Lee Kingston has been sponsoring Kannika, through the Rejoice Scholarship programme, since she was 10 years old, she is now 17. Lee makes regular visits to Rejoice and to Kannika.

Friday, 5th January 2018 was his most recent visit to Kannika and her mother. He gave Kannika a small present for her 17th birthday which fell on 29th December 2017.

In recognition of Lee's help and generosity we have prepared the following SWAY summary outlining his contribution to Rejoice to date.

Chai Prakan Children's Party

On Saturday, 6th January at Chai Prakan hospital, HIV-positive volunteers from the Chai Prakan club "Fighting HIV with a Smile", held a joint New Year's Eve and National Children's Day Party for children with HIV and children affected by HIV. 

15 children (between 7-15 years old) attended the party.

At the end of each year the HIV patients are invited for a 'get-together' meeting at Chiang Dao Hospital.

Mae Ai and Chai Prakan

On 19th and 20th December 2017 the Rejoice team visited a Shan family faced with problems of having to purchase their antiviral medicine since the time period of the NAPHA Extension programme (via the Global Fund for Aids) has now ended.

After overnight in Fang the Rejoice team made their way to Chai Prakan hospital where they met volunteers Oy and Yut who accompanied them on house calls in a Lahu village..

Living with HIV on Myanmar Border

John and Ian live in Southern France. They arrived in Chiang Mai in November 2017. On 29th November, together with Rejoice they met up with volunteer health care workers Noi and Pon and visited 3 locations on the Myanmar border. Below is a summary of the day's events.

Jeannette Wong's Project with Rejoice Charity

Jeannette Wong, the daughter of Winston Wong, the Country Manager of SDL in Thailand, organized a visit to Rejoice in Chiang Mai, for a group of 10 first and second year medical students from Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok. The objective of the visit was to gather information concerning mother to child transmission of HIV in rural communities.

Trust and Communication

The work of Rejoice depends upon building the trust of people living with HIV. Making repeated visits to remote home and villages takes time and can be frustrating when confidentiality should be maintained, and the language of the patient is not Thai but the language of one of the many hill-tribes.
The Lahu are a close-knit, independent hill-tribe which continues to maintain many traditions and language and often communication is often difficult.

Somjit Toomkam

On Tuesday, August 29, 2017 Rejoice staff together with Daeng and Loy, volunteer HIV health care workers from Mae Ai hospital, attended the funeral of novice monk Somjit.

The abbot, Somchit Boonk, from Wat Mokcham temple lead students in a procession followed by the coffin containing the body of fellow student, Somjit Toomkam.  Novice Somjit died of lung disease, pneumocystis carinii pneumonia. (Pneumocystis pneumonia is not commonly found in the lungs of healthy people, but, being a source of opportunistic infection, it can cause a lung infection in people with a weak immune system, Wikipedia).

Each summer over the past 3 years, groups of pre-med students from Patana International School, Bangkok have visited Maekok River Village Resort activity centre.  During their visit Rejoice, together with the Resort staff and hospital staff organise visits to three hospitals in Chiang Mai Province; Chiang Dao Hospital, Chai Prakan Hospital and Mae Ai Hospital. Below is a summary of their 2017 visits;

Wat Baan Tha School

Schools in Thailand are encouraged to teach reproductive health to young children in order to prevent the ever-increasing number of unwanted pregnancies amongst adolescents and also to make them aware of how diseases are spread and how they can be prevented.

Chai Prakan is a small town close to the Myanmar border in northern Thailand.  The teachers of Wat Baan Tha school asked if Rejoice and the volunteer HIV healthcare workers from Chai Prakan Hospital (a group calling itself “Yim Soo” or Fighting (HIV) with a Smile), could make a presentation to 48 students ranging in age from 10 to 14 years on Tuesday,25th of July 2017.

Newsletters

Newsletters and updates are now made using Microsoft SWAY presentations.  They offer a better way of presenting both text and image groups together.

Here is the July 2017 Newsletter ...

On Friday 24th February 2017, Rejoice hosted the third Healthcare Exchange meeting.  This meeting was organised together with volunteers from Chai Prakan hospital and took place at Doi Wiang Pha National Park. 

The object of the meeting was to allow HIV volunteer workers from the various areas of the province to meet each other again and exchange ideas and to encourage HIV volunteers from other rural hospitals to start a group in their area. We also invited Plan International who are also assisting in our “Education and Prevention Programme” by providing videos and booklets aimed at children and youths.