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Published on July 21, 2007

Amporn Wathanovaongs was orphaned at age five and didn't even learn how to read until he was 17. He came to know the value of education the hard way.

Now the director of the Foundation for the Rehabilitation and Development of Children and Families, known as Fordec, Amporn is doing his best to lift other kids out of the darkness.

Having spent many years sleeping among market stalls and sifting through garbage for food - and twice attempting suicide - Amporn started getting an education only after he dragged himself out of Bangkok and returned to his native Buri Ram to be ordained as a monk.

He studied hard and learned how to climb life's ladder.

He founded Fordec in 1997, and today its welfare centre in Samut Prakan resounds with the cheery voices of several hundred youngsters. Now 69, Amporn should be able to take some satisfaction in what he's accomplished.

The problem is that the foundation is in dire straits - the latest crisis in Amporn's lifetime of crises. The owner of the foundation's property died earlier this year, Bt11 million in debt, and a judge has ordered the land seized to pay off creditors.

"I'm mobilising funds to save the property, but the bank might seize it soon," Amporn says.

"It would be extremely difficult to move the centre, with all its buildings and facilities, so we're trying to raise the money ourselves to get the land back for the kids."

The property is close to the schools that many of the children attend and to the factories whose workers rely on Fordec's daycare programme.

Fordec has about 110 children in its charge, and supports 35 more in primary school. The centre also provides temporary shelter for abused children, and helps out plenty of adults as well.

The government covers 20 per cent of the centre's operating costs of between Bt70,000 and Bt80,000 a month.

The spectre of outright closure is alarming. Meanwhile there are lesser problems, such as the flooding at the centre during the rainy season, which forces classes to be cancelled.

Fortunately, Amporn isn't the type to give up.

"It makes me so happy to get a smile from the people we help - the orphans, the other youngsters and the elderly who come to us when they're in trouble."

Helped from the gloom of ignorance, Amporn realises how crucial education and a good home are. He has built a family of his own, travelled abroad, reached out to others. He's even written a book - "Dee Ti Luek Kerd Mai Dai", meaning "it's good that you can't choose how you are born".

The suicide attempts - once over a broken heart, the other time after someone chose to give their leftover noodles to a dog instead of him - were the bottoming out of his grim life.

Advised to go back home to Buri Ram, Amporn ordained and began studying for the first time. He knew that, lacking any other skills, he needed knowledge to move forward.

He returned to Bangkok in 1959 and learned English from missionaries, then left the monkhood, got married and found a job at the Thava Centre, where he could broaden his knowledge further.

He then spent 25 years with the Christian Children's Fund, eventually becoming its Thailand director. He retired in 1997, then turned around and launched a foundation of his own.

Now he's had to answer yet another challenge. His "Land of Hope" project welcomes Bt1,000 donations in a bid to rescue the property. He'll need at least 10,000 donations.