Crafts, Counseling, and Help: New Life for Thai
By Ceny Hirahara,
Southeast Asia Field- NCM Coordinator
The AIDS patients say, “You helped me a lot! You are different!” These are words that the volunteers and staff hear from beneficiaries of the New Life for Thai (NLFT), which is the HIV/AIDS ministry of the Thailand District Church of the Nazarene. They are grateful not only to be beneficiaries of the NLFT but also for the opportunity the NLFT provides to make some income through craft-making and the selling of second hand items.
Through the process of making crafts the patients are also experiencing fellowship and counseling from the volunteers at the AIDS Center. Others make crafts at home, such as the woven bags made by one handicapped AIDS patient. She and her son are both infected. Volunteers order and get these items from home-bound workers through regular home visitation.
Some of the craft items the patients make are: Mobile phone straps, earrings, greeting cards, artificial flowers, woven bags, and cloth bags.
This project has brought encouragement to both the AIDS patients and NLFT team. It becomes an opportunity to have fellowship with and provide counseling to AIDS patients. Some patients come to the AIDS Center to do the crafts. They are able to open up about their life issues and problems, and to ask about the beliefs of the NLFT team. They listen to information about Christianity and Jesus Christ. Some come to believe in Jesus Christ.
The income from the handcrafted items goes to the AIDS patients and a portion to the “NLFT Craft AIDS Project fund.”
Another fulfilling project is selling second hand items. The NLFT team is helping collect second hand items that an AIDS patient can then sell in a market. One team member said, “I am happy and blessed to get to know the NLFT team. I felt alone before, but now I have friends from the team. I feel blessed also to receive second hand items that I can sell in the market and earn income. I commit to give 10% of the sale to the NLFT Craft AIDS Project Fund so it can be used for the work projects of the other AIDS patients.”
Right now, the NLFT team continues to find out which crafts the AIDS patients are able to do and to look for regular markets in which to sell their projects. They also continue to ask church members, family, and friends here and abroad for any second hand or used items that they will be willing to give so the AIDS patients can sell them to earn income and eventually support the “NLFT AIDS Craft Project Funds.”
The NLFT would like to thank Thailand District Superintendent Rev. Hahom, Project Manager, Suvit and volunteer, Pochana for leading the coordination of the “NLFT Craft AIDS Project Funds.”