The Human Development Foundation, Bangkok

from the HDF website:
The Human Development Foundation, a non-denominational community-based field organization, was founded in 1974 in Klong Toey, Bangkok's largest slum, by Father Joe Maier, a Redemptorist Priest, and Sister Maria Chantavarodom, of the Daughters of Queenship of Mary Immaculate.
Over the past 30 years, the foundation has continuously initiated projects to help the poor. When a pilot program worked in one neighborhood, it was expanded to another, and in this way, with a staff that has grown to 250 dedicated men and women, the HDF now reaches out to friends in over 30 slum communities.

This is the Mission Statement of the HDF:
We work to help the children and communities of the many slums of Bangkok. Together with our neighbors in the slums we create simple-but-progressive solutions that touch the lives of thousands of the poor every day. We build and operate schools, improve family health and welfare, protect street children's rights, combat the AIDS crisis, respond to daily emergencies, and offer shelter to orphans, to street children, and to children and adults with AIDS - always together, hand in hand and heart to heart with the people we serve.

See the HDF website at: www.fatherjoe.org

We first heard about HDFand Father Joe Maier through a talk that Peter Dalglish, founder of 'Street Kids International' and co-founder of 'Schools without Borders' , gave at RCNUWC in the spring of 2002. During his talk Peter spoke passionately of the inspiring work that Father Joe has been doing in the slums of Bangkok and of the possibility of our students volunteering at HDF. Since then HDF has become a partner in the 'Third-year Volunteer Programme' which RCNUWC now runs for its graduates and for other interested young people, and several UWC students have spent periods of up to six months at HDF.
In the two school years following Peter's visit we have also been fortunate enough to meet, and get to know, Wanwisa and Nueng, the first two of the Thai students from HDF who have been awarded scholarships to the college. They have been wonderful ambassadors for the organisation.
So it seemed a good fit for us to write to Father Joe and ask if they would be interested in two slightly-older volunteers. To our delight they said, "Yes".

We flew into Bangkok on September 1st.