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Blog posts : "Stories"

60 years a priest!

Last Saturday, St. Cornelius Church in Pai Si Tong hosted a church feast, attended by the Bishop, over 50 priests, brothers and nuns and hundreds of parishioners. It was the first church feast in the area for many years and it was also an opportu…

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Thai Father's Day

Fr. Mike came to the office in very good mood last Tuesday morning. His beloved Green Bay Packers had beaten the reigning Super Bowl Champions the Kansas City Chiefs that morning and he made his way over to Ms. Kung's office in high spirits for w…

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School holiday activities

The school holidays were only three weeks long, but the kids, staff and volunteers packed a lot into those three weeks. There was a trip to the aquarium for the toddlers where they stared into tanks looking for Nemo, and peered into turtle cages.…

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Sports day

The last day before the return to school saw our annual sports day. Organised with the help of Nong Khai group, Foundation for Child & Youth Development, it was a fun day for all of the kids. They were selected on rival teams, pink and blue and e…

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Reading project

Last month, 12 of our house mothers attended a daylong seminar held in conjunction with the Good Shepherd Sisters Social Work team. The theme for the day was “Reading with children”. The social work team identified the benefits of reading to kids…

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An exciting visit from Spain

The children received a giant splash of colour and excitement into their lives last month with the arrival of six Spanish women for a two week stay. Three of the girls came from Asociación para la Solidaridad, while the others worked with Atresmedi…

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Kids with disabilities and the Snoozle room



Sarnelli House currently has four severely disabled children under its care. All four live at the House of Hope nursery. The children are three girls and a boy and are aged 13, 4, 3 and 2. The oldest girl is Mina and she was born with HIV. As a r…

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Back to school

Finally, after ten long weeks of swimming, badminton and football, bingo, uno and colouring in, water parks, water rafts and water throwing, train trips, ice cream cones and
dancing, the children returned to school for a new academic year. New u…

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New wheelchairs for two children

Thanks to recent donations over the last six months, we have been able to purchase new wheelchairs for two of our disabled children living at House of Hope.

Nuna is 13 years old and had been growing out of her wheelchair for a while. She c…

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A visit from the Papal Nuncio Secretary

Last month, Sarnelli House had the privilege of hosting Msgr. Daniel Tumiel, the Apostolic Nuncio's Secretary in Bangkok. Msgr. Daniel was accompanied by Bishop Joseph Luechai from Udon Thani. It was the Monsignor's first visit to Sarnelli House …

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Staff seminar

Sarnelli House is always keen to support our staff in their development and ability to manage and look after the children in their care. With this in mind, last week Fr. James invited the Good Shepherd Sisters to run a two day seminar for all sta…

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Sports Day

Saturday saw the return of an old favourite for the children, sports colours day. It was run by Khun Dungdin Pattapee (Ney) and his Nong Khai foundation. Khun Ney has run many activities and developmental seminars for the children and teenagers o…

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New Volunteers

Welcome to our new volunteers for 2022!

Our friends from the APO church in Oberhausen Germany have sent us Laura to volunteer for one year. She will be the volunteer for the Jan and Oscar House which holds 10 lively young ladies from 5 to 8 ye…

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Teachers to the rescue!

One of the many lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic is how it affected our children’s education. A number of our children had already been struggling at school, for a range of reasons. Some started school late (or not at all prior to being…

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More Covid woes

Covid 19 has breached the walls of Sarnelli House once again, with six teenagers and one staff member currently in hospital and three more groups quarantining in various rooms and buildings, as per Thai health regulations. In fact, the whole of S…

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Covid 19 update

Thank you to everyone who got in touch with kind words and support regarding the current outbreak of Covid 19 at our House of Hope nursery. To start with the good news, the four children and two house mothers who had tested positive a little unde…

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Covid 19 reaches Sarnelli House

Perhaps inevitably, Covid 19 has reached Sarnelli House. One of the night staff at the House of Hope nursery tested positive this week, having contracted the virus from her son. The Thai health authorities descended upon the nursery, initiating c…

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Living with physical challenges


Sarnelli House has an increasing number of physically and intellectually challenged children in its care. There are four children who live at House of Hope, none of whom are verbally communicative and who are unable to walk. Their physical needs ar…

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The importance of sport and activity

As the Covid 19 numbers increase, the likelihood of more school closures appears imminent in the Nongkhai province. This means our school age children will have to learn online and be restricted to their houses. This presents a challenge for the …

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A home to call his own

As our children grow older, we try to prepare them as best we can for the outside world. Ideally, all Sarnelli House kids will one day be able to step away from our care and build a life of their own. As a result, a lot of time and effort is goin…

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20 blog posts