraged. It would suck if they turned out like their parents.

cv

[lamphun]

Buy them something but keep it in your house.

Boxing gloves will bring hours of endless fun..

[The_Other_Mac]

I imagine even a book stamped with their name can be sold, after all it can still be read. For that matter, so can clothing.

If you're thinking of doing this long-term and trying to make a real difference, maybe you could consider making an arrangement to pay their wages to the local temple as an educational fund, or something along those lines. And teach them all the English you can, just by talking to them while they're around. If you think what native speaker "conversation lessons" cost (I presume a few hundred per hour), it's worth far more to them than any wages.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Just an addition: I'm told that it IS possible to open a bank account/fund thing in their name, which neither they, you, or the parents can withdraw from until the kid is say, twenty.

However not everyone trusts banks; and it could be more intrusive, along the lines you mentioned.