It Takes a Village to Save a Child: An innovative constructed village offers hope for Thai HIV and AIDS orphans
By, Tania Campbell, Ohmy News, August 7, 2007
What do celebrated classical musician Bruce Gaston, the princess of Thailand, BMW and a German documentary film crew all have in common? They all support Baan Gerda, an innovative orphanage in Thailand for children who are HIV positive. However, don't dare let Karl Morsbach, the founder of this novel enterprise, hear the word "orphanage." His vision instead dictates that it is a constructed community or organization more like a village, where the children live in a loving family environment. Named after Morsbach's deceased mother, the village lies two hours north of Bangkok in the verdant, snake-riddled Lopburi province. Among leafy trees, child-sized plastic dinosaurs and ponds with floating purple lotus flowers are 13 stilt houses where these foster families -- two adults and up to nine children -- live. Painted bright colors and full of ebullient, laughing children, it is a far cry from the notorious state-run orphanages for children with HIV and AIDS.
Altogether, there are 71 children. The adults who take on the parenting role are either HIV positive or AIDS widows. Selecting such caregivers was a conscious decision -- providing much needed employment for extremely stigmatized adults who are more likely to have a better understanding of the needs of HIV children. Together, the children and adults create their own family unit, which is glued together not by blood but by love. "We raise the children in a loving environment, in the hope that they will take the love they receive through life," states the Baan Gerda handbook, a bible for anyone wishing to create the same model.
While creating such a village is no mean feat, Morsbach and his Thai wife Tassanee were able to raise the capital to establish their vision, and then attracted generous donations from corporations, well-heeled acquaintances and a godparent-style sponsorship program that ensures the successful continuation of Baan Gerda. Initially, their vision was to build somewhere to care for the children in their final stages and let them die in peace and comfort -- an alternative to the abhorrent and notorious 'Death Hospices' that are the fate of too many Thai orphans suffering from the virus. "When we built it seven years ago, we thought they would die," Morsbach muses. Now, thanks to the cheap availability of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, a healthy lifestyle and a loving family-oriented environment, they haven't lost a child in three years.
Morsbach's story is somewhat unusual in terms of how he became "Pa" to 71 children. He went from high-flying corporate executive at a German company stationed in Bangkok to children's rights activist after realizing that "I wasn't put on this earth to make other people rich." Along with his wife, he set up five schools on the Thai-Burmese border to give rural children access to an education. Then, after seeing a particularly poignant photo and article in a Bangkok newspaper of a child about to die from HIV, they switched their focus to combating Thailand's HIV epidemic. After two years saving euros in Germany to fund their vision, the couple returned to Thailand and created what has now evolved into a thriving and unique organization that has become a model for the likes of UNESCO.
On closer inspection, Morsbach's background as a corporate executive and his current position as the founder of Baan Gerda may not be as different as chalk and cheese after all. He set up a points system to reward the efforts of the parents, based on the kind of system he used with his employees: they get points based on love, cleanliness, how much TV the children watch, etc. Those who score a certain number of points are rewarded with a year-end cash bonus. "Happy children need happy parents," he says. The parents must also be vigilant in monitoring the children's health and ensuring their medication is administered at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, no excuses and no exceptions.
In addition to the medicine, a volunteer doctor visits the children regularly for checkups as part of their health routine. She has established a close bond with the children and does it for love, not money. An Australian dentist has donated equipment so that they can set up a dental clinic in their on-site medical center. Morsbach became interested in the mysteries of the ancient Japanese healing art of Reiki and now all of the children receive free Reiki from practitioners in Germany -- healing from thousands of kilometers away. Sounds a bit odd for a straight-laced German but Morsbach asserts that he's "far from believing it doesn't work." In fact, he cites several examples of children whose health improved markedly overnight after a Reiki session. He even practices it himself on the children.
