By Margaret Leonie Grainger | Vice President Hand to hand Foundation
Thailand is beginning to go through the worst covid 19 outbreak they have had, which brings sickness and fear and more unemployment and financial hardship as more businesses close. Pattaya is a city whose economy relies mainly upon the tourist market and with only a handful of visitors, many businesses that we're able to keep going have simply run out of money.
The government can supply some financial support; however, this is not easily accessed by the poor and uneducated. Many of these people don't have a fixed address and are therefore unable to access any assistance. In addition to this most of the support is distributed through an e-wallet which requires the user to have a smartphone and access to the internet to use this service. Once again most of the people we assist have no access to either of these tools.
At present we are distributing 450kg of rice every week in addition to hundreds of cooked meals. As the job is too big for our small team to handle, we employ some of the unemployed to help us cook.
Our gardens continue to flourish and we are also growing a lot of the fruit and vegetables that we are distributing. We have been training up the poor to assist us with this and also providing a small stipend to help them with extra food for their families. Next month we hope to begin planting these types of gardens in the slum areas where people can grow their own food. The people we have been training will become the experts in the field. Our major drawback is purchasing large water tanks to supply water to the gardens and soil. Once we have these we can move quite quickly to start the gardens and produce a bountiful harvest all over Pattaya!
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