A call for HELP!

We need YOUR help to rebuild our family's house and the first floor of our neighbour's house after a horrific fire. This tragedy has left our whole family homeless; furthermore, we have lost all of our personal belongings and simple necessities for survival. All we have left are the clothes we were wearing that tragic day. In addition, all our means of transportation which included three scooters are also completely destroyed together with everything else and we are now left with only one single bicycle between us all. Our house also functions as our workplace, from here we make food that we sell at our stall at the market in the evenings. The fire did not just burn our home but also has destroyed one of our main source of income.

WHO ARE WE:

We are a hard-working family of rice farmers, living in the North East of Thailand. Our house comprised of 5 family members - Grandma Ya-Te, 72 and Grandpa Poo-Pong, 74, my great-nephew Nong-Nat, 19, my great-niece Nung-Nan, 23 and her 4-year old daughter Nung-Yim plus it is also home to my father and myself although we are currently working in Bangkok. One of the most tragic parts of this whole incident is that 4-year old Nung-Yim is now facing her future living without a mother. Her mother Nung-Nan, who is my great-niece, she is also unfortunately and unbelievably the perpetrator of the fire. She is currently in prison awaiting trial and is expected to be sentenced between 7 years to life in prison for her unjustifiable actions.

THE STORY:

On the 29th of June, our family house, part of our neighbours’ house and our business were burnt down to the ground.

The house has been in our family for over 40 years it was built by my grandparents and has been a home for 4 generations; my grandparents, parents, myself, my siblings and now our youngest member.

All of our childhood memories are from this house and it was the one place in the world where we knew we could come and feel safe upon returning from long working trips in bigger cities of Thailand. One could say this was our sanctuary.

As mentioned, the terrible truth is that the offender of this dreadful crime is one of our own family members. She has been sadly admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals, yet still has not been able to recover from severe trauma after multiple rapes, and heavy abuse of synthetic meth amphetamine. The morning of 29th June 2020, after an argument with her brother she set fire to the upstairs of our house while with her own daughter, our grandma and her younger brother were still inside the house. In addition, to our house being burnt to the ground the fire spread to our neighbour’s house and destroyed their first floor.

However, miraculously everyone escaped unharmed although unfortunately within 20 mins our whole lives were demolished. My family were unable to rescue any personal belongings and absolutely everything went up in smoke including their hard-earned savings that were inside the house, literally under grandpa’s pillow.

Most people would have kicked my great-niece Nung-Nan out of the house a long time ago, however, we chose to let her stay so we could take care of both her and her 4-year-old daughter. A choice which has had unthinkable severe consequences for us all. These consequences have cost us our house, where we were all born and raised. Everything and I mean everything has gone up in smoke. Apart from five people who are currently homeless, all our physical possessions including all our family photos are destroyed. The psychological stress and ultimate trauma is unbearable for all of us. My grandparents are distraught and devastated. Furthermore, after this horrific incident, the mother, our family member, my great-niece, who is the offender of this terrible crime has been put in prison and is currently awaiting her trial.

On many levels this is without doubt the hardest experience of our lives. We have experienced many house floods and other horrific incidents in our lives; however, I can now sadly say from experience it is nothing compared to getting your house burned down by your own beloved family member who is a person we truly love and know has been destroyed from circumstances which have been out of her own hands.

Currently, granddad and grandmother are living on the street where the house used to be, and the rest of us are staying with neighbours. In addition to this, it is unbearable to see our 4-year old little girl losing nearly everything in her life; her mother, home, toys, security to name a few. We have already managed to buy the minimum requirements for her school in terms of school bag, school uniform based on your generous donations nevertheless, the most painful part is that she has no longer a place to call home.

Finally, we are what you would call a hard-working and proud family that believes in taking care of our own. Regrettably, we cannot afford to rent, buy or build a new house. Besides our house was unfortunately uninsured, and we are also responsible for the damage to our neighbour’s house. So this is the main purpose of us asking you for assistance. It is an immensely humiliating and hard process for us to ask for help, but we don't know what else to do or where to turn, we are desperate, and this is our last glimmer of hope that we have and are now reaching out to YOU.

We hope you understand that it is not an easy task to swallow one’s pride and beg for help from strangers and friends around the world, but we really have no other options.

My boyfriend and I are working hard every day to try and provide for everyone, we pray and hope this fundraiser can create a once in a lifetime miracle for our family.

HOW CAN YOU HELP:

We are hoping and asking humbly for help to raise 20.000 euros, this is barely enough to rebuild our home and get us some simple clothing, food, transportation and school-related stuff for our youngest family member.

At this stage, even the smallest donation will make a difference, and we are counting on you to help us, and be a part of building a basic stable foundation for our lives and survival. Thanking you all in advance.