Leaving' on a Jet Plane

Thailand: A Land of Beautiful Promise

As I sit here in the middle of the plane near the rear, with my knees tucked between my ears (yes, I’m in the cheap seats, friends… because, well, I’m cheap), I still feel the thrill of travel. I love going half way around the world or even just down the street to new places—found a gravel path off Hawthorn I had never run before last Tuesday. Great fun! I always learn something! I always meet someone who impacts my life for good. I always eat something that challenges my taste buds! Even in KC, new restaurants keep expanding my horizons—actually my mid-section—and my gastronomical curiosity. But I digress. I am awesomely privileged. Fabulously Blessed. 

Millions of people on our planet will live their entire lives within 25 miles of where they were born. For many, it will be a short life, riddled with disease and suffering and violence. I will meet children over the next 15 days that have survived, escaped and overcome child labor, human trafficking, lack of legal identification, and barriers to opportunities such as education.

Those especially at risk are from minority groups in remote or very poor areas, often along Thailand’s borders with Cambodia, Lao and Myanmar. The legal minimum working age in Thailand is 13. By Thai law, employment of children at night between the hours of ten p.m. and six a.m. is prohibited. Yet, I will be on streets alive with children begging, and selling flowers, and playing flutes, and working in the back of restaurants, and looking pretty.

In many of the slums of Chiang Mai, Khon Kaen, and Chiang Dao, staff members from non-governmental organizations report a large number of children who work on the streets at night, literally have no choice. The adults responsible live a shadow life, sometimes in the shadow of Buddhist Temples and corrupt public officials. Many different Thai governmental and NGO organizations are trying to change that. Sustainable Hope International is one such organization. Their passion is education.

Dinner. Thai Style!

Going beyond sixth grade is itself a personal accomplishment for every child in rural Thailand. The pressure is enormous on a thirteen year old to be a source of income for the family. Sustainable Hope offers children becoming youth, growing into adulthood, the opportunity to stay in school. To go one more year. To graduate from High School and maybe go to a vocational school or university. And every year a young person stays in school, it makes a huge difference in their life—and ultimately in the lives of family members, other relatives, neighbors, and communities. Because educated young people give back. They change living conditions. They bring in income not imagined. They develop critical thinking skills that see solutions to problems not considered before.

I am running in the Hospital Hill Run June 2 in support of the passion, the goodness, the cause of Sustainable Hope International in their quest to provide educational scholarships and grants to children living in the poorest of circumstances. Will you join me? Your contribution to Sustainable Hope can change a life! Pledge today. Join me on the finish line race day (it will take a while—be patient)—we’ll go find a new restaurant to challenge our taste buds. And we will count our blessings together… because if you are reading this, you are already better off than 75% of the world’s population!

The Power of Wet

A Korean Water Clock

On a recent run, I found myself craving water.  Not quite in the pains (or pangs) of dehydration, but rather a desire to drink deeply. Since I was on the Little Trace close to Sonic, I swung by. The kids who work there know me as the old fart that comes huffing and puffing up to the door begging. A tall cup of cold aqua was waiting, along with a smile and a friendly tease from one of the young’uns. They know I like tap water. I tell them we have the best water in the world. It’s true!

Last winter our fair city entered the International Water Olympics and won the bronze medal against a field of 77 waters from all over the place. (If you don’t believe me look it up--http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/Story.aspx?id=2896)

For 130 years Easter Jackson County folks have been blessed with water supplied from 41 wells located at the Courtney Bend Water Treatment Plant. The wells receive water from the Missouri River Alluvial Aquifer. And it is GOOD.

However, much of the world, while having access to water, has to deal with polluted, diseased, dirty water. And children die every day because there is no clean water source. Diseases from unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. 90% of the 30,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are of children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

Today, I leave for Thailand where I will meet children who have faced such conditions. They come from village in northern Thailand to attend Welfare Schools. Their surroundings are vastly improved. But unless there is additional intervention, most are back in their village by the time they are 15—as street kids—or worse—as sex slaves or forced labor. Sustainable Hope International is trying to change that. Working with School administrators and government programs, the folks at Sustainable Hope are changing lives one child at a time. How? By offering scholarships for continued education. Education that would not be possible without the support of groups like Sustainable Hope.

Instead of returning to a life of poverty and despair, Sustainable Hope gives a young person to the opportunity to dream and grow, and some will even become engineers—to improve the quality of water. In their village and the villages around them.

Korean Light House off Jeju Island

With safe water children become healthy, and strong, and curious. They are free to pursue new opportunities and improve their families’ lives. Kids can earn their education and build the future of their communities.

