Since my very first visit to Thailand (in 2008, as one leg of an epic round-the-world trip), it has held a special place in my heart: the people, landscape, food, wildlife, and culture – all of these factors combine to make this one of my favourite countries in the world. As someone who is hyperactive by nature, a ball of burning energy, it is the one place on Earth that I can truly relax. Usually, I haven\u2019t even realised that I\u2019m as tense as a tightly-coiled spring until the plane touches down…then my shoulders sag, the knots in my back start to loosen, and I subconsciously exhale deeply. The tight muscles are unwound further by the obligatory hour-long Thai massage on my first day – a rite of passage for any tourist to the Land of Smiles – then it\u2019s a veg-filled green curry and a swim in the bathwater-warm Andaman Sea. Bliss!<\/p>\n
This is the place I credit with fixing me when I fled, broken-hearted after my marriage break-up, for a solo soul-searching trip; a month with no plans other than to swim in the ocean, allow the sun to warm my bones and heal my invisible wounds. (You can read my Thailand blog\u00a0Sam Goes Solo\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/a>about that trip, should you be interested.) I\u2019ve since been back on multiple occasions, each time collecting precious memories as though gathering seashells from the shore.<\/p>\n So, when I \u2018met\u2019 Natasha Whiting via my Facebook group, The Non-Mum Network<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, and she asked for help in spreading the word about her fundraising event, Jumble is Massive<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, in aid of her charity Acorn Overseas<\/span><\/strong><\/a> to help orphaned and abandoned children in Mae Sot<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, Thailand, I jumped at the chance to finally give something back to a country that\u2019s helped me in so many ways.<\/p>\n I learn that Natasha founded the charity back in 2009, having spent seven years living in Thailand working on various local projects. She initially travelled to the country in 2004, aged 18, to volunteer at an orphanage, and quickly became part of the emergency aid relief following the Boxing Day tsunami<\/a>. <\/span><\/strong>(<\/span>Her outstanding achievements later earned her the accolade ‘Young Person of the Year’ by her hometown council in Stroud, Gloucestershire<\/span><\/span>.)\u00a0<\/span>S<\/span><\/span>uch was Natasha’s admiration of the tenacity of the people, and the inspiring solidarity they showed in the face of such tragedy, that she wanted to start something that would give her a connection to Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) even when she was not there in person.<\/p>\n She says: \u201cWhilst in Thailand I became disheartened with the way charities, in my eyes, didn\u2019t go to the root of the problem and get more involved. It felt like everything was done from plush hotels, and behind the tinted windows of 4×4\u2019s that rolled through camps, orphanages and disaster zones. I was put into contact with an orphanage that was established to care for the basic needs of \u201cGhost Children\u201d (Children who have lost their identity due to persecution and abandonment) from Myanmar that was going through some serious difficulties. I attempted to appeal to multiple NGO\u2019s (<\/em>non government organisations) to help with the orphanage and no one would offer more than a bag of rice a month as the problem wasn\u2019t “big enough\u201d.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n In October 2008, the irregular support they did have from America abandoned them with nothing, so myself and a friend stepped in to provide support for them in every which way we could. So I started the charity in order to support this small home of children who were abandoned and orphaned due to situations you may not even be able to imagine. Since then we grew from 7 to 50 children, we built a home, we <\/em>were donated a truck to get the children to school, and we dug, as running water is rare.<\/em><\/p>\n