Athletes!

We have 5 athletes living at Baan Phak Phing right now who are among the best in the region and will soon have an opportunity to break through into the national level. These girls participate in something called Jiu-Jitsu which is a self-defense sport. A couple of years ago we had a volunteer with us for several weeks who taught all the girls self-defense. Due to her participation at a local sports school we were able to send our girls to practice the sport further at this sports school. After a while of practicing on Saturdays it turned out that 5 of our girls really love Jiu-Jitsu and are quite good at it too. The teacher at the school wanted to give them a chance to see if they could get to higher levels in the sport. He, along with other trainers, got them to the point where they started to rise in the regional group. The sport isn’t cheap and we are extremely grateful for the continual financial support of the sport-teacher and his wife as well as the volunteer. They often have to play in competitions and not just in Chiang Rai but also Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

The 5 girls now play at a very high level which takes a lot of dedication because they have to keep their weight in check, so they don’t jump to another weight class, and they have to train every day to keep in shape. They have to do this on top of a full school-week and all their homework but these 5 are fully capable of doing this and they are really enjoying it. They are learning a ton and we have seen them grow a lot in their self-esteem over the past couple of years.

We try to find something that they can learn outside of school for each of the girls, for example: an instrument, something creative, or a new language. When they know what they want we start looking for a good place for them to do this. It is incredibly important to do something you really want and in that way develop new skills.

More Posts

Visiting grandma

Every year the ‘mothers’ take us on a family visit, that is as long as it is safe for us at home. For most of us it is wonderful to see parents, brothers and sisters and sometimes even grandparents again. But sometimes it is difficult, because not everybody has a good relationship with their family.

Read More »

Victory

Early April seven of our girls traveled to Bangkok to compete in a very important self-defense contest, Jiu-Jitsu. Each of them had been training hard to get to this point and now the time was finally there. The journey itself was great fun, because from the gym several young people came along as well as

Read More »

Is all that really for us?

On the property of Baan Phak Phing there is a building with three bedrooms, a living room and a kitchen. Two older girls can live in the bedrooms independently and at the moment two of them are doing so. The building needed a renovation and the kitchen, the living room and the first of the

Read More »