Childlife-A future for street children
Partner of "RASMI" (Rural and Social Management Institute)
supporting the project "School for Life"
Rita Haberkorn: impressions regarding my meetings with the children, from 21st to 31st
October 2003, my stay in Joy's House and on the Farm "Suan Suoi Fha Sai"
Rituals "Sawasdee kha, my name is…, nice to meet you". This is the way I was greeted by each
single child at our first encounter, and of course, they expected an appropriate answer. Not just
a "Hello" in passing by, but devoting attention to each person makes it clear, what this deeply
rooted ritual is about: Time for each other.
They are all very friendly, from a distance at first, and this is
pleasant because it is not over demanding for each side.Four-
teen days later I experienced, when we came to say goodbye
to each other, that many of the children wanted to complete this ritual, besides pleasant friendliness, they wanted to ex-
press more. Not only the bowing has its place, but embraces
and sentences of very special sympathy are added. When you
first meet the children you are greeted in a respectful friendly
manner, these respectful relationships apply to a standard and
last throughout your stay.
This experience is not easily transferred into our culture. Yet it supports my request to pay
more attention to the rituals of greeting and saying goodbye, as well as to brief encounters.
I will take this special experience back with me.
Dance and making music - an invitation to join in: In everyday life on the farm, I met child-
ren in small groups who were singing and happy. It was usually the girls who behaved more
uninhibited. At the same time I heard, the sound was always coming from the same direction,
Ajä who is learning to play traditional Thai music on an old string instrument. On special
occasions it is the boys who play these instruments as well as Rhythmical-Instruments. They
practised a long time with "Teacherboy", who is their care taker, and on evenings when they
perform, he always stands by them. In comparison, the girls practice Thai dancing. It is part of
their virtues, that they master the basic steps of these dances. Joy and her oldest daughter
practice together with the girls, or the girls do it on their own. You can see pride in their
glowing faces, when every now and then they put on their special costumes and start to move
already, rather expertly, with their bodies slowly to the music. If they already knew the
meaning of the movements, was not clear to me. But do you have to know and understand
everything at once? They are living their culture or the culture which they now belong to, and
they identify themselves with it. The role of the guest is not to just that of an audience, very
quickly the atmosphere becomes relaxed and the children
approach the guests. Actually nobody has a real chance to
remain in their places. The joy and the persuasive power of the children moves even the laziest of dancers at some
point, and soon everybody will be on the dance floor, trying
to move according to the music. Nobody is laughed at, but
everybody has a good time - one should dance at least one
dance. But the children are merciful and take a friendly
refusal seriously. Other grown ups find pleasure in dancing.
Boys and girls show their gracefulness likewise, but at some point, the music should also allow
other dances and this is the chance for the guests to give odds to the dance and to include the
children. Would there be the same joy without the children on the farm?
Holidays and work do not exclude each other: The time without school gives the children full
scope to create things. I have never experienced any children who were bored or who asked:
"What shall I do now"? The farm offers enough space to run around, possibilities to play in nature
and the few toys, as for example, badminton are used with pleasure. I was observing the eight
year old Mod, lying in the grass and forming a geometric pattern with stones, inventing exercises
for counting and calculating. No one can disturb him, he sticks to the point, until he brings it
contently to an end. But the children also help out with any necessary work on the farm.
Together with their teacher they plant a vegetable patch. The withered leaves on the wide lawn
are collected, the ground is swept, and before the new guests arrive, flowers are quickly picked
as a welcome gesture. With gratitude the children accept the strangers pleasure as well as their
appreciation. On outings they accompany the guests in small groups, if Joy is the guide, and
wants to have just these children close to her or in case they want to be with her. Also learning
continues. Teacherboy's imaginative drawings, with terms in two languages, show me what the
children have learned and they are proud to explain everything to me and to apply their knowledge.
Between freedom and liability- the children are seeking for and finding their orientation
Joy not only takes care of these children, she has accepted them like her own children, for whom
she is there without any conditions. She sees it as one of her duties, to help the children to live
in the here and now, to help them to master their past, to accompany them on their way and to
impart a perspective for them. At the same time she offers her life and her large family as a
model from which the children can get their bearings.
Joy knows the biography of the children and knows what they
have to cope with, she also knows what has made these child-
ren strong. Because Joe, Nai and Long survived in the jungle,
they are appropriate attendants to guide guests on their trek-
king tours through this terrain and to explain, together with
Teacherboy, about the edible plants or to call their attention
to animals, which would normally not be noticed. The fact that
some children wet their beds at night or have other problems is
taken with understanding, but is not dramatised. Can you imag-
ine this group of now 22 children with their individual experienc-
es, living in a 'normal' apartment house -
I am sure a range of therapeutic support would be needed, in order to manage the living together
to a certain extend. On the farm this is different. Here you have the nature and the wideness of the land influencing your well-being. It seems that the children have found their place in the
group, they can meet with the others, but just as good get out of their way. They can go
undisturbed their own way or visit single group members with whom they have already developed
something like a brother or sisterhood. It is the grown ups who confront the children in a
considered or and philanthropic way and by living together want to support their development.
Here it is Joy who wants to give the children orientation and offers herself as a mother, it is Joy
who tolerates that some children don't budge from her side. Joy is friendly, but determined, she
mostly remains quiet and concentrated. There are again and again brief conversations with
individual children who serve to clarify small situations. I realised how strong both parties are in
keeping eye contact. At the end I asked myself, how could the children live on the farm, if it
were not for now and then the arrival of new guests which brought some excitement into the
their lives. I don't believe that the children and the guests disturb each other, but I am sure,
that both parties complete each other in their every day life. The guests as well as the children
can go their own ways, plan their days individually and sometimes do things together - for me
this was a very pleasurable experience. And I am convinced, that also Joy's house has won
something from this atmospheric animation.
Rita Haberkorn
Manager of the Institute for the Situational Approach Of the International Academy for
Innovative Pedagogy, Psychology, Economy (INA gGmbH) at the Free University Berlin, Germany
and lecturer at the Technical College for Social Pedagogy, Wiesbaden, Germany
www.INA-FU.org
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