Bangkok Slum Area Child Care Post by Kari Lawrence

After the past 3 weeks in Thailand I think interacticing with the kids at the slum child care was the most rewarding experience I have had on this trip. According to the Foundation for Slum Child Care, 20% of Bangkok's population lives in what is called squatter communitites. This brings the total number of residents of the slums to 2 million, 10% of which are children less than 5 years old! The Foundation for Slum Child Care's goal is to provide quality care to these babies and children who are part of that 10%. In addition to it's main location in Klong Toey slum child care has 4 other houses located in other slums in Bangkok. All these houses together provides care to a total of 200 children a day! What makes slum child care unique, however, is it's mission to improve the parenting quality of these children's parents. After our lecture we got a chance to play with the younger children and help some of the children fall asleep for nap time. It was great to be able to be a part of something so important, even if it was only for a little while. It would have been amazing to be able to volunteer there for a whole day, but I am glad to have been able to help out, even if it was only for a short amount of time.