Its that time of year again where love is in the air.

Take a moment to consider the origins of Valentines Day.

Before the day was high-jacked for lovers, it was originally meant for

close and trusted friends and companions.

So why not send a card to all your loved ones on this special day.

Even better, purchase your cards from The Stratton ABC Foundation online shop.

You will find a lovely collection of designs produced by the children at Stratton House Childrens Home, Chiang Mai.

Part of whats kept me so busy, and with little time to get to the internet shop, is an exciting new project that I have become involved with, after consultation with Huay Sai school English Teacher, Khruu Khemtong Punyoyai. In an attempt to support, encourage and promote English language learning and use, within the surrounding [...]

Due to technical difficulties this post is a bit overdue, but see here an example of the effort put in to celebrate the annual Childrens Day. The official Childrens Day is on the second Saturday of January, but it came a day early at Pasak School with a large event held, to which several local [...]

Could we be about to form our own ,Thai version ,Von Trapp family? I doubt it, but music will definitely feature high on our agenda after a very successful, impromptu session last weekend. I have played the flute for many years now, mostly for my own meditation. On Sunday I woke up in the mood [...]

With New Years day done with we decided on a Saturday trip to Huay Tung Tao. Unfortunately we had had a few behavourial issues that meant that our original 3 children remained at home with House Mother Wasana. I’m happy to report that the clear message that the trips out are a reward for good [...]

New Placements
We are happy to announce that we are now caring for another 5 children, bringing the total number of children at Stratton House to 8.
Responding to a call from Nan province, Boon and I traveled to Nan on Boxing Day to assess the childrens circumstances and make a decision on placements.
It was a long trip, having also to pick up a relative of some of the children concerned, from Mae Wang, in order that she could liase and translate for us. As you may know there are many regional languages in use in Thailand, so we could not just rely on Somboons Thai.
It took nearly 9 hours in total and we arrived at our first destination,the town of Phua, in Nan Province at around 5pm.

What a great tool the internet can be. and what a wonderful thing search engines are. Yesterday we received a lovely email from a lady in the USA who had mistakenly followed a contact link to us,(at our Foundation website), after searching for her friend John.

The lady Jennifer, made a generous donation;in honor of her father; to The Stratton ABC Foundation, in the process and although a refund was offered she wouldnt hear of it, and I’m glad to report that she is now in contact with the correct John.

Everyone at Stratton House wishes to thank Jennifer for her genorosity and will all visit our local Temple to make merit in honor of her late father Ted Lavery

So despite my health I have a busy week this week to ensure all is in order for our application for official Foundation status so that we can get that in early next week. Once that is done we can start to concentrate on the important job of fund raising and setting up the first [...]