BANGKOK (RVA News): The Sacred Heart Sisters in Bangkok, Thailand, began its One Hand Meal for One Baht feeding programme for the poor, inspired by Pope Francis to step outside their comfort zone and meet the basic needs of the poorest.
Thailand is in a state of stagnation after two years of restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis. Many people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty.
Part of the city’s workforce returned to the countryside and resumed their old farming jobs, but many others who sold their property to start a new life in Thailand’s great cities were forced to survive in slum areas.
Once a month, the Sacred Heart of Jesus sisters distribute food to about 200 people in a slum area for only one Baht [$0.21] a meal.
The initiative has two main aims: to help the poor people in the Buddhist Klong Toei area in this time of hardship, and to foster interreligious dialogue starting with what is called the “dialogue of life.”
The congregation’s charism is education and the sisters have many big schools in Thailand with many Catholic and Buddhist families choosing to send their children to their institutions.
“Two years ago, something new happened,” Sister Orapin remarked, “Pope Francis’s inspiring invitation to go out of our houses and schools and serve the poor at the borders of our society. It implores us to take action for them. We did not have to go too far to meet the poor because our school is only a few blocks away from the biggest slum area in Bangkok called Klong Toei.”
In Thailand, 6.8 per cent of the population lives below the national poverty line, and many gather in the slum areas of the major cities of the country.
Klong Toei is at the centre of Bangkok, and is home to about 100,000 people all crammed together in a ramshackle pile near the city’s main port.
“Our superior asked some of us to join the effort with the Xaverian Missionary Fathers who have a community in Klong Toei,” Sister Orapin said.
The sisters got to know the families and the great challenges they face in their everyday lives: violence, drugs, abuse of any kind, and poverty, sometimes extreme poverty.
“We could not solve all their problems because we have other competencies, but we could show empathy and relief that they struggle for everyday food,” she said.
“We ask for a symbolic participation fee of one baht so the people feel that they are part of the project and not only passive recipients of charity,” the sister explained.
As of 2019, Thailand had 388,000 Catholics, with two archdioceses, nine dioceses, and 502 parishes.
