In July, we had a wonderful visit from six Spanish women, who hailed from two partnerships, Asociación para la Solidaridad and Voluntarios Atresmedia, the CSR arm of Atresmedia, a Spanish media company. They brought great energy to Sarnelli House and the children loved them. You can read more about their visit HERE
We were delighted to welcome Ed Hillman, who has been a great supporter of Sarnelli House for many years. Ed works in Taiwan at Taipei American School and he and his students have established a student run club to support our work. There have been a great variety of fundraisers over the years and Ed and his kids have been incredibly creative and energetic in their work. Parents of his students have also been very generous. On top of that, Ed has the support of the Sharon Houminer Foundation in the USA, which matches any funds raised by the school. This enterprise has been so important to our various education programs over the past 4 or 5 years and we were thrilled to welcome Ed and his wife Jeap to Sarnelli House in July.
Volker Schönewerk from Germany came for another visit. Volker is retired and raises money from his friends in Germany and in Thailand. Upon each visit, he heads into Nong Khai to go shopping for whatever the houses or children need, or whatever might be on Kate's wish list for House of Hope! This year his visit brought us toys, pillows, feeding bottles, diapers, snacks, and sports and educational games. We are very grateful to Volker and his kind donors for their generosity.
The first of our three year long volunteers arrived from Oberhausen in Germany. Lisa is the latest in a long line of excellent young adults from the APO church to add value to the work at Sarnelli House. She is 19 years old and has already shown initiative, curiosity and energy in her short time here. Lisa is living with the little girls at the Jan & Oscar House and they respond very well to her.
Two more long-stay volunteers from Germany arrived a couple of weeks later. Benedikt and (another) Lisa come from our partners at Redemptorist Volunteer Ministries in Bonn. Ben has moved into the volunteer room at Sarnelli House for boys and is also taking up from his predecessor, Lukas, in pool maintenance, as well as playing football and basketball with the boys. Lisa has been given the name Gulap, meaning 'rose', by the children and will live with the little boys at St. Patrick's House. She is a graduate in nutrition and is very good natured and full of energy and positivity. Both volunteers were a big hit on our recent sports day!
We also had two lovely weekend visits from our friends at Redemptorist International School (RIS) in Bangkok. They played with the kids, completed a school project about House of Hope and bought lots of presents for the children. We are grateful for their continued support
