BaanGerda- a charity for HIV & Aids orphans
 

I was wondering if anybody has had any dealings with Baangerda www.baangerda.org. They are a childrens' charity that provides care for HIV & AIDS orphans in Thailand.

Has anyone donated to this charity or been to the facilities? Or maybe someone has volunteered their time there?
It seems like a very worthwhile cause. If anybody can share any experience, good or bad, I'd like to hear it, and imagine others here would as well.

Thanks Jerome to posted about Baangerda and showing link to their website here. I just have gone to their website and made my first one-off online donation to them. Oftentimes, children with HIV are born to families in poor, rural communities without financial help.(( Many sad for all babies who born with HIV. They're born, they shine briefly, then they fade.))


I would also like to know in your above questions 's reply too.

So I decided to go ahead and make a donation to the above mentioned charity.
Unfortunately I can't afford to do an all out sponsorship of a child yet- that costs 100 Euros a month. I would like to be able to do that in the not too distant future though.

The reason I decided to look for a charity to support is that I , like many people, really like Thailand and enjoy coming here and spending time and money here. One can argue about the benefits and evils of tourism, but I felt that I don't really give anything back. And the money that I do spend in Thailand only penetrates to a very superficial level- i.e people in the tourism industry.

So I did a search for Thai charities and found this one.

Actually there is a huge list of charities in Thailand that can be found at http://www.thaicharities.org/ and http://www.thaiwebsites.com/social.asp so if you aren't particularly interested in the one mentioned above, you can find one that you may be interested in there.


As some of you may know I have a website and I have decided to donate a portion of the income of the site to this charity every month.
http://www.reservethaihotels.com/Vol...s-charity.html

I'm not trying to be preachy or anything, I just felt really good about it and thought it a good idea to try and get more people to know about it.

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png You have a kind heart...

=) May I just ask if you have been there personally? N how do you get to know of this place?

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png May thanks for Jerome valuable information u had provided in tcb.. Also agree with Anatta for all babies who born with HIV. It's a unfortunate turn of event which no one desire to have and all babies who have hiv also don't have any rights or chance to choose from the start. You sure have a kind heart too. http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png

David

As is usual with me, I kinda got excited about it and jumped in with both feet.
Someone from the charity emailed me and thanked me for my donation and asked me how I found out about them. I replied saying that I saw their website, to which he replied that it is very rare for someone to donate after just seeing their website, and that most people visit and check them out first.

After thinking about it for a while I realized that it was either silly/naïve or just very trusting of me to send money after just seeing their site. Anybody can make a website with pictures of kids on it I suppose.

So I will be going to pay a visit in December when I am there and hopefully be able to take some pictures and maybe post them here.

You're a good man Jerome - I think everyone can find good causes to help those less fortunate than ourselves. If more people would do the same it would be a much better world. Plus the fact that it really feels good to give.

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png Thanks for Jerome for your information. Regarding your realization it was either silly or native for trusting to send money after seeing their site. I feel there's no right or wrong in the first place.

If you view it from the certain angle, it's your kind heart that made you to contribute to the cause but there always another angle people might be conscious about the donation because you don't even know does the place you are going to donate is it trustworthy or not. Just feel what is appropriate and need to do it from your bottom of the heart

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png Hopefully when you visit BaanGerda in December may everything be as smooth and fine. Also looking forward for your pictures and post them here http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/brush.gif

Sumalee Milne's 'Ayui foundation' is well worthy of support. Her work with the young disadvantaged Akha people in Chiang Rai is starting to receive world wide recognition.

http://www.ayui.org/index.html

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png Thanks for offering to put up the pictures and info in Dec; certainly looking forward to that http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png Helping individuals with HIV/AIDS to help themselves have always been something I have always felt alot about, and I have previously volunteered for my local Action For Aids on a few occasions, such as the distribution of love gloves to the public and giving talks in schools on HIV/AIDS awareness until I have to give up of late due to work commitments, so your further update in Dec will certainly be very useful to me and many others I'm sure.

http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.pngI don't think you are being naive or mean any negativity but recently here on our Little Red Dot there are 2 very high profile court cases involving misappropriation of charity funds e.g. NKF using the moolah to build a solid gold toilet bowl and tap etc when it should have gone to the dying kidney patients. I'm not saying that all charitable orgs are black sheep, nor implying this one is, just that after all these saga, I do admit there is that concern within me hahahttp://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag.../laughlong.gif Cos feel my money donated is one small aspect of it; the main concern is that successive success in cheating kind donors of their goodwill will inspire them to carry on longterm, leading to a situation whereby the beneficiaries get less (e.g. 10% of all money ever donated never end up where they are supposed to) http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png

Since you are going there in Dec, most probably it's authentic or they will not be able to welcome you there http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png Thanks once again for calling our attention to this good cause http://www.thailandqa.com/forum/imag...lies/smile.png