Pattaya Street Kids Support Project

[Dick]

Those who were reading the Sawatdee Board this time last year will have read of the good work of this UK based charity. Every year the Project organises Childrens' Parties for the kids in the slums, the Hauy Pong Home, and those less well off who receive help through their sponsorship scheme. Christmas and New Year is not so far off, so I am again posting a link to the Project's website in the hope that readers of the Board might again contribute towards these parties. £2.50 or $5 is all that's required to pay for 1 child to attend the Party!

October Report and New Year Party Appeal

 

Some on Sawatdee Board who queried whether this was a pukka cause with the transparency expected of any genuine charity, were I believe satisfied with the answers provided by the Trustees and those of our membership who are already familiar with the Project. The Treasurer is very willing to answer any questions and provide access to published accounts for the asking. All the Trustees and those working for the Project do so on a voluntary basis, so 100% of all contributions received without any deductions for expenses or administration go to benefit the kids.

 

You can make a contribution for the Parties, or a general donation here

If paying with Paypal, please use the notes section on the Paypal page to state how you wish the money used.

 

If everyone contributes just $5, it's going to make an awfully lot of youngsters happy again. You can find last years report with photos from the parties with this here

 

Thanks for reading

[Guest]

Thanks Dick. I tried to make a paypal donation but it did not recognize the paypal e-mail address they use on their website. Are you sure that they use that e-mail as a verified e-mail account? I know this is not your charity but any info would be appreciated.

[Dick]

Thanks Dick. I tried to make a paypal donation but it did not recognize the paypal e-mail address they use on their website. Are you sure that they use that e-mail as a verified e-mail account? I know this is not your charity but any info would be appreciated.

 

I just tried it myself.

streetkids@ntlworld.com worked fine for me. Payment went through without problems.

Please try again in case it was a typo. If you still have problems I'll check with the Treasuer for any alternative email address.

 

Many thanks for your support.

[Guest]

I just tried it myself.

streetkids@ntlworld.com worked fine for me. Payment went through without problems.

Please try again in case it was a typo. If you still have problems I'll check with the Treasuer for any alternative email address.

 

Many thanks for your support.

 

Thanks. I guess my concern is that usually on Paypal it says Verified Member or Unverified Member. When it says nothing, it means the e-mail is not set up as an account. Often that means that e-mail does not get the cash unless they enroll in Paypal. Am I wrong on this? Paypal has changed a bit over the past week and have updated parts of their site so maybe this is a glitch. If you can confirm with them that they got your payment, that is all I really need to know. Thanks.

[Dick]

Thanks. I guess my concern is that usually on Paypal it says Verified Member or Unverified Member. When it says nothing, it means the e-mail is not set up as an account. Often that means that e-mail does not get the cash unless they enroll in Paypal. Am I wrong on this? Paypal has changed a bit over the past week and have updated parts of their site so maybe this is a glitch. If you can confirm with them that they got your payment, that is all I really need to know. Thanks.

 

I got a message from Paypal telling me my payment had been successfully sent - as I would usually expect from Paypal.

Their email address is the same as has been used by many last year, and I know the Project received those payments. Never the less, I already messaged the Treasurer to ask if they had an alternative email address in case of further difficulties by those trying to use papal.

 

If you require any reassurance about the account, please don't hesitate to email a message directly to the Project using the same email address. The Treasurer will I am sure respond promptly to answer any queries.

[Guest fountainhall]

I registered for paypal ages ago, only once used it and have completely forgotten my account, password etc.! For those of use who live here in Thailand, is there a local bank account where we can simply transfer some money? Are account details posted on any website?

[Dick]

I registered for paypal ages ago, only once used it and have completely forgotten my account, password etc.! For those of use who live here in Thailand, is there a local bank account where we can simply transfer some money? Are account details posted on any website?

 

Sorry fountainhall, but there is no local Thai account. Paypal offers the easiest way to transfer money without incurring expensive bank transfer charges.

Possibly you have a friend with a Paypal account that can send a donation off for you?

