Greetings From Thailand

December 2007

Dear Supporters of the 100 Friends Project,

So far this year I have been using your donations for humanitarian projects in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal and Indonesia. The project is also supporting projects in The Philippines, Gaza, Guatemala and Sri Lanka. In the remaining two months I am in Asia more projects will be carried out in Thailand and Cambodia, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, and Kham (Eastern Tibet).

When I started the 100 Friends Project 19 years ago I raised $2,200 from my friends (100 of them, in fact). In 2004, we raised $18,300, in 2005, we raised $40,465, and in 2006 we raised $73,518.

So far, in 2007 we have raised about $110,000!

You can view photos individually or in a slide show format related to all the activitites described below by clicking here:

View Slideshow

Here are ten humanitarian activities that have been achieved with the help of your generosity:

1. Afghanistan: The school 100 Friends committed to build in Afghanistan is almost 50% complete! This is the first school funded by 100 Friends. We will fund at least one new school every year.

2. Iraq: The $10,000 that 100 Friends committed to help children in Iraq has been raised and delivered. If you'd like to read the report on exactly how it was utilized, send me an email and I'll send it to you. The funds were administered by an organization called War Child. This is a quote from one of the street children, a 10 year old girl named Alama: "I felt that I have never been a child at any day of my life." Street children from Iraq received counseling, outreach materials, food, medicine, shelter, clothing, books, school supplies and many other services. Your donation has been well spent!

3. Cambodia: Last year 100 Friends supported eight children rescued from the Steung Meanchey Municipal Garbage Dump in Phnom Penh. This year 100 Friends donors are supporting twelve children. These kids are all privileged to live at the Center for Children's Happiness. To see a video about the rescue of children from the dump in 2005 click here. Reports are available by email upon request. It costs $800 per year to sponsor a child. The project is also providing support to several other orphanages in Cambodia and an anti-trafficking campaign. We are also providing food, education medical expenses and supplies for the Peace Orphanage and NACA Orphanage in Phnom Penh (cost approximately $3,000 per year).

4. Cambodia: 100 Friends has hired a young man in Cambodia named Ravuth. His mission since last June has been to find elderly people who do not have the usual extended family to look after them. Rauth goes on his motorbike delivering food, cash, medicine and other items to the elderly in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He also helps them to solve problems, holds their hands, cleans their houses and takes them to the doctor. A new young person has been hired to expand this worthwhile program.

5. Bali: 100 Friends has paid for medical operations for three children in Bali, Indonesia. I found a wonderful organization that has been helping the poor on Bali (and there are many!) for about 25 years. They are the John Fawcett Foundation. The three children are named Dwipayana, Yogik and Kutut. Dwipayana has Down's Syndrome and he has an imperforate anus. 100 Friends is paying for his surgery and there are photos of him in the attached slide show. Kadek was born without a left leg below the knee and we are helping to pay for a prosthetic leg. About 18 months ago little Ketut was terribly burned in an accident involving petrol. It left him with horrific scars and he cannot attend school because some of the children tease him mercilessly. 100 Friends is paying for home schooling for at least the next 12 months.

100 Friends is also supporting a blind boy named Putu and a little girl who has never walked, all living in Bali.

6. Vietnam: 100 Friends provides yearly support for Blue Dragon, an outreach program for street children in Hanoi. We are also helping rural children in various communities. We visited Quan, the boy with a neurofibroma resulting in an extremely large extension of his jaw. He has had two surgeries and is looking more and more normal. 100 Friends has offered to pay for his education all the way through university if he wants to complete his studies. I visited the National Pediatric Hospital, bought teddy bears and other stuffed animals, toy trucks and musical instruments for all 42 children on the medical wards. 100 Friends will pay for operations for 3 or 4 children. This is all bring done through Humanitarian Services for Children. They took me to the countryside where 100 Friends has been sponsoring 10 families. I met 5 of the ten families and the support will continue for at least another year.

