Not doing anything is giving up

BaanChivitMai started as a small ministry in the slums of Bangkok in 1989. Eva Olofsson and a few others opened a centre for handicapped youth whom were given the chance of getting an education. At the centre, they began making silk flowers which were sold for the benefit of the ministry.

A few years later, the ministry in Chiang Rai in northern Thailand was started. The majority of those who came there were children from the mountain villages whom were provided with a home and a chance of getting an education. In 1995, BMC were able to buy a piece of land a few kilometres outside of Chiang Rai. Several different organisations helped building the boarding home and the surrounding buildings. In 1997, the new boarding home was inaugurated which now serves as the base for several of the ministries.

The HIV home Eden was opened in 2001 for the purpose of housing HIV-infected children. The year after, the boarding home in Phyagong was opened to welcome children from the most remote mountain villages. And finally, in 2002, the bakery in the centre of Chiang Rai was inaugurated.

A life among the children of Thailand

Eva Olofsson

Eva Olofsson from Sweden has been working with social projects in Thailand since 1966. She was the initiator of the ministry in the slums of Bangkok in 1989 and a few years later she also initiated the ministry in Chiang Rai. She has now retired and settled down in Sweden. Madeleine and Inge Ekelyck are her successors and they travel around as ambassadors for the ministry that at present comprises around 120 children and youth.

Eva's work has received a lot of attention, and in 2002 she was rewarded “Swedish Woman of the Year” by Swea, an association for Swedish women working abroad. Each year they reward someone who in a prominent way has contributed to strengthen the connection between Sweden and other countries.

– People sometimes ask us how we cope. But to see children being restored from having been terror-struck victims to becoming harmonious individuals, is among the greatest thing one can experience.