With his big vision and entrepreneurial streak, Morsbach has steamrolled ahead and started something of a cottage industry in the village. He used his contacts in Vienna's fashion world to have the women of Baan Gerda trained by professional tailors to make environmentally and socially conscious fair trade clothes and accessories to be exported to Austria. This gives them an opportunity to learn new skills while making money. The men are taught carpentry and with their skills make things for the village. With most of the children away at school during the day, many of them welcome this training as a way of breaking up their routine, and the vocational training will be an invaluable asset if they ever decide to leave Baan Gerda.
The children are surprisingly well adjusted considering the trauma most of them have endured such as watching their parents die and being ousted from their communities. The children first came to them from a temple hospice, but now many come through word of mouth. They found one girl digging through trash at a market. She, like many of the children, had literally been left for dead. On occasion, the adults turn up with only a suitcase in hand after being ostracized from their communities.
Morsbach believes the children at Baan Gerda shouldn't be defined by the fact that they have HIV. A jolly, optimistic man, his glass is half-full: "It's important to see the positive side -- the children are happy." Now that they are all, for the most part, in glowing good health, Morsbach has focused on their intellectual, social and emotional development. For the past few months, the children have been receiving weekend music lessons from the famous American musician, Bruce Gaston, who resides in Thailand. He fell in love with the kids, as everybody does, after visiting the house and now makes the two-hour trip from Bangkok every Saturday to teach them for several hours before rushing back to Bangkok to perform in his band's regular Saturday night concert. He has made them his project, a kind of Thai Partridge Family, and recently they performed an invitation-only concert in Bangkok. The fact that the children have HIV was a minor detail on the invitation. Now there is talk of making an opera with the children, reflecting their own, and humanity's struggle for survival.
Ever the pragmatic German, Morsbach, when not begging for money from corporations, spends a lot of time thinking about the future and how the children will integrate into the "real world." With donations from various companies, they have built a library, computer room and a music room. "Some people criticize us for using the money to buy things like a piano when we could help save another child with medicine." Still, he emphasizes, the children must not only be physically healthy but also mentally well-adjusted, as one day, they will complete high school and move onto university or vocational training and inevitably have to leave the village.
Every year, the children are treated to a special outing. On one occasion, they went to a large amusement park in Bangkok. However, upon learning about the children's HIV status, officials banned them from entering the park. One volunteer with the group posted this refusal on a Web site and soon enough a hoard of university students arrived and took all the children, one-by-one, into the park undetected. This event was recaptured in a recent documentary about the village entitled "Heaven's Meadow: The Small Wonders of Baan Gerda" by a German documentary filmmaker. In addition to these outings, they celebrate Christmas, go to the beach once a year and have sports' days. Often, inspired visitors drop by, such as artists, dance therapists and English teachers.
Morsbach encourages visitors to come, especially university students. He believes that it will reduce the stigma surrounding HIV in Thailand, because, as he puts it "many people are scared to breathe the same air as a child with HIV." The downside to this is that the place becomes something of a zoo, especially on weekends, with visitors roaming around taking pictures of the children. Still, it's a small price to pay considering that if it wasn't for the village in the first place, the children and many of the adults would most likely be dead. Although things are slowly changing, he acknowledges that "our biggest enemy is stigma." He cites the example of one girl who, before she came to the village, was forced to take her lessons from outside the classroom, peering in through the door to see the board. And that was only after the school was forced to reinstate her having earlier expelled her.
Slowly, around 3:15 p.m., the place comes to life as 60-odd children wander home from their nearby schools built by the king of Thailand. Most of them stop by the playground to coddle the smallest child -- a one-year-old boy who will not be able to walk due to leg deformation. The love is evident as they shower kisses upon him and push him around on his little plastic tricycle. Another young child has a compromised lung and the parents are not sure how much longer he'll live. Still, he trots about with a spring in his step and a huge, gaping grin. He knows that he may not be around forever, so he makes the most of each day and is a lesson for how to appreciate every waking moment, just as Baan Gerda is a lesson and model in how to effectively and lovingly treat orphans with HIV and AIDS.