[Dick]

Thanks. I guess my concern is that usually on Paypal it says Verified Member or Unverified Member. When it says nothing, it means the e-mail is not set up as an account. Often that means that e-mail does not get the cash unless they enroll in Paypal. Am I wrong on this? Paypal has changed a bit over the past week and have updated parts of their site so maybe this is a glitch. If you can confirm with them that they got your payment, that is all I really need to know. Thanks.

 

Dear GT,

 

This is the reply I received from the Treasurer in response to my query:-

 

" Hi Dick.

 

Thanks for the email and your efforts on behalf of the kids.

 

You test donation arrived OK thanks and we often have donations in

from the states and other parts of the world without any difficulty.

 

We do not have an alternative PayPal address as being a charity we

are only permitted to use one address.

 

If there is any further problems that you hear of then I would be

pleased to know so that I can contact PayPal and raise the matter.

 

Thanks

Don

 

http://www.pattayastreetkids.org "

 

 

I hope this helps to verify the authenticity of their email address for paypal.

 

 

 

 

[Guest]

Thanks Dick. I sent a donation on behalf of the staff here at GayThailand.com. We wish them all the best. I am sure they appreciate your help in this. As my mother used to say, "we always need to help out the do gooders." Any agency who does great works deserves the help and assistance of those of us who can assist. Thanks for bring this to our attention.

[Dick]

Thanks Dick. I sent a donation on behalf of the staff here at GayThailand.com. We wish them all the best. I am sure they appreciate your help in this. As my mother used to say, "we always need to help out the do gooders." Any agency who does great works deserves the help and assistance of those of us who can assist. Thanks for bring this to our attention.

 

Many thanks GT for the kind generosity of the staff at GayThailand.com

 

I perhaps should have mentioned the reason this appeal goes out in October, is that it takes a good few weeks to get donations in. Until funds are received, the Trustees don't know how many kids they will be able to invite or make arrangements for.

 

So A BIG Thank You to you GT for leading the way with your prompt donation.

BRAVO!

[Guest]

I perhaps should have mentioned the reason this appeal goes out in October, is that it takes a good few weeks to get donations in. Until funds are received, the Trustees don't know how many kids they will be able to invite or make arrangements for.

 

It takes so long because they don't have a verified account. They should go into their paypal account and verify it as a business. The funds would then be instant and they would be able to retreive them via a debit card or by withdrawing the money directly to their verified bank account. My BF in Thailand has a paypal debit card and he withdraws money daily or weekly and paypal only changes 1USD per transaction. That is less than my regular bank.

 

Let me also suggest Epassporte.com I have used them for over a year and their service is great and easy to get the cash.

 

Lastly, maybe they want to get a Thai account for the guys in Thailand. The easier things are for people to donate, the more they will get. IMHO. Nothing critical meant at all in the above. Just suggestions to get money faster.

 

Good luck with your drive.

[Dick]

It takes so long because they don't have a verified account. They should go into their paypal account and verify it as a business. The funds would then be instant and they would be able to retreive them via a debit card or by withdrawing the money directly to their verified bank account. My BF in Thailand has a paypal debit card and he withdraws money daily or weekly and paypal only changes 1USD per transaction. That is less than my regular bank.

 

Let me also suggest Epassporte.com I have used them for over a year and their service is great and easy to get the cash.

 

Lastly, maybe they want to get a Thai account for the guys in Thailand. The easier things are for people to donate, the more they will get. IMHO. Nothing critical meant at all in the above. Just suggestions to get money faster.

 

Good luck with your drive.

 

Thanks GT. I'll pass your comments and suggestions on to the Treasurer. I don't know if there are restrictions in the Charity Rules about what accounts might be held where, but being in the UK the charity can often enhance the amount of the donation by the standard rate of UK income tax for donations received from UK based contributors. It can claim this money from the UK tax man under 'Gift Aid'.

