Baan Unrak Mission

Baan Unrak is a non-government, non-religious, non-political community development project founded in 1991 to serve the people in need of Sangklaburi, Thailand.  We focus on supporting  children and mothers in our community.

Baan Unrak Children’s Village

The primary part of our mission is our children’s viallge which provides food, housing, emotional support  and educational opportunities to over 140 children.Baan Unrak children’s home, established in 1991 in Thailand by the Neo Humanist Foundation, has given children and  mothers a home and hope for a better future. Baan Unrak, or “House of Joy,” founded by Didi Ananda Devamala, from Verona, Italy, and Didi Ananda Anuraga from Norway, both of the Neo Humanist Foundation, provides a home, and education to some 140 children, and employment to single mothers. You can learn more about Baan Unrak on their website: baanunrak.org

Baan Unrak Primary School

Founded in 2005, our fully-accredited primary  school  develops the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual capacities of each child. Today, the  school educates over 250 children from our children’s home and the community.  You can learn more about the school on their website: baanunrakprimaryschool.com

Sangkhla Buri

Baan Unrak is located in Sangkhla Buri, Kanchanaburi, western Thailand, a remote area, near a rainforest, ravaged by poverty and disease. Human smuggling and illegal logging are major industries in Sangkhla Buri. An influx of refugees and immigrants fleeing war and forced slavery in Burma, has added to the region’s economic problems, including high unemployment statistics. Diseases, such as malaria, typhoid, and dysentery, and health problems related to poor sanitation, scourge the Sangkhla Buri area.

“The hospital of Sangkhla Buri does not adequately cover the area,” Didi Ananda Devamala said. “Villagers in the rainforest often die before they reach the hospital,” she explained. “The Health centres in the rainforest often cannot help villagers.”

Dedicated Volunteers

“The influx of refugees has caused many problems in the area.” Didi said. “Families are separated. Husbands abandon their wives. It is very difficult for a woman to survive alone here and almost impossible if she has a small child. Most people live from hand to mouth.”
“Nobody here gives jobs to pregnant women or mothers with small children.  Mothers are viewed as a social burden. Without food, a nursing mother cannot feed her babies. Because of social rejection and hunger their vision of the future is bleak. Often they bring children to our home not because they don’t love their children but because they have completely lost hope,” Didi said.
“I usually try to help mothers. I restore hope and they leave Baan Unrak with their children, reenergised and ready to overcome adversities. Often adversities leave a big scar in their soul and the [women] become completely corrupt. In this case I agree to take the children and offer them a home.
People bring children to our home because they feel there is hope for a better future,” Didi said.

The Founding of a Children’s Village

Didi, a full time volunteer of the Neo-Humanist organisation, came to Thailand to work on an agricultural and environmental project. Didi did not plan to found an orphanage. She was a secretary in a small accountant’s office before joining the organisation. On arrival in Thailand, Didi worked as English teacher. She opened a small study centre for children in a slum.
Three years later, when she went to Sangkhla Buri to start her agricultural project an abandoned wife asked Didi to help her take care of her child. “Both mother and baby suffered from severe malnutrition and other sicknesses. I thought I could provide some temporary help,” said Didi. “I knew that she wanted to give the child because she wanted to go back to her bar life in Bangkok. I did not know what to do. I asked my neighbour and the children in our house.
Everybody said: “Take it Didi, take it.”
Word got round that Didi looks after abandoned children. Mothers and sometimes fathers brought their children.
“It was so difficult for me to say no,” said Didi. “The villagers saw what I was doing with the children and trusted me. I did not have the heart to refuse them.”
A Karen peasant’s wife died leaving six children. Her husband could not look after the children while he was at work. Didi took in the youngest girl, who was six months old, and her four elder sisters.
A seven-month-old baby girl was adopted by five women in succession. When a foster mother was informed that the baby was HIV positive she brought her to Baan Unrak.
The number of children staying at the house increased.

Caring for Children in Need

“When a child is brought to our home I see in them a huge potentiality. I already imagine their bright future. I see light and I see beauty. I take a child when I see that otherwise he or she cannot develop that potential.”
Didi discourages mothers leaving their children at the Center.  She believes that it is better for the children to stay with their families. Baan Unrak provides destitute mothers with rice, milk and temporary shelter. It is only when there are no other options that the children stay at the Center.
“I encourage mothers to care for their children. I help them for a time with rice or milk. Sometimes I let them stay with us until they are stronger. Some mothers that intended to give their children away changed their mind while they were staying with us. Following their stay here they are prepared to face hardship for the sake of their child.”

Self- Empowerment

Baan Unrak helps mothers earn income and support their children. A sewing and weaving centre was set up in 1995 with the support of the British Embassy and the New Zealand Embassy to provide employment to abandoned mothers. The centre produces scarves, textiles and ready-to-wear clothing, and provides destitute mothers with stable employment.

Social Services

Baan Unrak organises regular relief programs in the surrounding villages and refugees camps, distributing food and clothing. Baan Unrak teenagers manage most of the relief programs. A mobile medical unit established in 2003 at Baan Unrak provides the community with medical care. The medical unit provides villagers with education regarding primary health care, nutrition, birth control, and the prevention of AIDS and other diseases.