Unfortunately we often see children enter into our program who have been abandoned by their parents. This is a common occurrence in Thailand. In fact, most children in orphanages aren't actually orphans, they still have parents, but they cannot or do not want to take care of them. Big-C is one of these children. This is his story.
Big-C (for his protection, the photo is from another child) is an 8-year-old boy who lives with his grandfather Sakhon (1972), grandmother Sim (1970 and brothers Ice (2009) and Sprite (2012) in Mukdahan, in the poor and dry northeast of Thailand. Both parents of the boys are completely out of the picture and so the care falls to their old and partially disabled grandfather and grandmother.
When Big-C was 2 years old, his parents divorced and both disappeared overnight. Which meant that grandparents suddenly had to take care of their three grandsons. They both worked as farmers and were quite poor. This was exacerbated when grandmother broke her leg and had to have it amputated after an infection. This makes working an enormous challenge and only Grandpa now earns a small income. He grows rice and goes into the forest in search of edible products. The family lives in a simple hut, which was recently renovated with the help of Siam-Care. The roof was leaking and the walls had rotted and the family had no money to tackle this (see photo below, which was taken when the house was finished). They live secluded on a dusty piece of land, far from civilization.
Received bicycle from Siam-Care
Big-C and Ice are both a bit shy, Sprite is a bit more talkative. They can only go to school with the help of Siam-Care and have all received a bicycle from Siam-Care so that they can cycle to school together. They help out a lot around the house and don't yet know what they want to become when they grow up.
