Baan Kru Noi

Baan Kru Noi  literally means house of Kru Noi.

     So what is Kru Noi ? Not what but who. She is a 69 year old Thai lady who provides a home for orphans in Bangkok Thailand. She has been sharing her home with orphans for the past 35 years. She currently has 55 children living in the home. This is the type of orphanage I was looking for, they do not recieve help from the government or any international aid organizations. I spent about 2 hours there and constantly had children hanging onto me. These children are starved for adult attention, although there are some staff members who assist ms Noi there is just not enough time for all the kids to recieve quality time with the adults.

     There is an old article about Baan Kru Noi here . It is interesting but obviously dated as she now has less than half of the 128 children menioned in the article. She no longer receives the many weekend visitors and donations that she did in years past. I am attempting to raise money to help her and other orphanages, so please donate to world orphans fund or on this blog

View the video or scroll down for pictures

preparing lunch for the children

so many needy children

they all sang a goodbye song

Somebody bought KFC for the kids

Kids playing before lunch

No idea what game they are playing

one of the 4 small dogs

Lined up for Ice Cream

Children everywhere like ice cream

The boys got ice creams that look like bannanas

They held them up and said "monkey"

hard to decide which kind they want

older kids supervise younger ones

I think we bought him out

Mercy Center Bangkok

Mercy Center Bangkok

          I finally found a taxi driver who said he knew where the Mercy Center was at. As I suspected he really was not too sure, but we did finally find it. Mercy Center is located in one of Bangkok’s slum areas, I saw at least three large buildings they own. This is anything but a small orphanage, they have quite a few programs and many people depending on them. They own 33 schools in Thailand and support not only orphans but also the poor people of Klung Toey Bangkok. They have a school there and an HIV hospice, not to mention computer systems and training programs for the children and local people.

      On my arrival I was greeted by Ms Prawina Sompong the communications manager for Mercy Center, she informed me that they were having a graduation ceremony and taking pictures would not be possible today. She then introduced me to Mr John Padorr from Chicago who gave me a short but informative tour of the school and hospice areas. At this time they do not have a well structured volunteer program in place, but did seem open to the idea of accepting volunteers.

The building architecture in Klung Toet is reminiscent of Camodia possibly a French influence at some point ? These buildings are beautifuly built but have not been well maintained for many years. Just from looking I would assume that this area was much more affluent in the past than it is now. 

For more information their websie is located at http://www.mercycentre.org/

Baan Deck Orn Phaya Thai

Baan Deck Orn Phaya Thai

(Babies home in Phaya Thai, Bangkok)

      Another wasted day in the attempt to locate this orphanage. I ended up at an adoption center after a ride on the sky train and two taxi rides. Apparently the orphanage has moved to Nonthaburi on the outskirts of Bangkok.