On a recent trip to Phuket I met an amazing women, Roelien Muller, Director, Asia Center Foundation Phuket-Thailand, who has created and delivered a number of educational and healthcare projects targeting the needs of the underprivileged, especially women and children, in Phuket and surrounding areas. I thought I’d share my interview with her.

Interview:

As I got out of the car to meet Roelien, the head of the Asia Center Foundation I walked into a collection of 50 young European and Americans, milling about waving paint rollers, sticking their name labels on their tee shirts discussing what colour and where to start their painting project. They were part of a volunteer group that spends 2-3 months a year on community projects-helping out, and today they were the paint detail on the Asia Center’s house in the Kathu district of Phuket.

“Help from volunteer groups is a great asset to us,” commented Roelien as we picked our way through the paint pots to her office in the back of the building. “ There are so many jobs that need to be done here and at the other centres but unless they are critical we rely on individuals and groups who volunteer their time to get them done.”

 I had come to visit Roelien on the suggestion of a friend of hers who supports the Foundation and its work without any real idea of what the NGO did or why. Over a coffee and the next 5 hours Roelien showed me around the two pre schools she operated for the poorest of the poor children in Phuket, and shared her story and vision.

 Roelien, a South African by birth had arrived in Phuket in 2000, joining an American missionary on a project he was working on. Driven by a strong Christian conviction, and seeking a more fulfilling purpose in life, Roelien arrived in Phuket with her then 8 year old son, committing to work with Dr Danny Martin for one year as his assistant. Not long after they started their work with churches in Asia, Roelien and other team members were asked to teach English to street vendors in Patong. While teaching English to adults, their children also came to the lessons which was presented in a huge slum area amidst the expensive Patong hotels.  Roelien wanted to do something for the children and decided to make use of the Asia Center Foundation, a NGO that was registered by Dr Martin with the purpose to reach out to the local community. It was registered in 2001 but no projects was done yet through the Foundation.  Dr Martin assisted Roelien in presenting a funding proposal to the World Children’s Fund in America and with start-up capital from them, she started the Patong Childcare Center. The aim was to provide a safe place for children living in the slum during the day while their parents have to work or sleep due to their work requirements.  Children started to come to her centre to play, draw, have a nutritious meal, make new friends and feel safe. It was clear to Roelien there was a need to support the children of poor families, and those of women ‘working’ at night and a childcare facility was the best option to provide the children with a protective environment.

The help Roelien provided was free of charge and open to anyone who wanted it. “ We didn’t judge people or try to tell them what to do, we were there to help them and their children where we could. The area where we worked consisted of pretty rough, wooden and corrugated iron shacks without running water or facilities. This was before the Tsunami. It was the area for the poorest of the poor and there wasn’t much help or care for the children.”

“We were fortunate to be able to rent two of the only four concrete rooms in the area. We broke a door through to connect the 2 rooms and that was our Center. With not much room in there the children would play, eat and sleep during the day, and on Fridays we’d take them down to the beach to have lunch, play and swim”. 

 Before long there were 24 children. The Center was too small and yet more children required help. Then the tsunami hit us. In 2005 everyone was evicted from the slum area due to a new development that was going up and a road that needed to be build right where we had our little place. Our office already re-located from Rawai to Kathu area and we had to find a new location for the Center in Patong.  Property for rent was, and still is, very expensive in Patong but the Patong hospital graciously provided a room on their premises for us from where we could continue to help children in Patong.  After much searching and discussion a ‘new’ premises was found, close to the ACF office in Kathu.  We moved in 2006 to an old hall which we rent from a local primary school behind the ACF office.

 Roelien comments that International volunteers and expat business people, banded together to create partitions, replace the broken glass shutters and sort out the plumbing and outside areas during the last few years to improve the facility. Funding support was secured from the World Children’s Fund and still cover the cost of the pre-school, including the staffing needs, meals and operational requirements until today.

