During the summer, members of Bangkok Patana school’s Teenworks community action club decided to take the initiative and try to improve the well-being of people left most vulnerable by COVID-19 due to their social situation. We chose to help the Nong Mai community, a suburb consisting of 300 homes in the district of Klong Toei, as we still have a close relationship with them from previous projects working with the Lutheran Christian Foundation and Home of Praise. The hardships of having minimal work during this time is potentially life-threatening for people living in rural areas of Bangkok and many of the residents there earn minimum wages on a daily basis. Most of the adults, if not all, take care of small children or elderly parents.
We came up with the idea of creating care boxes that we filled with necessities such as rice, diapers, soap, etc. Many of the items in the boxes were given to us by sponsors from a range of different companies. These group of sponsors were glad to help our cause and kindly donated most of the items included in our care boxes. Once all the items for the Nong Mai community had been sent to us, we compiled them into individual boxes and added the sponsors’ and Teenworks’ logo stickers.
On August 9th, with the help of our whole Teenworks team, we set up a pickup station just outside the main community, where we handed out our care boxes to the people waiting. As we watched people of all ages come and collect a box to support their family and neighbours, we felt extremely grateful to have the chance to make a difference in their lives. It was also very heartwarming to see the smiles on their faces as we went around the community to listen to the elderly share their stories and learn more about other’s lives.
It was a pleasure to work with the Lutheran Christian Foundation again and with our new primary members. If you would like more information please visit our website here: https://teenworksth1.wixsite.com/teenworks