7. One story I have been following for years is the plight of women in places like Pakistan who have had acid thrown in their face, usually by their husbands. Nearly 280 women were killed and 750 were injured in 2002 from acid attacks. Acid burns rarely kill but result in serious disfigurement and suffering which confine women to their homes leading to social isolation and depression. They call it "tezab," sharp water in Urdu. Normally used for agricultural purposes, nitric and hydrochloric acid are easily obtainable and all too often turned into weapons for men against women and their families. Sometimes the attacked women are seeking a divorce or the husband is seeking a second wife over the objections of the first wife. Sometimes the triggering event can be as trivial as an argument over grocery money. 100 Friends donated $1,000 to November 11, a group that supports these women via photographer Stephanie Sinclair. I have seen shockingphotos of numerous women who have had acid thrown in their face but I am not displaying them on the web site.

8. In response to the crisis and subsequent brutal crackdown by the ruling junta in Myanmar (Burma) 100 Friends has participated in three initiatives: (1) In October 2007 I went to the Mae La Refugee Camp on the Thai/Myanmar border where 60,000 people live under very difficult conditions. It was heartbreaking to see so many people who cannot return to their own country and also cannot live freely in Thailand. When I asked them what they wanted most they all said, "Freedom". A report with photos is available to anyone who expresses an interest. Funds were to support children, families and the elderly. (2) I have been assisting my dear friend Tu Lu from the Living Waters Center. She is a Burmese social worker living in Bangkok who has been helping Burmese migrants for more than 14 years. Her main areas of work with children who in the jails, detention centers and shelters. She also runs several schools for migrant kids near the borders and these children would miss out on education entirely if not for her. (3) I was honored to meet and assist Nay Tin Myint. He spend 17 years in Burmese prisons for being part of the student democracy movement. He was tortured repeatedly and now he manages a small house in the Thai city of Mae Sot for those fleeing the current crackdown (about 40 people are there). Photos and a report are available upon request.

9. Nepal is still trying to recover from the civil war. 100 Friends played a small role in the recovery process by helping the elderly, orphans and prisoners. I went 1 hour from Kathmandu to the Mathatirtha Old Age Home were I met about 24 frail and elderly ladies living in very difficult circumstances: crowded, no heat, unclean, not enough medical care, little money to run the place, inadequate food, etc. Donated $500 for food, doctor visits and medicine. Also visited an incredibly poor orphanage called Bal Griha with 26 children living in squalid conditions. Donated $1400 for supplies, food, rent and other expenses. These kids are "rescued" from remote mountain villages. I went with the house mother on a shopping trip and purchased blankets, sweaters, shoes, beds, kitchen equipment, and food. I also went to three prisons and donated educational materials, art supplies and water purifiers to the prisoners.

10. In November 2007 100 Friends purchased and distributed several hundred insecticide-treated mosquito nets for use in Kompot Province in Southern Cambodia. We were greeted by hundreds of local villagers, television crews, the Cambodia Daily newspaper and the local governor. This area is infested with malaria and this effort alone could protect up to 1000 people from malaria and dengue fever.

Future plans:

On December 2nd I will go with a professional photographer (Mark Tomaras), a documentary film maker (Lisa Safarik) and a journalist (Andrea Blum) to Chengdu in Sechuan Province near Tibet. During next three weeks we'll be traveling throughout the region in bitter winter weather with Dr.Tsultrim Dargye and a Tibetan driver in Kham Province (incredibly poor area). I'll purchase about $7,000 worth of medicine, school supplies, first aid kits, medical supplies, vitamins, blankets, toys and warm clothes. It will be freezing but amazing and I'm told we'll save some lives for sure.

Next year another school will be build, this time in Nepal. We have plans starting for a mission in 2008 to Niger, Malawi and Rwanda in Africa, three of the poorest countries in the world. We will build schools, drill wells, develop various livelihood projects, and provide medicines and malaria nets and much more.

I cannot do it alone, I need your help! All donations are tax deductible.