This month, my team and another team have been making jump ropes and doing manual labor at an orphanage called Agape Home here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I’ve loved my time here so far and I felt like sharing the story of how it came to be because it is so powerful, so please read to the end, I promise you it’s worth it. 🙂
45 years ago, a Canadian woman named Avis Rideout came to Thailand after graduating high school to volunteer at Cambodian refugee camps. During her time, she volunteered at the government run orphanages. During her time there, she heard about an AIDS room, where children with this mysterious disease were put to essentially die in the hopes they wouldn’t spread the disease to the other kids.
Avis heard the Lord tell her “What are you going to do about this?” Avis had no idea what she could do for these kids, but she told the Lord that if He gave her a seed, she would nurture it with His blessing. With that, the Lord told Avis to take one of the girls in the AIDS room and adopt her, to care for her as her own daughter.
Adopting children with HIV is incredibly difficult today, so back then, it was virtually unheard of. Determined, Avis continued to try to adopt this baby and by some sort of miracle, she became the first foreigner to adopt an HIV child in Thailand. This baby’s name is Nikki.
From then on, Avis was able to care for more children with HIV/AIDS and even adopt two more kids. She started a children’s home of kids that were rejected from other orphanages and abandoned because they were sick. She called this place Agape Home Nikki’s place- meaning unconditional love.
Today, Agape Home is home to 92 orphans, most of whom have HIV/AIDS, ranging from 1 month to 18 years old. These kids are some of the happiest children I’ve ever seen. They are loved, taken care of, and then some. They go to public schools and get to come home to a loving community. Unlike other orphanages, Agape has nannies that care for the kids 24 hours/day. The ratio of kids to nannies is 2:1, while most other orphanages is 10:1. The other cool thing about Agape is that every nanny is HIV positive, so they understand the children on a deeper level and can relate. Some of the bonds we’ve been able to see between the kids and the nannies is so touching and really shows how they care for these kids.
Agape is also a Christian organization, and all the nannies and staff at Agape is Christian. It may not seem special, but in a predominately Buddhist nation, this is unheard of. Avis has witnessed to each person and has demonstrated how a life with the Lord is so freeing. Likewise, all the kids are being raised Christian and are raised knowing they are loved by everyone at Agape, and also our Heavenly Father. This place is something truly special, and the presence of the Lord is evident all around Agape.
While talking to Avis (our host), she told us that she is in desperate need of sponsors for the kids. Her goal is to have the whole organization be run off of funds from sponsors. She also told us that they never have enough money to have Agape at full capacity, but the kids never go without. They are all trusting in the Lord that funds will come in and they can continue the Lord’s work.
Will you prayerfully consider sponsoring a child? The cost is $35 per month and that helps cover some of the costs for treatment beyond medicine for HIV, 24 hour nanny salaries, and the basic food and housing costs, all a vital part to each child’s well being.
I have attached some photos below of some of the kids I have met over the past couple of weeks. My parents and I have decided to sponsor 2 kids in the program, but there’s always more who need sponsors.
Let me know if you’re interested in sponsoring a kid or go to https://www.changinglivesthailand.org and follow the instructions on the donate page.
