Visiting the Women's Disability Home

Part of the service day for the RS International Conference (2010)

Dancing away with the ladies...

Having our nails painted red :)

My Initial Aims:

The objective of this particular service was to spend time with the disabled women in Pattaya,Thailand. Therefore, talking to them, singing kareoke and doing different feminine activities such as painting each others nails and applying make up. I believe that these women deserve to embrace themselves as individual beings. Some women have lived in the institute for 20 years from the age of 18 until now where one of the woman is currently 38. I felt like all of them have been deindividualised.

What I hope to achieve from this activity is nothing large, but I hope that I gain more of an insight into my community and show more empathy in comprehending these women. The problem I have with myself at the moment is that even though I am part Thai (therefore my Mother is Thai), throughout my school life at an international school I am not exposed to the Thai culture truly. I feel like I live in a sense a 'bubble' where my world is consisted of speaking English (even though I can speak Thai as well), going out to the cinema, watching the BBC news instead of maybe the Thai news. I feel as if I have blocked out the Thai culture. Therefore, I hope to gain more insight for myself, to be in touch with the 'Thai' side through interacting with the woman at the center.

Posing for the camera!

Visiting the Women's disability home is probably the best experience I've had so far regarding service. It is very emotional and therefore I truly want to go back to spend time with these women who in a sense are excluded from society as hardly anyone visits them, even their families abadoned them. They all live in a closed institute. There is a mixture of women coming from different backgrounds, all ending up in the same place for the disabled. Some women are mentally disabled for different reasons while others are physically disabled. Some are deaf. There are only three institutes in the whole of Thailand, funded by the Government to help with the disabled. This is quite disappointing in my opinion.

What I believe I've gained from visiting the Women's Disability Center...

From this I believe that I've gained clarity within my perspective on life because they all seem so happy and were glad that we visited them and spent time with them. I really want to go back to visit again as they only live around 15 minutes away from my house. However, the problem is time and this makes me feel like I've let them down because one asked me if I was to come back and visit again. It's very heart breaking. The ironic thing is that, even though I live in Pattaya, I never knew the institute for disabled women existed, therefore visiting them has really opened my eyes to help. Not to donate money but to spend time with them. Also I've managed to engaged in a Thai conversation with the ladies even though I am losing my Thai a bit. Also, I tried to sing some karaoke songs as well in Thai with the ladies. It was a little bit challenging for me as I don't listen to Thai music, however it was worth it!

A Learning Outcome - Through interacting with the ladies, did I considered the ethical implications?

The main ethical consideration I had to be aware of during my visit to the Women's Disability Center is that I don't offend the ladies in any form. There are women from many different backgrounds. Therefore, some are in wheelchairs, however their cognition are functioned exactly like mine. They are normal. On the other hand, other women may be physically fine however their cognition do not function properly. When I was at the center, I tried not to generalise everyone to be the same because they're not. Also, I tried my best to include everyone in group activities such as dancing.