{"id":328848,"date":"2017-01-13T04:00:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-13T03:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/thailand-three-days-with-the-mae-sot-children\/"},"modified":"2024-05-16T15:06:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T13:06:07","slug":"thailand-three-days-with-the-mae-sot-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/thailand-three-days-with-the-mae-sot-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Thailand: three days with the Mae Sot children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"mae<\/a>One of my acquaintances, years ago said: \u201cwherever there are the poor, money also abounds.\u201d <\/strong>I was young then and didn\u2019t believe in those words: \u00a0after 26 years in Asia, I realised to my dismay, that this is true also in Mae Sot.<\/strong> Notwithstanding any type of sustainable development or minimum respect for man and nature, paths are paved, and projects are springing up to bring the big industries, relocating them from where they find difficulty in being productive or are kicked out because it is illicit and dangerous for people\u2019s health. All this is because there is a \u201cwork force\u201d at low cost, very low, if not at zero cost; and on the other hand, there are the very wealthy people, ready to exploit the situation. The poor cross the border from <\/strong>Myanmar<\/strong><\/a> to <\/strong>Thailand<\/strong><\/a>, to escape from hunger and the discomforts <\/strong>of a country<\/strong> that is still struggling to<\/strong> reach social equality and protect the less fortunate classes or those of other religions. People are continuously expelled at the checkpoint and there are shooting incidents, with the children bearing the brunt of it all. There is a growing number of orphans, disabled and abandoned children, or those left alone at home while their parents are at work in the plantations. It is really sad to see children suffering! <\/strong>And Mae Sot is full of them.<\/strong> This is why we are trying to do something for them through our project. Every time we go to that area, we find our \u201cspecial spots\u201d: the orphanages, isolated homes in the countryside, and our little school<\/strong> \u00a0Goccia dopo Goccia<\/strong><\/a> (Drop by Drop) with about 60 students: <\/strong>the places where you see so many of those kids with big black eyes that mark your soul indelibly. <\/strong> Our project is now in its 6th year <\/strong>(even if we have been helping the Karen people for decades) and reaches about 250 people in three countries (Thailand, Laos and Vietnam).<\/strong> All are direct and concrete micro projects for families often living below the minimum subsistence threshold. Their needs? Certainly food, clothes, but above all, love <\/strong>which means<\/strong> care<\/strong>, <\/strong>a smile<\/strong>,<\/strong> a bit of attention, in short: someone who says \u201chow are you?\u201d That means meeting people who know how to share the sufferings of a migrant population that is worth very little in the eyes of the rich, and is thus exploited. This is what we are trying to do: helping them, staying by their side, and giving relief, hope and warmth. Through our local contact person our aid reaches them monthly. Every three months we do the rounds of our projects, visiting them to make them feel that they have not been abandoned. They often say, \u201cThe fact that you travel so far to come and visit, gives us the strength and determination to go on living.\u201d Those black eyes and unsmiling faces say more than a thousand words. <\/strong>They remind us of the works of Chiara Lubich<\/a> who inspired our project: \u201cBring to me all the lonely people.\u201d<\/strong> And we feel that these lonely people are all \u201cours\u201d because they are images of the face of Jesus who continues to cry out on the Cross asking for all the love we can give. This is the sense of our project, but even more, it is our intimate joy. By: Luigi Butori   For those who wish to join in the project:<\/strong> Banca Cantonale dei Grigioni, 7002 Coira IBAN-Nr: CH19 0077 4010 2957 6490 0 Goccia dopo Goccia<\/strong><\/a> Residenza Ragazzi 196a CH 7742 Poschiavo, Svizzera e mail:<\/strong> gica.ceccarelli@bluewin.ch oppure<\/strong> gocciadopogoccia.ms@gmail.com Association recognised by the tax administration \u00a0of the Grigione district. Donations can be detracted from taxes..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The border between Thailand and Myanmar, north-east of Thailand, the new frontier eyed by multinational industries. The very place where a new Gospel-inspired project is taking root.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-328848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328848\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}