24/02/10 Thailand beckons Thame United player

A THAME United player is leaving all of the luxuries of home life behind for the next two weeks, when he visits a small community in Thailand where he helped to build a fence around a school last year.

Stuart Barr has been planning to go back to Thailand ever since returning from his previous experience.

?It is very hard work but very satisfactory when you realise exactly what these children haven?t got and what we automatically take for granted,” said Stuart, whose company, Barr Joinery, are currently Thame united’s first team shirt sponsors.

A team of six from Stuart’s joinery firm in Thame, will be building a Bamboo hut to house the teenage orphan boys of the school in Kanchanaburi, as their’s was washed away in a monsoon at the start of this year. They will also be taking out some football shirts, balls and other equipment to the same village.

Stuart commented: “The temperature will be roughly 38 degrees so it?s certainly not going to be easy but we are looking forward to the challenge again.

“The Home has 140 kids from as young as one week old up to 20 years old. They are all given a great education and looked after extremely well. Unfortunately some of the Children arrive on the doorstep of the Home with all sort?s diseases, viruses and traumas.”

Stuart and his team travelled out to the same village in Thailand last year at the same time to build a fence around the perimeter of the home to prevent the children from being stolen for prostitution and for other security reasons.

Last year, 2009, Stuart raised money doing the Blenheim Triathlon and spent it on football equipment such as proper footballs, bibs, goalie gloves and cones, to take out to Thailand.

Stuart’s is not the only team travelling out to Kanchanaburi. His brother Ross Barr, whose practice Treats, based at Thame therapy Clinic, is also travelling out to treat the children with acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Jamie Michelle Pfeifer, who cuts hair at Thame Spa, is going to give the 140 kids a little trim! Sean Wilson, Course Manager at the Oxfordshire Golf Club and Oliver Bromley, who works for PJB Cladding in Long Crendon, will be joining them.

To find out more about the Childrens’ Home in Kanchanaburi, visit www.baanunrak.org

or contact: info@thamefootball.co.uk