Showing 1 - 8 of 8
Opening doors for the ordinary
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 15/04/2021
» To kick open the door only once -- and it stays open. That's what our Mercy Centre and Human Development Foundation does.
From the muck andback into the muck, with a different purpose
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 01/06/2020
» It began with a slaughterhouse alumna of our oldest slum kindergarten. She's a young mum now and a heroine in our war on Covid-19. But just a short time ago, she was in a spot of bother. In fact, several spots of bother.
Moonshine Mum
Life, Father Joe Maier, Published on 04/11/2019
» It wasn't a big jump off Three Soldiers Bridge, maybe 3m, but no matter. She couldn't swim. When you can't swim, any jump into a canal is dangerous.
The broken wings of a fallen bird
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 24/04/2016
» Galong, born with Down's syndrome, was of indeterminate age. He lived on the streets and worked as a "doorman" at a low-budget karaoke joint near the Pratunam market. Always a proper gentleman, he greeted us, shook our hands and in his gravelly voice asked, "How are you?"
Slum pioneer swept away to victory
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 01/06/2014
» Auntie Boon Mee looks and carries on in life pretty much how you’d expect a high-class Klong Toey slum pioneer woman to look and carry on.
Little girl with a big heart up from under the expressway
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 04/08/2013
» Demure Miss Tangmo (Watermelon) tries to be as good and loving as any mum on the planet, but she's only eight, and she worries a lot about her five-year-old brother and the twins. Not that there's really much to worry about there: he's happy and the twins are jolly three-year-old eating machines. Her mum, back in rehab? That's a worry, but it's nothing new.
Ex-street kids fight the nightmares and find the dream
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 05/08/2012
» Ever since she was 11 and on the streets, Noi had always dreamed she would get married in the proper style, with a dowry, a ring and a bridesmaid. Her husband would have a real job and talk nice and love her. After she met the right man she promised herself that she would make it happen, and she wanted it even more after her two children were born. Her husband Somchai, also street-raised, always had the same response when she told him of her matrimonial dreams: "Why not?" But that was as far as it went.
The long road to mercy
Spectrum, Father Joe Maier, Published on 19/02/2012
» Seven, she favours that number. She's seven times seven years of age and has been "Mother Gung" to our HIV/Aids kids under seven for seven years now. It's been, she says, "a long journey, and I choose to stay".