 

When I said it takes a good few weeks to get donations in, I was referring not to the paypal transaction which seems instant, but to persuading would be contributors to actually make a donation. Sometimes those who intend to, but hadn't yet got around to it, appreciate the reminders in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

[Guest pete1969]

Thanks Dick. I sent a donation on behalf of the staff here at GayThailand.com. We wish them all the best. I am sure they appreciate your help in this. As my mother used to say, "we always need to help out the do gooders." Any agency who does great works deserves the help and assistance of those of us who can assist. Thanks for bring this to our attention.

 

GT,

 

It is nice to see yet another gay Thailand message board support worthy Thai charities. This board and Ting-Tong have been very generous and set a great example. I just wish more posters could support these two boards who are so proactive in giving back.

 

And thanks to Dick for always championing this worthy cause every year.

 

Pete

[Guest PSKSP]

Hi.

I am the Treasurer and a Trustee of The Pattaya Street Kids' Support project and have registered on your forum to try and answer some of the questions raised in this thread.

 

Firstly we wish to thank the staff at GayThailand.com for their generous donations towards our Christmas and New Year appeal. Your support is truly appreciated and you can rest assured that 100% of the donation will be used for the benefit of the children that we are helping.

 

To try and clarify a couple of other points raised earlier:

 

Our PayPal account is a Verified Account and the delay that Dick referred to in getting donations did refer to the fact that we have to launch the appeal well before Christmas to ascertain what funding we will have by the time Christmas arrives. Monies sent via PayPal are received instantly and we are able to withdraw these funds direct to our bank account without charge to the charity. We acknowledge all donations recieved by PayPal back to the senders email address.

 

We do not have a Thai bank account where donations can be made as we are a small charity based in the south of England, registered and governed by The Charity Commissioners of the United Kingdom and their regulations do not permit us to have an overseas bank account. This regulation is in the interests of both the charity and its donors and ensures that all transactions can be verified the the Charity Commissioners.

 

The PayPal website has been undergoing some changes during the last 24 hours and this may have caused some glitches to anyone trying to send funds to us. If this is the case then we apologise but as we have had a number of donations via PayPal today we think that the PayPal website is now back to functioning fully.

 

If anyone has any any difficulty in sending funds via PayPal we can be contacted direct at streetkids@ntlworld.com where we will be happy to answer any questions about the charity. Information of the charity can be found on our website and the October 2007 report can be found at this link:

http://www.pattayastreetkids.homestead.com/Oct2007rept.html

 

100% of all donations are used for the benefit of the children. The trustees meet the running costs of the charity and any personal travel costs privately.

 

 

 

100 Years From Today

It will not matter how big your bank account was, the sort of house you lived in, or the kind of car you drove. But the world may be a little better because your help touched the life of one child.

 

 

 

[Dick]

I am aware that some readers are unable to access the Sawatdee Board where Naughty but Nice posted in a similar thread in response to some negative comment. I am therefore taking the liberty of copying his post here for the benefit of others, as he makes some very worthwhile comments:

 

" I will declare my interest in this charity as I sponsor two girls and a boy in Pattaya for their education and have done so for 3years.

 

If the detractors had bothered to read the charity's website they would learn that the New Year Parties are just a small part of the work that they support in Pattaya. The charity sponsors more than 80 children from the Pattaya slums for full-time education, supplies food and water/milk for the children at the GoPai slum in Pattaya at a community centre that they re-built for the kids.

 

At the HauyPong home the charity have supplied computer equipment, sports equipment, a bus so the kids can go camping, sponsored education for children there, equipped a dorm for 40 boys ( and are refurbishing another dormitory this December-January).

 

Supply regular food, mosquito nets, regular water deliveries and medical care for kids in the various slum dwelling in an around Pattaya. Pay for hospital treatment for the kids and drugs and medicines where needed.

 

The above is all detailed on the website.

