Hello Forum Member

Since a few years i live with my family in Chiang Rai.

Some of our visitors (friends from abroad) would like to give donations to charity

organisations. We already have visited a few very good projects around Chiang Rai

but at some places we also got different impressions.

I wonder if you maybe know projects that following some of the criterion below :

- Preferable projects in the province Chiang Rai

- Small organisations, the money has to go manly where it is needed

- It can be an organisations, families, children, groups or .....

- Projects should try to be environmentally sustainable, value-preserving, self-sufficient

- The idea is also: not buy a fish for to eat but learn how to catch a fish

- Project without religious main focus (no "force" into religious re-education)

Thanks in advance for your help, you can also Pm me.

Regards Jaigwaang

http://ayui.org/

this is a NON RELIGIOUS organization that helps/houses dirt poor AKA kids . I've helped them with a few donations and they are very happy for pretty much any help your friends want to offer...send them an email and they can tell you what they need or if your friends want to volunteer to help teach anything or do repairs or whatever...

Try to look at this one:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/SearchForums?ff=9940&geo=297920&scope=2&q=El+Shadai&returnTo=__2F__&sub-search.x=0&sub-search.y=0

Try to google :El Shadai.

Hi

You have a great question.

Sadly, there are some very unscrupulous people around. If you are intending to donate to any of the many legal charities in Chiang Rai or elsewhere; please insist on seeing their official charity registration documents. It will help to keep the honest one's alive and drive out the less desirable.

AjarnP:

I agree that there are some disreputable places that should be avoided and your proposal is very well .... but:

Places like El Shadai, which is quite normal. family who has taken a lot of children to it, otherwise no chanse to get just a fairly upbringing.

I doubt that they have the charitable registration documents that you referred to, anyway you can of course read about many many people who visit the place when they are in Thailand and all of which confirm the sincerity of this project-which incidentally never ask about money, but about things, food, clothing, etc.

So that they do not have the evidence, is no proof that they are not good support opjekter that are worth helping.

I am confused. El Shaddai is like a quasi religious organization isn't it?

El Shaddai Ministries - Home Page

elshaddaiministries.us/ - CachedThe Hebraic Roots movement is many things, but one of its key elements is the work to restore the lost Hebraic nature of scripture faith to Christians. We chose ...

El-Shaddai International Christian Centre | think Church | think the ...

www.elshaddai.org.uk/ - Cached

Information on the church, beliefs and history. Details of ministries and meetings. Devotional material.

I am confused. El Shaddai is like a quasi religious organization isn't it?

El Shaddai Ministries - Home Page

elshaddaiministries.us/ - CachedThe Hebraic Roots movement is many things, but one of its key elements is the work to restore the lost Hebraic nature of scripture faith to Christians. We chose ...

El-Shaddai International Christian Centre | think Church | think the ...

www.elshaddai.org.uk/ - Cached

Information on the church, beliefs and history. Details of ministries and meetings. Devotional material.

It would certainly at least appear to be a christian bunch. Yet another reason that i prefer ayui is ZERO trying to push any religious belief on the kids....any kid there is totally free to practice any religion they chose or no religion at all....frankly i am not a big fan of linking religious indoctrination to helping out kids...i have no idea if this is the case at elshaddi but i think we all know that there are some hard core bible beaters whose main goal seems to be as much about converting kids as helping them....and we have all probably heard rumours of unscrupulous people who solicit funds for the kids and end up spending an inordinate amount of the donated funds to support their own lifesyles....

anyway...good advice to do a bit of research before giving anyone any money to make sure that it fits with whatever your beliefs might be....

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g297920-c128675/Chiang-Rai:Thailand:El.Shadai.Orphanage.html

I am confused. El Shaddai is like a quasi religious organization isn't it?

El Shaddai Ministries - Home Page

elshaddaiministries.us/ - CachedThe Hebraic Roots movement is many things, but one of its key elements is the work to restore the lost Hebraic nature of scripture faith to Christians. We chose ...

El-Shaddai International Christian Centre | think Church | think the ...

www.elshaddai.org.uk/ - Cached

Information on the church, beliefs and history. Details of ministries and meetings. Devotional material.

It would certainly at least appear to be a christian bunch. Yet another reason that i prefer ayui is ZERO trying to push any religious belief on the kids....any kid there is totally free to practice any religion they chose or no religion at all....frankly i am not a big fan of linking religious indoctrination to helping out kids...i have no idea if this is the case at elshaddi but i think we all know that there are some hard core bible beaters whose main goal seems to be as much about converting kids as helping them....and we have all probably heard rumours of unscrupulous people who solicit funds for the kids and end up spending an inordinate amount of the donated funds to support their own lifesyles....

anyway...good advice to do a bit of research before giving anyone any money to make sure that it fits with whatever your beliefs might be....

Unfortunately there's no such thing as a free lunch, the Christians have the funds to put into these places and they want something back out of them, namely converts.

They have the kids at just the right age, inquisitive and impressionable so it's usually a slam dunk.

There are also a home for children-dont know anything about it-when you take Phahon Yothin RD,across the road where you drive into Central Plaza ( the rear entrance)there is a very small road up to the old airport,named-Dolphabart RD.

Maby 100-150 meters on your right hand you will see a sign.

Thank you all for your reply and also for some Pm's.

If you know other projects, please let us know.

We are aware of some problematic, we check every project carefully.

The idea is anyway to donate annually appropriate amounts and not

to do only once a large donation ...

Regards jaigwaand

AjarnP:

I agree that there are some disreputable places that should be avoided and your proposal is very well .... but:

Places like El Shadai, which is quite normal. family who has taken a lot of children to it, otherwise no chanse to get just a fairly upbringing.

I doubt that they have the charitable registration documents that you referred to, anyway you can of course read about many many people who visit the place when they are in Thailand and all of which confirm the sincerity of this project-which incidentally never ask about money, but about things, food, clothing, etc.

So that they do not have the evidence, is no proof that they are not good support opjekter that are worth helping.

Brian,

I am sure that there exist some very worthy causes which, for some reason or another are not registered charities in Thailand. However, apart from "word of mouth" how are we ot know who they are and what they will do to utilize the donations they receive fairly and efficiently i.e. that the organizer is not driving around in a brand-new Fortuner (or worse) and running his own tribe of concubines in the rubber plantation.

I am sure too that the OP is grateful for your advice and that of others. I do though stand by what I mentioned in my previous post.

Any purported charitable operation requesting and/or receiving funds without proper registration with teh appropriate authorities is operating illegally. There ain't no if's and's or but's about it.

Hello Forum Member

Just a short up date.

Through your help we have found two additional Foundation

which we think are worth to support. Thank you all!

We wish you all the best for 2013

Regards Jaigwaang