Youth Program
06.24
BridgeWorks Residential Youth
There are currently 4 lads aged 15 to 18 years living at the BW Centre. At this time, there are no girls living at the Centre, as there are no live-in care-takers yet.
The lads come from the hill regions a few hours from Chiangmai, and each has their own challenges to overcome, ranging from illiteracy, abandonment, and child abuse. They are currently being mentored in turn by local children’s home carers Yut & Momo, Pradit, as well as Dominik, and TongChai.
Grandfatherly TongChai is a member of BridgeWorks who does not oversee a children’s home. He and his wife are Hmong, and are committed to helping the young people learn employment skills. They own a local market stall, which they have graciously made available to help train young people from the childrens’ homes on weekends. They also sell the produce that is grown on the BW property.
Learning to farm
Yut & Momo along with TongChai teach the lads vegetable gardening skills (TongChai was a commercial vegetable gardner prior to his ‘retirement’), which they then sell through his market stall to earn their own income. (After keeping what they need for their own use). They also grow fruit trees which have already started selling as young trees, and have joined one of the children’s homes rice cultivation program. Even though they have rural backgrounds, it has been a steep learning curve for them all, and it has been wonderful to see their excitement and pride as they have learned new skills, begun to provide for themselves, and also have begun to earn income.
The guys are also currently being taught other practical, technical and life skills as people and resources permit. Yut teaches them smithy skills and how to make knives, which they sell at the local markets. Dominik is teaching them how to use various tools. A short-term volunteer (Rob), is teaching English several mornings a week. Two of the guys are enrolling in night / weekend school to do high school studies.
Learning Woodwork skills
PDF