Good idea, since I am new to this site, let me know when the registration/ company formation is completed, and it is decided what the money will be used for.
If I like the set-up and the idea would be interested in contributing

I wish you all well in your venture.
Sorry, can't offer a contribution, as all our spare cash already goes straight into the Anglo-Thai Foundation.
When we do presentations for the ATF, we pitch the £50 a year that it costs us to keep a primary school kid in Esarn as follows:

"£50 a year makes all the difference between staying at school or becoming a Bkk street kid (OK perhaps a little bit of an exaggeration, but you have to tug at the heart strings). £50 = £1 a week. Bottle of wine or a packet of fags a month. Or half of bitter a week. Could you give that up to keep a kid off the streets?"

People just don't have an answer to that. It really works. Put it in terms that people relate to and they are yours.

Best of luck
Wilson

Are wheels still in motion here, or have I missed out on some thread in the last 11 months ?

Rich

count us in

I will try to get the local pub to donate the next proceeds from there Charity Quiz to the cause, Instead of donating the money to a dogs home or something similar.

Hi i'm new as all you moderators know especially john (will be phitsanulok 24/11/05 if your around for a beer)and just saw this thread.

I assume the appeal is ongoing as posted again and will pledge but i'm no good on cut and paste and all that can i pledge on this site?

colin244

Ashamed to say I've never seen this thread before. What is the current situation with the charity formation?

Hi Flip

The application came to a halt due to some problems between the Charities commission and Companies House. Although the application is still alive, we have not been activly working on it for some time now.

The recent work regarding fundraising for the Camillian centre has been a great sucess - and after reviewing the overall fundraising situation - I feel it's time we start talking to the charity commission again to bring this to a conclussion and establish Thailand-Uk as a registared charity.

Regards
Lee

Lee, the previous application foundered because we could not ... indeed did not want to .... be specific about the sort of thing we wanted to support. We wanted to have the flexibility to support anything.

However I suspect that it would be "a whole new ball game" if we were to attempt to form a UK charity whose sole aim was to support the good works of the Camillian centre. We would need the consent and co-operation of that centre but if that is forthcoming then I would not envisage any great problem getting Charity Commission approval for such a UK-based charity .... merely a feeder to the Camillian centre in Thailand.

Just a point ... does Thailand have charities in the same sense as the UK? If so is the centre registered as one?

Thanks for the clarification John.

From my discussions with Noel I do believe that The Camillian Centre comes under the St Camillus Foundation which is an officially registered charity in Thailand, but unlike the UK there are no tax deductions such as applies to UK registered charities.

I'll alert Noel to view this thread.
Regards
Lee

Just done a google search on .... Camillian Thailand ... and found this :-

Pattaya Orphanage Trust

Is that what we are talking about? If it is then a look at that website will show that it already has a UK-based registered charity to feed it funds. In which case it does not seem like a good idea to form another one.

Mmmm, Interesting - certainly looks the same set up!
I have invited Noel to take a look at this thread and hopefully he can let us know.

Lee

A Different organisation. The Pattaya orphanages trust does great work

http://www.pattayaorphanage.org.uk/whoweare/about_us.cfm?entryPoint=default

It also looked at the work of the Camilliian Social Center and decided to fund some of the Camillian centers work.

http://www.camillian-rayong.org/en/situation.asp

richard

Thanks Lee,

I would certainly be interested in some form of continous support for the Camillian Centre. I don't particularly like the idea of sponsoring a child though - I wouldn't want to make decisions about who lives and who dies.

Richard, to your knowledge, is there a UK-registered charity set up to feed funds to the Camillian Social Center?

John I think your local RC Priest will know this. I know someone connected with the Camillian centre was doing a tour last year and certainly visited Derbyshire. I sure your local diocese may know.

I was actually unaware of the Pattaya Orphanage Trust’s sponsorship scheme and was frankly quite surprised.
I say that because in the very early days of the Jaidee Appeal, I put forward the very same proposal to Father G but it was not well received.
Father G explained that it was always the cutest kids that were sponsored, not necessarily the ones in most need. I should mention that at that time the Centre did not have enough money coming in to provide meds for all the kids who needed it. Perhaps I should not even share this, but I can vividly recall Father G’s face when I asked him what it was like playing God, given that he had to decide which children received medicines.
Suffice it to say he held his composure and we went on to discuss many of the realties in earnest. It should also be borne in mind that although this was only less than four years ago, the mortality rate was far higher than it is now given the medicines then available.
I had a brief phone conversation with Father G last night; he was in a meeting in Bangkok and leaves for Rome today, returning in ten days time.
Not surprisingly, he remembered our conversation back in 2001, including the fact that he had dismissed the idea of individual child sponsorship. Given he was in the middle of a meeting, he was not free to talk openly and answer the flurry of questions I put to him so he suggested I speak with Georgina at the Centre as she co-ordinates the sponsorship scheme.
I have just had a long conversation with her and managed to glean a certain amount of information but some key questions remain unanswered although they will be addressed in due course.
I was told that currently 25 of the 44 children have sponsors, some as many as six. Apparently now they are changing the system so that it is Father G who recommends children to be sponsored to obviate the obvious eventuality of the cutest kids getting multi-sponsors.
One message that came over loud and clear is that the scheme is intended to be a longer term commitment on behalf of the donor, not just a piecemeal approach.
I quizzed Georgina about the Pattaya Orphanage Trust and she explained that she puts together all the receipts for the children’s medicines, presents them to the Trust and they pay the lot. The bills she presents also include meds for children who have not been sponsored. This all started some time in early part of this year.
I then started down the transparency route by simply asking as to whether the Pattaya Orphanage Trust deducted a percentage for admin fees etc. Georgina did not know, but she did say that a very helpful chap from the Trust by the name of Andrew had told her that to date the Trust had actually paid out more than they had received, but said that they would make it up later.
Andrew will be visiting the Centre mid-Feb 2006 and I asked Georgina to make a point of asking him as to whether they did make a deduction for administration costs.
I made it very clear to her that I was by no means suggesting there was anything potentially underhand with the arrangements, but I felt it essential that a full reconciliation be made between all monies raised in the Centre’s name and monies actually paid to the Centre.
This is one thing I am extremely focussed on with Jaidee Appeal: every baht raised goes to the Centre (excepting unavoidable bank charges and credit card commissions etc which are all but invisible to me and outside of my control). Any out of pocket expenses, time spent etc are absorbed by the individual, period.
My point to Georgina was that even if there is a perfectly justifiable admin charge made (there may of course not be any deduction), the Centre should be aware of exactly how much that is. I am certain I am not alone in wanting to know how much of any donation I make actually goes to the intended beneficiary. I also made the point that as the Camillian Centre is in itself a registered Thai charity under the St Camillus umbrella, they have a duty to fully account for the receipt and disbursement of all monies associated with them.
I will follow that up with Father G in due course, although do not expect to get a definitive answer until some time in the New Year.
I think the implications of the above should be pretty clear vis-à-vis how Thailand-UK proceeds, so I will leave it at that for now and will let you know as and when I get further information.
If anyone has any further questions, please post them and I will forward them on to Georgina and Father G if I am unable to answer myself.

Sent you a PM Noel

quote:

I then started down the transparency route by simply asking as to whether the Pattaya Orphanage Trust deducted a percentage for admin fees etc.

Given that we are talking about a UK-registered Charity here the information is readily available :-

2004 Accounts

Lots of detail there and of course that shows some admin expenses. But suspect that the cost of that admin is less than the amount of Gift Aid coming in from HMRC.