After months of fundraising 5 Holy Cross students accompanied by their teachers Mrs Murphy and Mrs Jenkinson, have now arrived in Pattaya for their 10 days visit. Beside raising the funds for the trip, the girls also raised £2000 for the orphanage.Here is an account of their first day. 

DAY 1: Saturday 11th July

The day started with breakfast at 8. After a short briefing we watched a DVD about the different projects we would be joining in with in the next 10 days at the Fr. Ray Foundation.

“Many people think that the idea of visiting a children’s home would leave them feeling sad, but the sad thing would be if there wasn’t a children’s home at all”- Derek, a volunteer at The Thai Children’s Trust

We got on the bus and went to the children’s village- the children ran over to hug the visitors they’d already met. Within 5 minutes, we too were playing games, running around and singing with the children. They got excited over such simple things; balloons and felt-tip pens. But the best result with the kids was the parachute.
Suddenly we realised the truth in what Derek had said. After seeing how much happiness the children had in their lives and the pride they shared in showing us their rooms, it was impossible for us to feel anything but happiness too.


After lunch we visited Fr. Ray’s Children’s Home. The age range of the 103 children living there was from 5-18. At first it was slightly harder to interact with the people our own age due to the language barrier. Just like in the morning, this soon changed and we all split up making friends with different children. Some of us played ball with the boys, others dominoes, jenga, table tennis, charades, volley ball, skipping, making bracelets, pick- up sticks and some of us had our nails painted by the younger girls who were keen to show off their talents.

It was on the bus journey home that we were hit with the realisation of how much we had experienced in just one day. After fundraising for 5 months with The Holy Cross School it was incredibly rewarding to see that the money was going to such a good cause.