LF Home for Children

The Lotus Flower Foundation Home for Children is an environmental and child friendly shelter located in Lard Bua Luang, Nonthaburi province, approximately 1.5 hours from Bangkok city center in the direction of Ayuthaya. Set in a quiet rural location amongst rice paddies, and constructed using traditional building techniques and low cost materials, the shelter’s buildings have a homely, basic, warm and natural feel to them. As of autumn 2009 the Home for Children is offering a new home, a new life, personal and professional care for up to 25 ‘lotus’ children.

Lotus children are aged between 2-12 years old, and are referred to us by the department of Thai Social Welfare. The children come from all over Thailand and have many different backgrounds. One thing all have in common is that, sadly, they have been neglected by their parents - this is the orphans’ biggest trauma. In many cases the children have been either physically, emotionally or sexually abused. Some of the orphans’ parents have passed away, some are in jail and some have just walked away. As a consequence, many of the children have been trafficked, and / or have lived on the streets - and are deeply traumatized by their past.

The LFF Home for Children has been established as a ‘home’, rather than an institution. It is also intended to act as ‘model shelter’ and training center for Thailand: to showcase, and transmit, the benefits of the Lotus Flower Blossom Program (a curriculum which integrates child centred education and trauma relief work) to caregivers from shelters throughout the country. In this way, in addition to the orphans resident at the Home for Children, hundreds of others can also be reached and helped, thus considerably extending the reach of the program.

Upon arrival, the child will be given time to adjust to his/her new surroundings. During this time a full analysis of the child’s needs is carried out prior to the commencement of the trauma release work. It can take years of trauma release therapy until a child’s trust in him/herself and the world is re-established. Traditional methods such as mediation, art, dance therapy, massage, breathing techniques, and other natural therapies are applied to assist in this process. A highly competent husband and wife team, Ajarn Deecha and Ajarn Nussara who act as ‘father’ and ‘mother’ to the children are the directors of the project. In addition, the Home for Children team consists of two children’s care-givers, a monk, a cook and a gardener/security guard. All members of the team have been carefully selected and screened by the LFF board. They have also been trained on the Lotus Flower Blossom Program (LFBP), in order to assist in giving the lotus children the greatest possible chance of successfully reintegrating back into society.

Daily activities at the Home for Children include:

• waking up with the Inner Smile Meditation (in order for the child to learn how to daily tune into the body's and environmental positive energy and through this develop love, compassion and understanding for self and others)
• assisting with some of the daily chores such as cleaning, repairing or - cooking (in order for the child to learn to take responsibility for self and others - and through this build recognition and self-esteem)
• joining guided activities focused on child development and expression such as arts, handcrafts, singing and/or sports
• playing freely, like a child should daily happily play & dance
• dining together and conversing as a family is an important daily function at the Home for Children
• being taught modules from the specially created LFBP curriculum which focuses on assisting the children in their personal development
• practicing Six Healing Sound Meditation before bedtime (a wonderful tool to allow the children release any negative stored emotions such as sadness, fear, anger, hate, impatience, worry and turn it into happiness, kindness, generosity, gentleness love, kindness and trust).

If initially possible, the children join the local government school, however, in most cases, assistance in form of child centered education (LFBP) will be given at the Home for Children in order to assist the children to reach a stage where they are able join a local school.

The LFF’s Home for Children’s aim is to give each child the opportunity to find and follow its devotion in life, to reintegrate gracefully back into society, and most importantly: to close the cycle of abuse. Please support this program. For as little as CHF 100 per month you can become a God parent of one of our lotus children.