The pre-school grew from 24 students in 2002 to the 65 3-6 year olds I visited on that March day. As we drove up we had to stop in the driveway as the Class of 2012 was having their graduation photos taken, complete with academic gowns and mortar boards. After 3-4 years at pre school they would be heading to the primary school next door at the start of the new school year.

I asked Roelien what home environment the children came from. “ Most,” she said, “where not orphans from the Tsunami, although some might have lost family members and most of the older children can’t remember it clearly. They come from very poor families and would be left at home most often without proper supervision all day if they didn’t come here. Some live in Patong and their mothers have to work, so they’d be left inside their one room hut or roam around their local area. It’s not a safe place for the kids and they basically have to look after each other.”

The students arrive or get picked up from the Patong area and surrounding communities and spend from 8am to 4pm at the pre school. Equipment and the school building is VERY basic, much of it created by the four teachers and assistants.

They are provided with meals including additional protein and multi-vitamins through a program supported by a doctor and his friends from the US. Each afternoon they pull out their sleeping mats and rest, inbetween times playing, learning the basics of Thai and English, maths and social studies. Roelien is keen to grow the pre school and is actively looking for larger premises down the road, indeed she takes several phone calls during our time together to discuss the building she has her eye on.

“I’d really like a facility that is big enough so that any child that is poor has a place where they can come to get an education, do some sports and have the opportunity to develop their God-given talents. I’d like to create an official school so that the people we are training to work in the pre-school can get a recognised child care certification. It’s a big goal but I am a project orientated person and I know I can make this happen with the support and further development of my team.”

“All it takes is $350 a year to sponsor one child on our Scholarship Program. We don’t receive support from the government so we rely on the World Children’s Fund support and individual sponsors…we have some good support coming from the teams participating in the Phuket International Rugby Ten’s competition each year which supports our Scholarship Program. We are also managing a Youth Developmental Program which includes Lifeskill and Leadership Development and sport. With the support and cooperation of the Phuket Vagabonds Rugby club we now have registered our own rugby club, called the Phuket Lomas Youth Rugby Club. Despite the current support, there’s much more need and much more we can do”.

On that note we head off across Phuket to the port area. We’re off to visit the second pre-school Roelien has established, this one for the children of Burmese immigrants.

“The Thai government does not want to encourage the Burmese immigrants so we are also not able to work with children from illegal families.

Burmese people are allowed to work in the construction, fishing and agriculture fields in Thailand and previously were paid way less than the Thai’s. They tend to live and work around the jobs they can get. 

“I started the Burmese pre-school as I saw there was a need in this community-even more so than the poor Thai’s if you can imagine that. The Burmese children are allowed to attend Thai schools but in reality it doesn’t happen. So there’s no real place for them to receive any education. So I wanted to help.”  Recently though, we heard that due to Thailand joining the ASEAN agreements, it is now required that all Thai schools accept Burmese students if they have the right documentation and if they speak Thai. They want to phase it in by 2015.

The pre-school we visit looks like a boarded up, derelict warehouse from the front. Garbage is mounting up across the road from the building and the smell of fish permeates the air. “The smell’s not so bad today,” comments Roelien, “as its overcast and not so hot. On hot days its really strong and we don’t have air conditioning so it gets pretty tough on the carers and the children”.

We enter through the side door into a large open area that has a basic kitchen, well sinks,  a burner, water in a plastic tank with a hose coming out of it. But it’s neat, clean and tidy. A low table is in one corner with ‘little chairs’ and along the wall behind the table are a row of hooks each with a face cloth and plastic cup hanging from them.

It’s after lunch so we quietly make our way through to the front part of the building where the curtains are drawn and 35 little bodies are in various states of sleeping, flopping over form one side to another or popping their heads up to see who has come in. It’s nap time and all is quiet.

It’s not a flash building,” comments Roelien, “but it’s the best we could get and its quite expensive for the area. There’s no point putting air-conditioning in as we don’t have a long lease and it would cost way too much money”. 