 

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the charity trutees when he was in Bangkok earlier this year and we discussed the aims and ambitions of the charity. I and a fellow director at my company were impressed with the fact that the four trustees of the charity absorb the administrative costs themselves as well as their personal travel costs and I am now looking forward to meeting another of their trustees when she visits Thailand in November and a second trustee when he is in Thailand during the New Year. Our company website carried the charity's website address on our Charity page and we encourage our commercial clients to consider supporting the project. We are a financial banking organisation and make many in depth enquiries into any organisation we support to safeguard our own credibilty.

 

The charity has also received support from Hewlett Packard, Hard Rock Hotel, Scottish Rail and a number of rotary clubs. none of these organisations would support a charity unless they had been completely satisfied as to the credentials of the charity.

 

The whole idea of the parties is that it gives the charity trustees the chance to meet the kids and find out about their progress and their needs. It brings more than 500 children together over a few days, a number that the trustees would never be able to meet and talk to if they had to visit the various slums the kids come from. Let's be honest almost every child knows what Christmas & New Year celebrations are about, but whether or not kids as poor as those the charity is supporting ever get to experience some real happiness on those days depends on the generosity of others.

 

As far as the religious angle accusations go, the charity make it clear that they have no religious bias and in fact under UK charity law they are not permitted to do so.

 

So for one I am more than happy to continue my support the the Pattaya Street Kids' Project and would urge other to consider doing so. www.pattayastreetkids.org "

 

 

[Dick]

 

The Treasurer of the Street Kids Support Project has told me they have so far accounted for over GBP600/$1200 in donations which they directly attribute to the appeal on the Gay Thailand Message Boards. In addition, a number of local expatriate residents have asked to be put on to their mailing list, coupled with offers of local help. I am also aware of readers who have expressed an interest in sponsoring kids.

 

On behalf of the Project may I express my sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed towards the New Year Party Appeal and to the support of the Project, and my special thanks to the Adminsitrators of this Board for their support from the outset as helped bring this to the early attention of our readers. All the money we are able to raise does make a difference. 100% of all donations go directly to benefit the kids.

 

The Appeal for donations continues. If anyone wishes to make a donation, there is still time. Please follow the links to the Projects website to make a donation by paypal. $5 is all it takes to pay for a slum kid to attend the New Year Party and receive a worthwhile gift - usually an item of clothing they have asked for. It's perhaps their one highlight of the year. If you wish to make a general or specific donation, just say how the money should be used in the notes section on the paypal webpage.

Please visit the website to see some of the work that is being carried out by the Project www.pattayastreetkids.org

 

Thank you all very much.

[Guest PSKSP]

Thanks Dick. I sent a donation on behalf of the staff here at GayThailand.com. We wish them all the best. I am sure they appreciate your help in this. As my mother used to say, "we always need to help out the do gooders." Any agency who does great works deserves the help and assistance of those of us who can assist. Thanks for bring this to our attention.

 

I am the treasurer of the Pattaya Street Kids' Support Project a registered charity based in the UK.

 

In October you were generous enough to send us a donation on behalf of your members towards the parties that we hold for the street and slum kids in Pattaya and for the kids at the Hauy Pong Children's Home in Rayong.

 

Regrettably I had to delay my visit to Pattaya by one month owing to some unexpected surgery but am pleased to report that everything we had planned (and a lot more) did go ahead albeit a few weeks late.

 

I will prepare a full report of the trip during the next few weeks and this will be available on our website. In the interim I have uploaded about 80 photos of the New Year Party at the Hauy Pong Home at this link: http://pattayastreetkids977.fotopic.net/ for your members to view.

 

I hope that they will see from the pictures that they helped to make the 498 kids who were at the party very, very happy.

 

 

[Dick]

This year's report from the Trustees on the Childrens Parties has just been issued.

It isn't on their website yet but a copy is attached to this post.

 

It's a good read! You may be encouraged to know that the supporter referred to who visited the Project is a member of our Forum(s).

 

The Parties were held a little later this year as one of the Trustees who plays a vital role had to go into hospital just prior to Christmas.

 

Thanks once again to everyone who contributed. You did a good thing!

 

Post Script: The report is now available online here

March_2008_Newsletter.pdf