Wednesday 1/4/2015 Day 85 Siam Care Seminar (#siamcare2015 on Twitter)

At last it was time for Siam Care 2015, the seminar where everyone got together for the day, including UK donors, trustees, other donors, the Thai CEO and Thai Board, speakers, Thai sponsor children now studying in college and several like-minded organisations.  I really learned a lot from all of the speakers, although some were more harrowing (the UNODC for example) because there was video footage of some abused children, the police dealing with the cases and the cultural barriers to reporting and appropriate management.

I have posted the programme on Facebook and live tweeted the topics covered yesterday @BarbaraHA with the hashtag #siamcare2015, if you’d  like to have a look.  In summary it was a comprehensive look at abuse including trafficking , sex tourism and cyberabuse (shame on the UK! One UN slide highlighted how the UK was responsible for 30% of the sex tourism offences which were uncovered and dealt with in one recent 10 year period.   There is absolutely no excuse anyone could come up with and the international news reinforces how huge and endemic the problem is in the UK as the horrific cases of  high profile entertainers’ and politicians’ are slowly being revealed and at last reported . 

Siam Care UK donors provide scholarships for young people in three centres in Thailand, and help to fund home visits, counselling and emotional support for anyone on the programmes.  Siam Care also provides crafting opportunities, and the chance for programme participants to train as volunteers and gain valuable independence skills.  Everything is intended to help young people have a better future, with safer life choices.  It is a great thing to learn how many of our young people are now staying in education, and what their longer term plans are. Two fellow speakers Rebecca and Ilya took the following two souvenir pics when I was presenting, and Khachik the last two! Always a blessing to know that I still can present and have a bit of a smile on my face at the same time..

After the seminar we collected our haut couture items and are very happy with them, we ate our last spicy Thai dinner for this trip, and I had my 6^th Thai Yoga massage in as many days.  I will miss this intensive physio!  But I am quite ecstatic that such reliable and skilled work can be carried out with such concern and commitment at such an easily affordable price.  I will always remember Lillies, and their staff La and Ong who worked so hard to remove any blockages, and that took a lot of intuitive work and time!

Wednesday finished with packing, and an early morning alarm set for 4 a.m. How quickly the week has passed. Next up is an adventure via Columbo in Sri Lanka to Abu Dhabi to re-embark the ship in Abu Dhabi. Bye for now xx

Tuesday 31/3/2015 Day 84 Meetings, fittings, tweakings

Today we had our Siam Care trustee meeting in Bangkok which went very well and got me feeling incredibly excited for the 92 Siam Care Children, and all the Thai and English trustees and volunteers heading for the S-C camp.  There's going to be so much laughter on "English can be fun day" with typically English games, baking, singing, and sports activities.  I wish we could be there.

While the S-C meeting was taking place Khachik found the gym and went on the treadmill for an hour, making Sarah and Asa who were sitting near the pool full of admiration for this athletic performance in the heat! The gym has A/C luckily.

Just before lunch today we had a Skype call with Izzy in the UK, it was 8 a.m. there, so we had to keep it short so we didn't mess about with the school preparations.  Warm fuzzy feelings all around Bangkok!

Our afternoon ended with a fitting of our haut couture items, and a little adjustment here and there.  Tomorrow they will be finished.

I have finished tweaking the presentation which I'll be doing around 3 tomorrow.  How exciting. since "retiring" I haven't been doing many presentations like this,  and even though I teach yoga every day, when the opportunity to present with props comes up I do have a very much "at home" feeling.  I shouldn't really be surprised at the comfortable fit, I started formally teaching groups in 1985, and was always doing health ed sessions in schools from 1976.  I do love teaching, but it's good riddance to all the meetings, admin and marking.

Why is the time here going so quickly?  It feels like we have just arrived but we have already had 5 days.

Tomorrow is the seminar, so we need an early morning start so we don't miss registration. This will be the first time we have all been together, and these times are always full of love and generally very emotional. So time to brace ourselves .  Back tomorrow xx