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!