Hughes Krupica – CSR/ESG – Good Shepherd Phuket Town – Care for Migrant Children

After closing for more than six months due to COVID-19 regulations, Good Shepherd School was finally allowed to reopen in January 2022, starting with Youth Group and Grade 4. By March 2022, all students from Kindergarten to Youth Group of 250 students were at the School when in fact the school can only accommodate 150 students.

Since 2010, The Good Shepherd Phuket Town has been a beacon of hope for the poor in slum areas around the fishing port in Phuket Town. Living in inhumane, unsanitary conditions in squalid encampments, many fall prey to unscrupulous employers in the construction industry or to Human Trafficking. Through love and education, the school is able to break the cycle of extreme poverty and give hope for the future.

This program is under the direction of The Good Shepherd Home Foundation, a worldwide Catholic Non-Profit Organisation. 

Most migrant children born in Phuket are refused official recognition from the Thai authorities. Unable to access any form of education or healthcare, they have little hope for their future. Parents have no choice but to let their children “fend for themselves” whilst they go to work, so the children are at constant risk from sexual or labour exploitation. GSPT aims to rehabilitate beneficiaries in a holistic manner, care for all migrants, especially women’s needs. Temporary accommodation, counselling, legal help, human rights’ education, language and vocational skills are provided to address the exploitation and abuse they have suffered.

Since we talked with Sister Lakana, the school is lacking of many essential items such as powdered milk for malnourished children who are underweight; staple foods and vitamin supplements to low and no income families and especially to TB/HIV infected patients, first aid kits, educational aid such as A4 Papers, Notebook, pencils, etc.

In February 2023,  the Hughes Krupica Team went onsite to visit the school, and upon arrival the students on the second floor were waving and greeted us with the warmest smiles. Kru (Teacher) Pla came out with some of the students to help us take the donated items out of the car. Some of the students did not speak Thai but they were trying to communicate with us. We noticed and wondered why some of the students missed their class as shown on the school board. It was sad to learn the fact that many of the children had to work to help out their parents and earn a living at such an age. Some of the working children were as young as 10 years old.

We walked around the school to visit the playground, outdoor activities area, kitchen in silence because the children were studying in their classes. Kru Pla told us that the school faced with an urgent need to purchase a piece of land. For the previous nine years, the School were allowed to use the land for school free of charge. However,  the landlord needed to sell the land plot quickly. If they couldn’t raise the necessary funds, hundreds of children would lose the school’s only playground. To save the school’s playground,  there is a need to fundraise 4.4 million THB. The school playground is the only place where children can gather, have outdoor activities, eat meals, and communicate with friends.

You can support and be part of their mission by donate at:
Kasikorn Bank: 054-8-34745-9
Good Shepherd Home Foundation
Swift: KASITHBK

Before we left the school, the school chef invited us to have lunch with them which they cooked 2 delicious Thai dishes; Massaman curry chicken and Stir fried mixed vegetables in Oysters sauce.