Take me home

The life of an abandoned or orphaned child can be made immeasurably better if adopted by a warm and caring family.

In Thailand, several organisations place children with adoptive families. One of those is the Adop-tion Services Programme.

It found Kari Banta, 14, an American family from Texas. Now, with a new life and care Kari is going to the Beijing paralympics.

The teenager was adopted when she was five. |She was born with spina bifida and an operation at three months to repair |her spinal cord left her paralysed.

A better life

Without the Banta family, Kari's life may have been a lot different than it is today. She's getting a good education and now studies in the eighth grade.

Another lucky child is Pramote Plengsoodjai, 12. He has lived with a foster family for six years. They are farmers in Lam Plai Mat district of Buri Ram.

"My foster parents are very kind. I love them so much. They are warm and I want to live with them forever," Pramote says.

Foster mother Tongmu-ay Saowapan, 55, says they will soon be adopting Pramote. She says Pramote developed well after he came to live with the family. He was no longer aggressive.

Pramote is one of 49 children in the Rural Lives Development Foundation foster home programme run by the C P Group.