The Story of the Jai Dee (Good Heart) Children's Fund

As a former journalist and nomad, Shawn Phelps travelled to over 20 countries, always bringing small gift packages for children at local schools wherever she went. But it never felt like enough. She wanted to do more, but what? Then Shawn met Thanou Thirakul. He had also discovered the joy of helping others through volunteering as a ski instructor for a charity that helped handicapped children.

So...when they came together they started conspiring ways they could do more. First they tried helping children through other charities, but they felt that too much money was going to administration costs, and they couldn't see or experience the results.

A Charity With a Difference
While on holiday in Laos they came across a kindergarten school with a great leader (principal) who desperately needed help. Children were always sick because there were no toilets or running water, and they had no supplies, not even crayons! Then and there, Shawn and Thanou decided to create a grassroots charity with this school as its first project.

But they decided they wanted to be different from many of the other charities they had seen on the ground during their travels, which often seemed to spend a lot on overhead and administration, and also didn't always get to know the local people and understand their challenges and needs enough to make their projects successful and sustainable. They searched out successful charities that seemed to be doing what they wanted to do--really making a difference in others' lives on a grassroots level--and they included their approaches in their operating plans.

Our Manifesto

1. To Have Jai Dee (Good Heart). In Thailand and Laos "jai dee" means to have a good heart. We choose to run all fundraising events, and all projects with this approach and conduct ourselves and our organization with this as our guide at all times.

2. To Bring People Together. We choose to be a dependable connecting cable between those who want to help others and see the results of that, and those who desperately need help. We will go out of our way to share with donors the joy of knowing how they directly helped children through photos, videos and reports. Also for this reason we choose to ensure that all of our fundraising events support and bring people together in ways that uplift everyone involved.

3. To Build Leadership. We choose to make leadership a core of all our operations. All of our directors will embrace the core values of leadership. All of our projects will have a strong local leader who will inspire the community to pitch in, ensure projects are truly in line with local needs, and ensure that local problems are solved with sustainable local solutions. By encouraging leadership and being leaders ourselves, we create a better future for children and inspire children to also become leaders.

4. To Build Community. We choose to commit the time and energy to connecting with the local communities in which we work in order to gain understanding of the real issues, needs and challenges, in order to make sure our projects have sustainable long-term benefits. We hire local people whenever possible to complete projects in order to support the community, which supports the children. We also choose to create fundraising and awareness events that will build community. By supporting community, we support a better future for children.

5. To Show Commitment.We choose to stick around and support each project long enough to make sure there will be long-term benefits, while also making sure that everything we do will eventually lead to our projects functioning independently.

6. To Be Responsible. We choose to always remain aware of the great honour and responsibility we have in our roles within this charity. This includes ensuring that we conduct ourselves with ethics and transparency for the good of all involved, and that we keep our operating and administration costs to a minimum while creating ways to cover these costs in a sustainable manner (read about our annuity fund!). Our goal is to make sure all donations are focused where they really count, on directly helping children.

7. To Continuously Improve. We choose to strive for continuous improvement through research in the fields of education, leadership, development, organizational success and service to others; to meet and learn from as many experts as possible so we may help children in the most empowering and sustainable ways.

8. To Create Partnerships. We choose to create partnerships and alliances, to work with others in any and all ways possible to help children in the areas where we work to the best of our ability (and to help each other). In this way, we allow our vision to be a shared vision--a common vision--that is focused entirely on helping people with "Jai Dee."