It certainly wasn’t flash by any standard and it made me think about the amazing pre-school environments enjoyed by children in Australia. Still, the whole place was spotlessly clean, organised and there was a tangible feeling of safeness and warmth that had nothing to do with the air temperature. Roelien’s gentle but firm way with the support staff and children was as natural as it was nurturing. There’s a steely toughness to this lady and there are rules that the parents of the children have to follow. Not quite ‘tough love’ but clear and respectful boundaries.

As we sit in the small reading room that has 5 basic computers along one wall, talking we move from the results of her work to the motivation and the challenges. 

“I believe that what has happened in your past shapes the person you are today. My mother passed away when I was only 14 which meant I had to grow up earlier than others in some ways. Before that we always had foster children in our home and my father brought people home all the time to help them. One time he arrived home with a complete stranger who ended up living with us for three years.

“My grandmother was also always there for us, whatever help we needed and I guess that I took on board from my parents and her that if you could help other people you should and that while life doesn’t end up how you planned its up to each of us to help and make a difference somehow. I was always clear that I wanted to make a difference and I wanted to use my live in a way that will benefit those who can’t stand up for themselves for some reason. It just took me a while to find where that place was. And I am enabled to do it here with the support I have.

“I am in control, and I do like to be in control, not in a bad or overbearing way, but I want to make a difference and provide opportunities for these children and their families. Someone needs to be the organiser, have the vision and bring all the different parts of this together. That’s what I am best at.

“Now, after 10 years I think we have proved ourselves. We’re here to stay for as long as we have the support we need to continue the day-to-day operations and care. We’ve got two pre schools, a scholarship program, a safe house and the youth development program going. Of course I want to do more, give more children the opportunity to, well have opportunity. And I am constantly pushing in various directions to make this a reality. That’s why our long term dream and goal is to build our own facility with accommodation for a boarding school and for volunteers, as well as a school with sport facilities.”

And what about Roelien? I asked. “When do you get time for you and who supports you?”

“I’ve got a couple of close friends that I speak with and my board is there to help, especially the Chairman. And there’s a bit of a team back home. Essentially though I don’t have time to feel lonely and its my job and passion to make it all work.”

 And what about your family, your son, how have your decisions impacted on him and your relationship?

 “When I first came here my son was 8 years old. It was tough on him because it was so different. When he got a bit older he went back to South Africa for his secondary education, staying with family and then boarding. It was hard for both of us but I always had very clear vision of who I wanted him to become and I believe your values shapes your child’s development as well. Giving up was never and option for me and he has had experiences and an education that give him great insight and a sense of the world that does not necessarily have him at the centre of everything”.

“I’ve always said to him that every decision you make has consequences and you have to think carefully about how your decisions will affect you, other people and the environment. That’s what I believe and that’s what I live, after of course I had to learn all that the hard way!”

So what’s next?, I ask.

“Finding a bigger place so I can build a proper pre school and school, work with more children and develop the skills of the staff that work with the children and in the organization. It’s hard, and there have been some opportunities that have not eventuated, but it’ll happen. I am a committed believer in Christ and I do believe that God will provide when the time is right. I’ve had to say no to some opportunities and we’re currently considering some more possible support opportunities at the moment. I am certainly working to make the right time come closer to my timeframe but it has to be ‘right’ according to God’s timing as well.”

As we leave the Burmese pre school the children have woken, tousled hair and looking at me with those ‘just awake’ eyes. They gently touch and hold Roelien’s leg and say hello while she chats to them.

“Over the years I have changed and I look at things and situations differently now. Come wear my shoes and walk the road I walk,” she says when people criticise. “ If more people took the time to see what we do here and try to understand how important it is to get involved somehow, we could make a difference to many more children. But I understand not everyone can and I have limited time to spend on telling the world.”

 Well, I said, that’s where I can help…so here I am sharing The Asia Center Foundation’s story and you, the reader can help by supporting it. Just go to www.asiacenterfoundation.org