Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2009. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bangkok Post - May 2, 2009
Charoenluk Phetpradub
In the northeastern dialect, Home means uniting or bringing together and Hug is the equivalent of Rak (love) in central Thai.
So Ban Home Hug more or less means a home that forges love bonds.
The Suthasinee Noi-In Foundation for Children and Juveniles is its official name.
The foundation is located in Prachasan village of tambon Tad Thong in Yasothon's Muang district.
Founded in 1989, Ban Home Hug has been accommodating and taking care of abandoned children, particularly those infected with HIV, or the sexually abused.
The place was officially registered as a foundation in 2000. It looks after more than 100 children of various ages ranging from toddlers, pre-school children to teenagers.
Ms Suthasinee, better known as Khru Tiew, had shouldered the costs of running the foundation and worked hard to secure much needed funds to pay for food, milk, medicine and education fees for kids under the foundation's care.
However, in 2004, Ms Suthasinee was diagnosed with last-stage colon cancer with the doctors giving her no more than two years to live.
But Ms Suthasinee was not discouraged. With a steely determination and a strong sense of purpose, she has managed to battle cancer and is still alive five years later.
She believes her love and compassion for the children was what kept her going.
As she is aware that she does not have too much time left, she has made every moment count.
She says many HIV-infected children are still being discriminated against by members of society despite the fact that HIV is not easily transmitted.
"Many children contract the Aids virus from their parents. It's not their fault. Still, they are treated badly," she said.
"We want to make sure that one day when they die, they will die as happy people. That's why we are doing all we can to make them happy while they're still alive," she said.
The kids in the foundation's care are mostly those who have contracted the disease from their mothers or who are not infected but are treated as unwanted by society because their mothers are infected with HIV.
"Recently members of our staff went to receive an HIV-positive boy who travelled alone to our foundation in a bus.
"When we asked the driver where the child was, the driver gestured towards the back of the bus and said 'there's the trash"'.
Khru Tiew said even a local hospital, which she did not name, had refused HIV-positive children access to medical services for other ailments out of fear that they would pass on the infection to someone.
That forced her to take them to a hospital in Ubon Ratchathani for treatment more than 100 kilometres away.
Khru Tiew said not so long ago a government agency chose to involve the foundation's children in a case study for deeper pneumonia research.
However, after the completion of the study, no one even bothered to send them a copy of their research.
"That's a grim joke about how a state agency treats children," Ms Suthasinee said.
However, she said it was love and care that got them through difficult times.
"I know what the children need. They all need to be loved. Ban Home Hug always offers them love and affectionate hugs.
"The children here are taught to adjust to the harsh realities of life, to learn to know who they are and to forgive," she said.
The foundation welcomes donations which can be made through Siam Commercial Bank's Yasothon branch and the account number is 561-2-21187-7.
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BP090501
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