Source: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=375905&rel_no=1
What do celebrated classical musician Bruce Gaston, the princess of Thailand, BMW and a German documentary film crew all have in common? They all support Baan Gerda, an innovative orphanage in Thailand for children who are HIV positive. However, don't dare let Karl Morsbach, the founder of this novel enterprise, hear the word "orphanage." His vision instead dictates that it is a constructed community or organization more like a village, where the children live in a loving family environment. Named after Morsbach's deceased mother, the village lies two hours north of Bangkok in the verdant, snake-riddled Lopburi province. Among leafy trees, child-sized plastic dinosaurs and ponds with floating purple lotus flowers are 13 stilt houses where these foster families -- two adults and up to nine children -- live. Painted bright colors and full of ebullient, laughing children, it is a far cry from the notorious state-run orphanages for children with HIV and AIDS.
Altogether, there are 71 children. The adults who take on the parenting role are either HIV positive or AIDS widows. Selecting such caregivers was a conscious decision -- providing much needed employment for extremely stigmatized adults who are more likely to have a better understanding of the needs of HIV children. Together, the children and adults create their own family unit, which is glued together not by blood but by love. "We raise the children in a loving environment, in the hope that they will take the love they receive through life," states the Baan Gerda handbook, a bible for anyone wishing to create the same model.
While creating such a village is no mean feat, Morsbach and his Thai wife Tassanee were able to raise the capital to establish their vision, and then attracted generous donations from corporations, well-heeled acquaintances and a godparent-style sponsorship program that ensures the successful continuation of Baan Gerda. Initially, their vision was to build somewhere to care for the children in their final stages and let them die in peace and comfort -- an alternative to the abhorrent and notorious 'Death Hospices' that are the fate of too many Thai orphans suffering from the virus. "When we built it seven years ago, we thought they would die," Morsbach muses. Now, thanks to the cheap availability of antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, a healthy lifestyle and a loving family-oriented environment, they haven't lost a child in three years.
Morsbach's story is somewhat unusual in terms of how he became "Pa" to 71 children. He went from high-flying corporate executive at a German company stationed in Bangkok to children's rights activist after realizing that "I wasn't put on this earth to make other people rich." Along with his wife, he set up five schools on the Thai-Burmese border to give rural children access to an education. Then, after seeing a particularly poignant photo and article in a Bangkok newspaper of a child about to die from HIV, they switched their focus to combating Thailand's HIV epidemic. After two years saving euros in Germany to fund their vision, the couple returned to Thailand and created what has now evolved into a thriving and unique organization that has become a model for the likes of UNESCO.
On closer inspection, Morsbach's background as a corporate executive and his current position as the founder of Baan Gerda may not be as different as chalk and cheese after all. He set up a points system to reward the efforts of the parents, based on the kind of system he used with his employees: they get points based on love, cleanliness, how much TV the children watch, etc. Those who score a certain number of points are rewarded with a year-end cash bonus. "Happy children need happy parents," he says. The parents must also be vigilant in monitoring the children's health and ensuring their medication is administered at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, no excuses and no exceptions.
In addition to the medicine, a volunteer doctor visits the children regularly for checkups as part of their health routine. She has established a close bond with the children and does it for love, not money. An Australian dentist has donated equipment so that they can set up a dental clinic in their on-site medical center. Morsbach became interested in the mysteries of the ancient Japanese healing art of Reiki and now all of the children receive free Reiki from practitioners in Germany -- healing from thousands of kilometers away. Sounds a bit odd for a straight-laced German but Morsbach asserts that he's "far from believing it doesn't work." In fact, he cites several examples of children whose health improved markedly overnight after a Reiki session. He even practices it himself on the children.
