The Support A Child program provides support to children and their families that have been deeply affected by the Tsunami. Many children lost one or both of their parents in the disaster and had to leave school to help support their families. Through the aid of the SAC program, these ambitious children are able to return to school and get an education that will benefit future generations. Thanks to the many generous donations by individuals from around the world the program has grown, significantly currently supporting 109 children in different parts of Thailand.

Selection Criteria adopted:
• Children must be Tsunami orphans or come from families living in disaster-affected zones.
• Joint family monthly income must be below 20,000 Thai Baht, including any other scholarships received, but not including the HHF scholarship.
• Applications must provide evidence as to why the child requires the sponsorship: financial assistance is awarded to children who are unable to attend school due to insufficient financial resources or exceptional circumstances.
• The family/child must agree in advance to provide updates for donors (this is facilitated through a HHF local partners and not directly between family/donor) including photographs and school reports.

HHF Benchmarks and Requirements for Children to Fulfill:
• Attend school / university on a full time basis.
• Maintain a minimum of 2.0 GPA

Parents/Guardians are required to:
• Send the child’s records to HHF’s local partner for review.
• Use SAC funds for nothing other than the educational and immediate needs of the child.
• Provide full and up-to-date Bank details so as to allow wiring of funds directly to the child’s bank account.
• Produce bank book records upon request of HHF’s local partners. Failure to provide all relevant bankbooks will result in termination of scholarship support.

A donor (or Company) can support a child for all or part of their educational needs. Full support allows the child to attend and complete a full academic study at Primary, Secondary, High School, or University level. Partial support supplements a child’s academic study. Donations of this type are collected and grouped until a full academic study grant is achieved, allowing the child a full academic path. We provide all donors with a general SAC Newsletter at the end of the first school term and with a personalized status report on their sponsored child at the end of the year.

Updates include:
- Child profile and updated pictures.
- School performances with indication of grades achieved.
- Extracurricular activities.    Close

More than a billion children in developing countries do not have the opportunity to learn basic technology skills, which slows economic improvements for people in local communities. In partnership with HP, renovations and improvements have been made to the Wat Pattikaram Primary school in Phangha, attended by 126 children. In addition, a computer lab with sixteen new HP computers and a large screen monitor for teachers have been installed. Thanks to the wonderful support of HP, children can now open a whole new window of opportunities through computers. IT professionals are provided annually to help the children with the use of technologies.    Close

HHF is in the process of establishing the basis for a new partnership with a Thai Ngo with the goal of developing new projects in the Tsunami and natural disaster affected areas. The Simon Atlee’s Happy Hearts Center For Education and Community will be the first project developed together, in memory of the beloved Simon Atlee, whose life was taken by the Tsunami. The center will benefit children as well as members of the community and has the objective of providing resources in the areas of education, art, and sustainability. After school tutoring on natural disasters, environmental preservation, disaster-response exercises and additional creative art activities will be run by the center. The participation of communities will also be achieved with the goal of making the center self-sustainable in the long term.    Close

At the age of four, Puek suffered from brain anoxia after complications arose during an operation to remove a cist on his lungs. The doctor at the local hospital believed that there was nothing that could be done to help Puek and told his parents that he would remain bedridden for the rest of his life. Pueks parents abandoned him and sadly left him permanently in the children’s ward at the government hospital.
In April 2008, after many months spent trying to find a suitable facility to care for Puek, Happy Hearts Fund, with the assistance of Child Line, was able to arrange for him to be transferred to the Phuket International Hospital. On November 2008 HHF supported a surgical operation that allowed Puek to be orally fed and he was moved to the Bangkok Phuket Hospital where he now receives high quality care.

We are amazed to see the transformation in Puek, who is now able to sit up, to chew and swallow again, to improve hand and arm coordination and to make further progress every day.

In collaboration with Teens For Technology, HHF has opened computer labs in seven different schools in Thailand (Lampee school, Po Daeng school, Ban Don school, Kao Pilai school, Bua Kok school, Kam Nok Kok school, and Ta Bpak Wang school). IT professionals have been provided for each school in order to train children in the use of the technologies.

The project allows 1,036 children to learn basic technology skills and tools to help them find a better job in the future and contribute to the economic development of their communities and country as a whole.