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Foundation for the handicapped receives donation for wheel chairs
Chantawee Punmira
Don Willcox, deputy president of the Creative Foundation
for the Handicapped received a monetary donation to go towards wheel chairs.
Don
Willcox, the deputy president of the foundation receiving the donation for
the Creative Foundation for Handicapped.
Don said, “The foundation was established in 1993 to
support and encourage health, education, careers and social values of the
handicapped living in the north of Thailand. The foundation has set up
several projects, such as the free medicine facility for handicapped
children at Baan Wiang Ping (Home for Boys), the vocational Center at Yad
Fon Center in Chiang Mai and free distribution of polio flyers. The
Foundation and the Yad Fon Vocational Center also arrange computer studies
for these people. In the first two years there were 58 graduates from the
computer class. The foundation also provides equipment, such as canes, steel
leg braces, artificial limbs, wheel chairs, motorcycle attachments and
arranges parking lots for the handicapped at department stores.
This voluntary foundation is funded by donations from those concerned
about the plight of more than 10,000 Thai handicapped. Those interested to
donate should contact 053 240 935 directly. Donations can be received via
money transfers to the account number 501-1-13375-7 at the SCB bank Thapae
Branch.
River of Kings Festival this week
Jeffrey Studebaker
Traditional Thai performances spiced up with
modern pyrotechnics will adorn the dark waters of Bangkok’s Chao Phraya
River every evening during the River of Kings Festival from February 11 to
24.
The festival is financed primarily by the Bangkok Tourist
Bureau (BTB), with more than three million baht (US$75,000). Other sponsors
include the Royal Household and the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT).
Event organiser, CM Organiser CEO, Sermkhun Khunawong,
said the 2005 event is set to be more spectacular in terms of technology.
Two shows are featured nightly from 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Tickets for seats on a floating stadium by the pier start from 400 baht and
may be reserved by calling the Grand Palace office (tel: 0 2222 8181). The
Riverside Hotel (tel: 0 2883 1588) offers river cruises during the event for
800 baht.
Grand Lanna wedding attracts princes and actors to Chiang Mai
Saksit Meesubkwang
Fifty-five couples from around the world have booked to
celebrate their marriage vows at a legendary Lanna wedding ceremony to be
held at the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Resort in San Kamphaeng district
of Chiang Mai during February 26-28.
Kanok Abhiradee, President of Thai Airways said that Thai
Airways, the United Broadcasting Corporation and the Mandarin Oriental Dhara
Dhevi Resort launched the package to promote Thai tourism.
Amongst the distinguished participants are Nepalese
prince, Vivak Basnet, 28, and his fianc้ Ayasama Rana; and Gally
Estrada, 25, the actor son of former Filipino president, Joseph Estrada, who
is to marry Bernadette Alison.
Thai Airways also launched a “Loving Phuket” package
to attract movie producers to make film and TV commercials at Thailand’s
beach venue.
New Thai Lanna Spa president hoping for government hand-outs
Chantawee Punmira
The Thai Lanna Spa Association held its first meeting for
2005 with Dr. Rattawut Sukmee, head of Chiang Mai Provincial Public Health
Office, presiding, at the Angsana Spa in Chiang Mai Green Valley Golf Court.
Chawanus Sinthukaew, was voted in as President this year
to mange the association from 2005–2006. She presented the board and the
committees who would work under the Thai Lanna Spa Association for the first
time. The members immediately asked the new board to set clear regulations
for the standards of spa businesses.
Witthaya Tatiyamorn, secretary of Thai Lanna Spa
Association, explained that there were 52 spa businesses from the eight
provinces of the upper north. The government has become interested since it
considers spas as one of the eleven strategies to support Chiang Mai as a
center for the advancement of tourism. A 780 million budget in 2005 will be
distributed by the government to improve the province and some of the budget
will be given to the spa association, he hoped.
Rabbie Burns - Scotland’s famous bard remembered
Watcharapong Jingkaujai and Editorial staff
For anyone who has more than one drop of Scottish blood
in their veins, January 25 is an important date. Robert Burns, a poor
crofter’s son, was born on January 25 1759, and rose through an enormous
poetic talent to become the most famous of Scottish poets.
Adam
Flinn (1st
right), the organizer of the Burns Night, and Rob Roy (2nd
left), the chief of the Scottish community in Chiang Mai.
Since Scotland is known, not just for oatmeal and whisky,
but also for the emigration of its people all over the world, Chiang Mai has
its fair share of Scots, who came out on the bard’s birthday, as did Scots
everywhere.
 Participants
in the traditional kilt.
Adam Flinn organized the Chiang Mai event and Rob Roy,
the chief of the Scottish community in Chiang Mai, presided over the
evening.
A candle lit dinner was given at which the traditional
Scottish dishes were presented, with the most important being the Haggis, a
dish that is encased in a sheep’s stomach and has to be addressed using
the bards immortal words,
“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm.”
Following the traditional address, the haggis is ritually
stabbed with a ‘skean dhu’ the small Scottish dagger, and distributed
amongst the guests, and the evening then becomes one of song and dance, with
copious amounts of alcohol, a commodity that Scots are famous for producing,
and drinking! Rabbie Burns himself was no exception.
After Auld Lang Syne was played, the Kana Chiang Mai gymnasium on the
Chiang Mai-Lamphun Road was not the place to be without a kilt!
Princesses (and princes) - No peas please!
Dr. Rebecca Lomax
Ten years ago David and Asa Stevenson were caring for a
few Akha children who had been living on the streets in Chiang Mai. Some
were originally trafficked into the city to provide sex services for
pedophiles; some had come looking for work to help their desperately poor
families. As word spread among the kids about the Stevenson’s work, more
and more children and their families sought their help.
The
smiles and the bunch of mattresses say it all
By January of 2000, the Stevensons were forced to look
for a place to expand the program. They purchased land in Mae Suay near
Chiang Rai and built a home and dormitory for thirty children who were at
risk of being sexually exploited because of extreme and long term poverty.
Rotary Clubs, churches and individuals responded with help, but the
Stevensons could barely keep up with the need. Today, the Children of the
Golden Triangle, Inc. provides shelter, life skills training, education and
vocational skills to 315 Akha, Lisu, Lahu, and mixed race girls and boys who
are at risk of being neglected, abused or sexually exploited. Over 400
children and their families sought help in 2004, but the Stevensons could
only take in 130. Another 50 will be accepted in April of 2005; another 50
in September.
 Both
Asa and David grieve that they cannot do more, but they take children based
on “the poorest of the poor, the most desperate”. Consider the plight of
two little boys who had been orphaned at ages five years and five months.
The older child cared for the infant until village people brought the pair
to the Children of the Golden Triangle. Today their energy, smiles and
apparent good health tell the story of almost five years of loving care.
Last weekend the Children of the Golden Triangle had a nice surprise. A
big truck loaded with over 200 thick, soft, and colorful mattresses arrived
in Mae Suay; the mattresses a gift from an anonymous donor. The Stevensons
said it took the older children “about 15 minutes” to unload the
mattresses and stack them neatly in the storage room. New dormitories are
being constructed and the mattresses will both replace old, worn ones that
are in use and go into the new dormitories to wait for the incoming
children. There were no haughty princesses looking for peas under these
mattresses, just the happy smiles of children whose futures are brighter
because of the work of Asa and David Stevenson and their volunteers.
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