With his big vision and entrepreneurial streak, Morsbach has steamrolled ahead and started something of a cottage industry in the village. He used his contacts in Vienna's fashion world to have the women of Baan Gerda trained by professional tailors to make environmentally and socially conscious fair trade clothes and accessories to be exported to Austria. This gives them an opportunity to learn new skills while making money. The men are taught carpentry and with their skills make things for the village. With most of the children away at school during the day, many of them welcome this training as a way of breaking up their routine, and the vocational training will be an invaluable asset if they ever decide to leave Baan Gerda.
The children are surprisingly well adjusted considering the trauma most of them have endured such as watching their parents die and being ousted from their communities. The children first came to them from a temple hospice, but now many come through word of mouth. They found one girl digging through trash at a market. She, like many of the children, had literally been left for dead. On occasion, the adults turn up with only a suitcase in hand after being ostracized from their communities.
Morsbach believes the children at Baan Gerda shouldn't be defined by the fact that they have HIV. A jolly, optimistic man, his glass is half-full: "It's important to see the positive side -- the children are happy." Now that they are all, for the most part, in glowing good health, Morsbach has focused on their intellectual, social and emotional development. For the past few months, the children have been receiving weekend music lessons from the famous American musician, Bruce Gaston, who resides in Thailand. He fell in love with the kids, as everybody does, after visiting the house and now makes the two-hour trip from Bangkok every Saturday to teach them for several hours before rushing back to Bangkok to perform in his band's regular Saturday night concert. He has made them his project, a kind of Thai Partridge Family, and recently they performed an invitation-only concert in Bangkok. The fact that the children have HIV was a minor detail on the invitation. Now there is talk of making an opera with the children, reflecting their own, and humanity's struggle for survival.
Ever the pragmatic German, Morsbach, when not begging for money from corporations, spends a lot of time thinking about the future and how the children will integrate into the "real world." With donations from various companies, they have built a library, computer room and a music room. "Some people criticize us for using the money to buy things like a piano when we could help save another child with medicine." Still, he emphasizes, the children must not only be physically healthy but also mentally well-adjusted, as one day, they will complete high school and move onto university or vocational training and inevitably have to leave the village.
Every year, the children are treated to a special outing. On one occasion, they went to a large amusement park in Bangkok. However, upon learning about the children's HIV status, officials banned them from entering the park. One volunteer with the group posted this refusal on a Web site and soon enough a hoard of university students arrived and took all the children, one-by-one, into the park undetected. This event was recaptured in a recent documentary about the village entitled "Heaven's Meadow: The Small Wonders of Baan Gerda" by a German documentary filmmaker. In addition to these outings, they celebrate Christmas, go to the beach once a year and have sports' days. Often, inspired visitors drop by, such as artists, dance therapists and English teachers.
Morsbach encourages visitors to come, especially university students. He believes that it will reduce the stigma surrounding HIV in Thailand, because, as he puts it "many people are scared to breathe the same air as a child with HIV." The downside to this is that the place becomes something of a zoo, especially on weekends, with visitors roaming around taking pictures of the children. Still, it's a small price to pay considering that if it wasn't for the village in the first place, the children and many of the adults would most likely be dead. Although things are slowly changing, he acknowledges that "our biggest enemy is stigma." He cites the example of one girl who, before she came to the village, was forced to take her lessons from outside the classroom, peering in through the door to see the board. And that was only after the school was forced to reinstate her having earlier expelled her.
Slowly, around 3:15 p.m., the place comes to life as 60-odd children wander home from their nearby schools built by the king of Thailand. Most of them stop by the playground to coddle the smallest child -- a one-year-old boy who will not be able to walk due to leg deformation. The love is evident as they shower kisses upon him and push him around on his little plastic tricycle. Another young child has a compromised lung and the parents are not sure how much longer he'll live. Still, he trots about with a spring in his step and a huge, gaping grin. He knows that he may not be around forever, so he makes the most of each day and is a lesson for how to appreciate every waking moment, just as Baan Gerda is a lesson and model in how to effectively and lovingly treat orphans with HIV and AIDS.
Source: http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?no=375905&rel_no=1
posted by AIDS-Care-Watch at 11:12 am
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