I am honoured and to present our very first Guest Blogger, Jax @ Nature’s Little Ways and to present a most exciting venture!
Project Phuket
Finally, we are going on a family holiday….to Thailand! This is where my hubby and I had first locked eyes or backpacks I should say….my hubby to be (little did he know) thought I had accidently taken his backpack, later to discover his was stacked underneath about 50 others on the roof racks of the minibus. I think he was quite embarrassed about the scene he had made and to make it even more awkward, he bumped into me later that day only to realise he was staying in the next bungalow! However, by the end of the 4 week trip island hopping from beach to bungalow, we had fallen in love. Eight years later, with 3 kiddliwinks and celebrating our 5th year wedding anniversary, we made the decision to share our story with our 3 gorgeous boys by taking them to the place where we fell in love.
When I travelled to Thailand in 2003, my whole life changed. Gone now are the days of spending significant amounts of money on shoes, dresses, handbags, labelled sunglasses and designer furniture. I suddenly realised that all the things I had craved from living in Western Society was totally unnecessary. After visiting villages in Chang Mai and witnessing their happy smiling faces, I found that even though they only had a hut and a couple of stray dogs to their name, these people were experiencing true happiness in life. These people, to me, were the luckiest people in the world living a simple life of bliss with their family.
So, venturing to Phuket nine years later, I would like my children to see Thailand as I did. A beautiful happy place where materials are meaningless and the simple pleasures in life, such as sharing your experiences with your family, makes it memorable and enjoyable. I wanted my children to also see the hardships some Thai people experience in life. My plan if all goes well, is to hopefully instill the boys with endless amounts of appreciation, gratitude, humility, compassion and may they forever be full of give.
I wanted the boys to be able to relate to the people we visited, so I started looking for orphanages in Phuket. There are many orphanages in Phuket, however, the one that caught our attention was the orphanage attached to the women’s prison in Phuket Town. I have read from tripadvisor.com.au that
‘Some children there have mothers in the prison next door and spend their days in the day care centre and at night time sleep in the prison with their mothers in unpleasant conditions. Some have no parents and are only offered shelter from 9am to 6pm. After that I don’t know what happens to them. There are 60+ children there under the age of 10.’
Wishing this never to happen to my own children, this was heartbreaking to read and I wish I could go over and scoop up all these children and bring them home with me. Thankfully, after explaining this to the kiddliwinks and making the decision of visiting for a morning, my eldest boy, Harrison, announced that he’d like to take something over with us that would help to make their life a little more comfortable. He suggested some of his toys. Phew… this was already starting to go to plan and we hadn’t even arrived yet! After a lot of discussion we all decided that good quality clothing would be beneficial for warmth, comfort and self esteem.
After telling my good friend, Debs, about the trip we have organised, and our plan to take a suitcase of hand-me-down clothes provided by parents from Harrison’s school. She suggested we take it to the next level and ship boxes of clothes over not only for the orphanage, but also the woman’s prison. So…..we are calling all our readers to send boys and girl’s summer clothes ranging from 0-10 years of age, as well as women’s summer clothing between the sizes of 6-12 (they are tiny over there!). Please make sure they’re in good condition and please contact either Deb here at The Women in Wellness Project or myself at Nature’s Little Ways to organise drop off or postage of the items.
PLEASE ENSURE that all items are packaged and sealed in a BOX ready to be delivered.
DEADLINE for all items will be October 30th, 2012.
Thanks for your compassion and we look forward to hearing from you.
Jax Sherlock @ NaturesLittleWays
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