David’s News for Mid-Year 2009

                Nearer at home, at Seven Fountains, the big news of the year is of Fr. Miguel, the Superior of the Jesuit Community and Director of the Centre. On 8th December he attains his Golden Jubilee as a Jesuit. We are hoping to mark this occasion of sustained fidelity and ministry in some appropriate manner.
                On a personal note, I have indications of ageing. I have had a recurrence of the persistent ear infection of last year – so far it appears to be more manageable. And today, as I write, checking up on my damaged eye with the detached retina, I was told that the pressure has increased in my good eye (which I know already has a maturing cataract). So now I have drops for both eyes, as well as the ear!

                Meanwhile, as well as our core ministries, we are struggling to maintain the some 450 hill-tribe children in Primary and Secondary Education.
The following is a simple story of how a little help from many people can make a tremendous difference here to the lives of individuals.
               A few years ago readers of (www.jesuitsandfriends.org.uk) Jesuits and Friends and you, my personal friends, made it possible to extend the Baan Kaat Hostel for secondary school students. This is one of several supported by Seven Fountains, the retreat centre of the Thai Jesuits in Chiang Mai. These hostels enable students living in the mountains far from a secondary school to move beyond primary education. These hostels allow ethnic minority mountain people to break through the oppression and poverty cycle that otherwise bleakens and restrains their lives.
              This is Nich’s story: Nich is her nickname; her Thai name is Oranich Damrongcharoensak. Nich has been staying in the Baan Kaat hostel for the past 3 years. Her home is the Thai-Karen village of Mea Cheam in the mountains bordering Burma. From a poor family, Nich has one younger brother.
                Like all the students, Nich spends 5 days in the hostel, returning to her village to help her parents at the weekend planting vegetables and tending fruit trees in one of the royal projects, set up to provide work and a viable income for the people in the mountains.
               Like the families of many of our students, Nich’s family is Buddhist. Our only criterion for a hostel place is that the family is too poor to send their child to the secondary school.
              In her 1st year of High School, Nich stayed for a month at Seven Fountains attending a tuition school to improve her English, Maths and Sciences. Later she wanted to be a medical doctor, but could not pass the entrance exam. However she was accepted by the University of Songkla in the deep south of Thailand, but this was too far from home for her, a young lady from the north of Thailand.
             Coming top of all the students in the whole Northern Provinces of Thailand in her final High School exams, Nich has been given a scholarship to study Primary Education. The scholarship is called ‘Pet Nai Tom’ which translates rather unpoeticly into English as ‘Diamond from the Mud’ (perhaps ‘Revealing Buried Treasure’ says it better). It is a scholarship to train model teachers for Thailand. The partners of the project are the Thai Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC is a branch of the military) and Srinakharinvirot University.
             But let Nich speak in her own words:
             Staying with friends here helps me to grow a lot. We are from the mountains but I have a lot of friends here in the lowland. I was very happy that actually I brought a good reputation to our small school. This school is a ‘School Nai Fan’ – a model school in our district.

             The hostel gave me responsibilities for the group. We have to learn to work together. And the scholarship that I have received is very similar to our hostel’s goal - that we have to learn to be together. There will be many students from all over Thailand, especially from the south. We were told that the people from the south are not so friendly, yet I am very excited to be with them. I think all people are nice.
              I feel very grateful for the hostel. Many people from my village will also come to stay at the hostel. We are always happy when Brother Yodt brings the University Students for some orientation for our further study. (NOTE: Brother Yodt, S.J. is the Jesuit Scholastic living in Seven Fountains and who is Chaplain to the Catholic Students in the many universities and colleges in the north of Thailand) The scholarship that I receive will be for 5 years of various teacher training courses, then I will be missioned to my own area and my own people. I would like to be a good teacher.
           Yes…we need to improve many things, especially through the study of the environment.
            Thank you, Nich. May her simple story tell you how much you have helped her and the other students in Baan Kaat, indeed all the other 450 pupils.
            We have found a sponsor to provide gratis, tuition and other support to the students who fled to us from alleged sexual harassment in the place where they were studying (mentioned in earlier News from me).
            Seven Fountains is also home to some 5 poor university students. We provide them with food and a place to live on the compound. To do this we have had to build an extra bathroom for them. All of this is a new demand on us for which we are seeking help.
            Brother Yodt, S.J., the Catholic Student Chaplain mentioned by Nich, has been under pressure from some of his students (from the hills) who cannot survive on their government student loan, to have a hostel of their own in town. He has now, with funds from Seven Fountains, rented a large house to accommodate some 20 young men, who had been moving from friend to friend, sleeping where they could, unable to afford both tuition costs, and room rental and food. We ask them to contribute about half the cost of renting. Now with their lives on a more stable footing, they are more likely to persevere in university, with the potential of benefitting their communities in the future. Brother Yodt is seeking help to continue the financing of this assistance.
             A need for tuition and support for poor university students, particularly those from the hill communities (often the first to attend university) has been impinging on us forcibly. Our dream (in the present economic climate Seven Fountains can barely survive financially itself) is to have the resources of personnel and funding to establish such a college.
            More personally, with your help, I have been able to take up the living expenses in Bangkok of a former candidate for the Burmese Jesuits, whom I knew in Burma, and who appealed to me for help. He had been helped by another donor, who suddenly, and without notice, stopped payment at the start of his final year in University in Bangkok, leaving him with no support at all.
           Thank you so much for your prayers and concern; people like you are our only source of income for maintaining these varied educational works, and the only hope for many young people. As I said earlier, financially Seven Fountains can barely support itself year to year.

           Regarding the now nearly 50 year old Seven Fountains Centre (not quite the Jubilarian Fr. Miguel is!): we have just been informed that our present original water system requires some attention. This will likely involve some considerable expense. Our main source of income is from our retreatants and others who come on seminars and courses. Like all such spirituality centres throughout the world, Seven Fountains runs at an annual loss. We only survive because of the generosity of extra donations. So dealing with this needed attention to the water system will be a big headache for our Brother Jonal, the Minister/Bursar of the Centre.
           

             Our hope is that you realize that you are regularly prayed for by the Seven Fountains Jesuit Community, and that you are every bit as much part of our ministry as we ourselves.

With much gratitude & love,

In the Peace of our God,