Thank-you for visiting our fundraising page. On 4th May '09 I ran the Belfast City Marathon along with three other friends and eleven relay teams!

Last Summer myself, Kim and Jill went to Thailand to work with these children. Unfortunately Thai culture is such that having a child with a disability is seen as shameful and as a result many families either abandon their children or hide them away.

Christian Care Foundation for Children with Disabilities (CCD) has been providing care and support for these children since 1986. All abandoned children are sent to Government orphanages and will remain there indefinitely. These children are terribly neglected as there is a lack of staff to look after them (in some wards the ratio is 60:1). Children who cannot sit just lie on their backs all day and are fed as such. There is no stimulation and no love.

CCD runs daycare centres on Government sites where staff work intensively with the children to help them gain skills such as dressing and feeding themselves. More importantly, they play with the children and show them love. Despite the awful conditions in which they live, the children are very affectionate and playful and, like children in Northern Ireland, love nothing more than making a mess and laughing while you clean it up!

CCD tries to reunite children with their parents, but if this is not possible, they try to find adoptive families elsewhere. Four children have found happy homes here in Northern Ireland! Those who don't find families, or are too old to be adopted, go to school in the hope that they will go on to find jobs and support themselves. Several of the older children already have jobs in I.T. and interpreting-a massive success for CCD!

Next year we hope to return to CCD and bring money and medical supplies with us. We are aiming to raise £10,000 a sum of money which will make a HUGE difference! Please pray for us in our endeavour and also for the volunteers and staff at CCD.

If you would like to know more about CCD the website is www.ccdthailand.org

For Life is the UK arm of CCD and they send all the money straight over to the kids in Thailand, so thank you in advance for your generous support!

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It's also the most efficient way to sponsor us: For Life gets your money faster and, if you're a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement is added to your donation.

Paula.