A ministry of YWAM Chiang Mai
A small children's home in Chiang Mai. Children who arrive here are not placed temporarily. They join a family, and we stay until they are grown.
The need
Thousands of children are orphaned or abandoned in Thailand every year. A baby is supposed to have a family that protects it, cares for it and fights for it. Where there is no family, a child becomes a statistic: left at a hospital, or handed to a government orphanage that is already badly overcrowded.
Some children arrive because a parent died. Some because the parent who remained was not a safe person to be with. Almost all of them arrive through Thai government referral, from a state home or a social worker who has run out of options.
The solution
Home of Joy takes in orphaned and abandoned children, most of them as babies, and raises them the way a family would. We serve their physical, spiritual and emotional needs in a caring, family environment until they reach adulthood. The commitment is the whole point: a child who comes into Home of Joy comes into a family for life.
In practice that means school runs and homework, birthdays and church, guitars and basketball and arguments about the washing up. It means somebody in the audience at a graduation. It means the ordinary things a child with a family never has to think about, which is exactly why they matter here.
What we are aiming for
Most children's homes describe their hopes in soft language. Home of Joy states them plainly, and names the hard part out loud.
"We want to see behavior patterns of stealing, lying, and teasing replaced by patterns of sharing, honesty, and encouragement." Children who have had to survive on their own learn habits that kept them alive. Unlearning those takes years, and a great deal of patience.
"We want to see our children develop caring hearts toward others, and to find it natural to help others when they can." The measure of this work is not a well behaved child. It is an adult who looks after somebody else without being asked to.
Two stories
Both of these are published by Home of Joy under changed names. They sit side by side here because together they say what the promise actually means, and what it sometimes costs to keep it.
Andrew was removed from a parent who was not a safe person to be with, and was sent to a government home in northern Thailand at six months old. A social worker there asked whether Home of Joy would take him. He arrived as a two year old.
He has been eager to please for as long as anyone can remember, and helps wherever he can. He plays guitar and drums and spent a while on the worship team at church. He plays basketball and volleyball. He was told he had a learning disability, and then graduated from an academically demanding high school anyway. He wants to be a paramedic, and he has wanted to go to Africa since he was small.
Boo was three when her mother died of cancer. Her father, grieving, could not care for her, and at that point no extended family was willing to. Home of Joy received her as a temporary addition to the family. Shortly after arriving she prayed and asked God to be her best friend, and developed an appetite for her children's Bible and for praying for other people, her father most of all.
As his grief eased he called often, then began to visit. With help the relationship was rebuilt, and in time it became clear they were ready to be a family again. After the school year finished, and after checking with her extended family more than once, Boo went back into her father's care.
Home of Joy exists to be a permanent home for children who have none, so Boo was a deliberate exception. The staff and the children are glad of it. Sometimes keeping a promise to a child means handing her back.
Who runs it
Home of Joy is a project of YWAM Chiang Mai and operates under the Project L.I.F.E. Foundation, a Thai registered foundation running children's and community work in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Korat, Khon Kaen, Pattaya and Sa Kaeo. Home of Joy is the Chiang Mai children's home.
Being registered under a Thai foundation is what allows the home to receive children through official government referral, and to hold funds locally rather than routing everything through a foreign office. It is administrative detail, and it is the reason a social worker can pick up the phone.
Get involved
A children's home does not mainly need visitors. It needs a small number of people who will be around long enough for a child to trust them.
The central role. Daily care, routine, school runs, meals, homework, bedtimes. The work that turns a house into a home, done consistently enough that a child stops waiting for it to stop.
A one year commitment looking after the grounds and keeping the vehicles running. Unglamorous, and the home does not function without it.
People who will pray regularly for the ministry and for these young people specifically, over years rather than weeks.
Help with contacting supporters and running local fundraising events. Education is consistently the largest cost the home carries.
Giving
Education is the largest ongoing need: school fees, uniforms, books, and university costs for the young people who get that far. Please ask us for current figures rather than relying on numbers published elsewhere, so you know exactly what a gift is doing this year.
Give online through Project L.I.F.E., the Thai foundation Home of Joy operates under, or transfer directly to the foundation's account.
Give through YWAM Montana, selecting Home of Joy from the list of ministries. Cheques can be sent to YWAM Accounting, P.O. Box 61700, Honolulu, HI 96839, USA.
Give via YWAM MontanaContact
To ask about volunteering, giving or bringing a team, reach the home through the YWAM Chiang Mai office and ask for Home of Joy. We would rather have one real conversation than a dozen enquiries.
Home of Joy, P.O. Box 162 Mae Ping, Chiang Mai 50301, Thailand
A note on visiting: this is a home where children live, not a project to tour. We welcome people who want to be part of it, and we ask that any visit is arranged in advance.
Follow along
Where to read more
Home of Joy does not run its own social accounts. Its work is documented through the Project L.I.F.E. Foundation at projlife.com. For the wider base, follow YWAM Chiang Mai on Facebook.