Huff and Puff

Running… ok, ok, barely walking, up that last hill before completing my nine mile long run outing had me huffing and puffing like the crazy wolf in the children’s story. Yes. I have lost weight. Yes. I am getting my running legs back. Yes. I even work out at the gym (well, when it rains…sometimes) But do you think my time improves (meaning speed). Nope. What the heck is it with getting older and slowing down? Just because 40 is behind me, (ok 50) (…alright, 60) doesn’t mean the body has to go slower, does it? At my present pace the street sweepers will cross the finish line before I do.

I know. Patience. Perseverance. Discipline. And race day (June 2) will see me fly! In some ways, that has been the experience this last year of Ken Brookens as he has explored and explained and engaged a wide variety of sources in Thailand to serve at-risk and orphaned children in a responsible and sustainable way.

Students from Chiang Mai, Thailand

Exploring the opportunities (of lack of) for education for youth in Thailand can be quite discouraging. For thousands of at-risk children in rural areas, the opportunity for an education beyond eighth grade is minimal and the opportunity to pursue higher education is practically non-existent. More likely their future is one of human slavery, prostitution, unskilled hard labor, early teen pregnancy, subsistence living, and an early death. The cycle of poverty goes on and on and on… Encouraging youth to learn; providing an incentive to stay in school; offering a scholarship for higher education; all break the cycle of poverty, changes the life of a child forever, ultimately changes the living conditions of the family, and lastly, gives back to the community a leader who influences the whole village for good. Ken has seen this miracle at work in the lives of youth in Thailand and is committed to making it a reality for more.

Explaining his passion and mission to school principals, government officials, community leaders, and business professionals has taken Ken into Ministry offices in Bangkok, welfare schools in Chiang Mai, legal offices and cafes and hotels and stores everywhere in between. All that explaining has made Sustainable Hope International a government recognized NGO in Thailand. All that explaining has generated excitement, commitment, anticipation, and opportunity in Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao, and Khon Kaen. All that explaining has opened doors in Independence and Jackson County.

Sustainable Hope International has engaged the services of professionals and volunteers in churches, service organizations, community groups, and educational circles. Most importantly, Sustainable Hope has engaged the imaginations of children—hundreds of children--and encouraged them to dream and reach and excel.

My early morning running team in Chiang Mai.
It was already 100 degrees and I was the only one in shorts!

And to do all of that, there has been a lot of huffing and puffing. Not to blow houses down, but to build
up hopes and dreams in a sustainable way in the hearts of at-risk children and in the minds of those who work with orphaned children.

I will run the Hospital Hill Half Marathon, huffing and puffing up all seven hills, to raise funds for Sustainable Hope International. Join me. Partner with me by giving to the cause—the power—the miracle  of education in breaking the cycle of poverty in Thailand. Join me in supporting Sustainable Hope International.

Friendship and Causes

Ken Brookens, retired University professor, is someone I have admired for many years. He is a bundle of never-ending energy. Last year we were visiting with each other about our passions in life. I became intensely aware that Ken, who grew up as an "at risk" youth in the foster care system, felt a deep sense of gratitude for the grace and love and compassion of those in his life who had literally offered him life. Adopted by a loving family in his sophomore year of high school, Ken gained new meaning of belonging and connecting. He values love for others through service and the power of education in changing the lives of young people. His heart goes out to youth today who are labeled "at risk". With that simple focus, Ken and his wife Jean have created a 501-c3 not-for-profit corporation to literally change the lives of young people through education. Where? In Thailand, of all places. I asked him, "Why Thailand?"

Ken told me of his long association with Thai college students who attended the University of Missouri at Warrensburg. He shared stories of struggle and poverty, love and hope, and how education became a road out of extreme poverty for so many. Besides that... you have to start somewhere! Of course, Ken's dream is to see Sustainable Hope provide scholarships for "at risk" youth in countries from South America to Africa, Europe to Asia, and right here at home. Ken and Jean have spent their own retirement funds on trying to make a difference in the lives of young people in places like Chiang Mai and Khon Kean and Chiang Dao.

They should not be doing this alone! You and I can help.

So, I am going to run in the Hospital Hill Race on June 2, 2012. Help me help them by sponsoring me. Support their cause by giving a gift of $50.00 or more. http://www.sus-hope.org/get-involved/donate/

For the next two months I will be blogging about the work of Sustainable Hope, introducing you to some of the kids in Thailand, and of course, be accountable for my miserable attempts at having a consistent training schedule. I hope you will join me in this new adventure!