Aliyna (nick name Mouk) is 13 years old and lives in a small village near Wiang Haeng, close to the Myanmar border, with her grandmother who is 78 years old. At birth she acquired HIV from her mother.  Both her mother and father have since died as a result of AIDS. 

 Last year, while Alinya was studying in grade 6 at Baan Wiang Haeng School her grandma had an accident and broke her leg.  Alinya had to take care of her grandma and had to stop school mid-term. 

The Rejoice team left Chiang Mai for the 4 hour journey to Mai Ai.  The first port of call was Mae Ai hospital, a small rural hospital on the main road between Thaton  and Fang.  Here the team met up with HIV volunteer healthcare workers Deang and Loy.

After a quick roadside lunch it was off to the Mekok River Village Resort to meet Rosie Massingham, Community Project Coordinator to discuss arrangements for the annual visit of pre-medical students from Bankok Patana International school and and also this year Repton School Dubai. The objective for the schools is to introduce their international pre-med students to health care in the rural areas of Thailand, in particular the care of people living with HIV. 

Microsoft SWAY 

Office Sway is a presentation program and is part of the Microsoft Office family of products. Generally released by Microsoft in August 2015, Sway allows users who have a Microsoft account to combine text and media to create a presentable website. Users can pull content locally from the device in use, or from internet sources such as Bing, Facebook, OneDrive, and YouTube.

Here is a SWAY link to the archived Rejoice Newsletters

The following embedded Rejoice presentation has been made using SWAY.

Education at Baan Mae Na School

Teens nowadays don’t have proper knowledge on sex education and they lack of self-control. This causes teen pregnancy which in Thai culture isn’t very accepted. Of course there are ways of solving these problems but there would be side effects that can be bad for their health. If teenagers have the proper knowledge on this particular topic, they wouldn’t have to deal with these problems such as teen pregnancy and STD’s. “Not having sexual intercourse is the best way to protect yourself from teen pregnancy and STD’s but not everyone will choose the right way.”

Self Help at Chiang Dao Hospital

On Tuesday the 10th of January 2017, The Soo Kwan Doi Luang HIV Volunteer Self-help group held their annual get-together at Chiang Dao Hospital HIV clinic. These meetings are popular with the HIV patients, many of whom live in the more remote areas of Chiang Dao district.  The patients can renew acquaintances from previous meetings and share stories of their experiences of “Living with HIV”. Lunch was provided for all, and new members (newly infected) were encouraged to talk to the more experienced members and ask questions and get to know each other.

Mae Ho Nursery New Year Party

On Friday the 30^th of December 2016, Mae Ho Migrant Daycare Nursery collaborated with Rejoice Charity to host a New Year’s Party for children and their parents. The teacher, Kru Rath, asked us to convey her gratitude to Carol Foo from Singapore FRS (Friends Rejoice of Singapore) who contributes fruit, milk, eggs and provisions each month.  The parents helped to cook lunch after which presents were handed out to all the children. This New Year’s event was successful as the children were happy to be a part of it. We hope to work with sponsors to bring such a great event like this in the future.

Baan Wang Jom School (E and P)

On Wednesday the 14^th of December 2016, Rejoice Charity collaborated with nurses and volunteers from Chiang Dao Hospital to host an educational event concerning STIs and HIV/Aids.

The event for 34 students, between 14 – 15 years old, was held at Baan Wang Jom Community School in Chiang Dao.

Our goal is to ensure that school children are well informed about reproductive health and have proper knowledge concerning transmission and prevention of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. During the meeting the class was very enthusiastic and very cooperative. 

World Aids Day 2016

December 1st. is World Aids Day.  Rejoice was invited by Chiang Dao Hospital to attend a jamboree in Arunotai (Nong Ook) a sprawling frontier town on the Burmese border.

It was held at the same school as it was 4 years ago.  We departed from Chiang Mai at 6 o’clock in the morning for the 2½ drive to the Border.  We arrived at Arunotai High School to find that stalls had already been laid out, a stage set-up and students both young and old from all parts of Chiang Mai Province, together with soldiers, border guards and local police.  Most of the children wore school uniform but some were dressed in their traditional tribal costumes.

Baan Pang Mayao School: Education and Prevention (E&P)

Baan Pang Mayao School is situated in the hills between Chiang Dao and Phrao.  On Wednesday 14^th February 2016, Rejoice together with the HIV Healthcare Workers from Chiang Dao Hospital (also known as the “Soo Kwan Doi Luang Chiang Dao” group), were invited to give a presentation on sexual health to a group of some 55 students between the ages of 13 and 16. Many of the students were from the Lahu and Lisu hill tribes. 

The British International School in Thailand

In August 2016 Rejoice welcomed a group of 9 medical students from Bangkok Patana School, (a British International School). The students, aged between 17 and 18 years old were hoping to further their studies at university and hopefully major in the medical field. They were staying at the Activity Center at Maekok River Village Resort (MRVR) near Tha Ton on the Myanmar-Thai border in the north of Thailand.
This was a repeat of a similar visit made last year by a group of 6 pre-medical Patana students.
The objective for the school was to introduce their international pre-med students to health care in the rural areas of Thailand, in particular the care of people living with HIV.

Wiang Haeng: Lisu Homecare

Wiang Haeng is situated close to the Myanmar border opposite Shan State. It takes almost 4 hours driving to get there. Rejoice make monthly visits to villages and communities in the surrounding area, together with health care workers from Wiang Haeng hospital, bringing supplies of basic food provisions, warm clothing and medicine including antiretroviral (ARV) medicine for the people living with HIV. The Rejoice team usually make and overnight stay in a local guest house and the following day make further home care visits on their return to Chiang Mai.