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BANGKOK: A group of people worked hard on the dusty roadside next to a railroad.
Wearing yellow aprons and black gloves, they swept up the dry leaves in heaps and scooped up the trash with their hands. Their faces are wrinkled and covered in sweat as their skin burns in the scorching sun. But they are happy to do it every week.
“The work is easy but you have to be clean and focused. You can’t just do it for fun, ”said one of the cleaners, Chalee Maneeterm.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7amhG85cTpc
Like her colleagues, Chalee participates in the Hire Me or “Jangwan Ka” project in Thai, which seeks to provide work for people who are homeless or on the verge of homelessness.
The initiative was launched in July by the Mirror Foundation, a non-governmental organization that has advocated for social development in Thailand since 1991. So far, the project has attracted about 100 participants. Most of them are between 55 and 70 years old and do not have sufficient funds to start a new life on their own.
“I stay in a market. There is a place to sleep there, but it’s not really meant for that. However, I can use it without causing trouble for anyone. Sometimes people give me things, ”Chalee said when interviewed by CNA.
An old woman picks up a piece of rubbish on the roadside in Bangkok. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Three years ago, an accident cost him the sight of his left eye and forced him to spend his savings on medical bills. Since then, life has become a struggle with jobs that are hard to find.
People think it’s “incomplete,” he said, but things got worse with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chalee does not have a permanent job and relies on charity to make a purchase. Every time you want to take a shower, you have to find 10 baht (US $ 0.34) to use the bathrooms or go to a temple that allows you to use the facilities for free.
“If I have the opportunity, I would like to do something else to improve and not have to depend on others all the time,” he said.
Chalee is one of more than 2,700 homeless people in Thailand, according to a survey conducted in January by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and related organizations.
The data showed that 86 percent of this vulnerable group were men and more than half lived alone. They are scattered throughout the country but concentrated in big cities like Bangkok, Nakhon Ratchasima, Chiang Mai, and Songkhla.
A group of cleaners fill a plastic bag with trash and dry leaves as part of the Hire Me project. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
“The root cause of the problem is that these people have a house but cannot live there for various reasons, for example a financial problem with the people in their house. They feel that they can no longer stay there and decide to leave. But they don’t have any capital that allows them to, say, rent a room or stay with friends for two months while they look for work, ”said Sittiphol Chuprajong, Hire Me project manager.
“In most cases, the homeless have very little capital: limited education, little savings, and even their age; most are elderly ”, he added. “It makes them unable to find work.”
As a result, thousands of people have ended up on the streets and in public areas such as train stations, bus stops, and parks.
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO RUN TO ORDER ANOTHER FOOD”
Since July, the Hire Me project has provided cleaning jobs for several homeless people. Sittiphol and his team coordinate with the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration to find public areas for them to clean at least once a week.
Places range from footbridges to parks and sidewalks. Each session lasts three to four hours and cleaners charge 400 baht (US $ 13).
“Almost each and every one of them is excited about the job because they feel like they can do something with their life instead of having to beg all the time,” Sittiphol said.
A male cleaner sweeps up dry leaves at the roadside in Bangkok. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
For those who are serious about saving, they can choose to work four times a week to earn more. One of them is Natcha Sangyot, who became homeless at age 54.
Like Chalee, the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for her and her sister to find work. With no money to rent a room, the couple had to stay at a bus stop in Bangkok and live off charity. They had to queue for hours in the sun every day to receive food donations. At night, they had to watch out for the dangers that lurked.
“We would sit at the bus stop all night and take turns sleeping,” Natcha said.
There were other homeless people there and they were groping us. Some taxi drivers came to take us by the hands. Sometimes when we were asleep, people would steal our belongings from us: shoes and bags. That’s how it went. So, we had to be careful.
The Hire Me project helps homeless and vulnerable people in Bangkok improve their lives by providing them with jobs. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
Natcha and her sister lived on the streets for weeks before someone introduced the Hire Me project to them. Then life began to change. With regular income, they have been able to save money, rent a room, and stop taking turns sleeping at night.
“Life is so much better now, since we don’t have to stand in the sun or sit in the plaza all day,” Natcha said.
“I don’t have to run to order food anymore. We have some savings to pay for showers and buy food without having to queue for hours with other people, “he added. “I’m proud.”
“THESE LITTLE THINGS WE TAKE FOR GRANTED”
Natcha has been paying the rent herself for three months. The joy of having financial independence keeps her working hard. But not everyone on the streets can achieve what she did.
Through years of working with the homeless in Thailand, Sittiphol has found that a key challenge facing this vulnerable group is the lack of stable jobs and access to basic facilities such as bathrooms, toilets and laundry areas, which affects their quality. of life.
While the government provides shelters for the homeless, she said that very few of them want that kind of support because it is not compatible with their lifestyle.
“Most of the residents of state shelters have mental health problems, about 80 percent of them. This makes ordinary people, such as the homeless, feel suffocated if they have to stay there, where they will gather, sleep together, and share the same space. They can’t handle it, ”Sittiphol told CNA.
“Besides, there is no freedom. They can’t really go anywhere and that doesn’t suit their lifestyle, which means finding an income, ”he added.
According to Sittiphol, homeless people in Thailand have different needs and not all of them want to have a home. To help improve your life, the social workers running the Hire Me project chose to focus on unemployment among the homeless population. They believe that a key factor that could help them transform and improve their quality of life is work.
“They can buy new clothes and products to take care of themselves, like soap and toothpaste. They can take care of themselves more often. Those who pay to use the toilets can shower more, ”Sittiphol said.
These little things that we take for granted mean a lot to them. They want to be clean. They want to shower. And being able to spend money without having to beg means a lot to them. It restores their pride, as these people normally have to wait for charity.
“When they have income, they will also think ‘What should I do with the money?’ So this will lead them to a certain decision that is important for their life, for example, finding a place to live that is not on the streets or public places, “he added.
Chalee Maneeterm. (Photo: Pichayada Promchertchoo)
By the side of the road, the black garbage bags are full of dry leaves and garbage. The job was finished and the cleaners were getting ready to go home. Chalee may not have one to return to yet, but she’s working on it.
“I would like to have a gas stove and sell fried chicken with glutinous rice in the morning,” he said.
“I may be disabled, but I’m 100 percent ready,” he added. “I can see the whole world, not just half.”
