Volunteer leads Thai mercy mission (From Stroud News and Journal)

Volunteer leads Thai mercy mission

A NAILSWORTH teenager has embarked on a courageous mercy mission teaching Thai children on the desolated shores of tsunami-hit Phuket.

Natasha Whiting, 18, was teaching near Bangkok when she heared of the disaster and rushed to the west coast to help.

Leading a team of three British volunteers, she is helping care for dozens of bereaved and traumatised children at a camp near Pnang Nga. Her daily routine include playing with the younger children and teaching the older ones to speak English.

"We just make sure the kids are happy," she told the SNJ this week. "So many of them have lost everything. Each day I find more and more children who have lost their mums, their dads, all their family.

"A lot of them will just come up to you and say 'I lost my mum and my dad'. They have suffered so much.

"The destruction is everywhere. Down towards the sea the only things standing are the foundations of houses and a few palm trees.

"Now and then you see things like a shoe in the ground, or a bag, to remind you people lived here."

Natasha's friends and family at home have now launched a fundraising campaign to help.

Mum Sarah Whiting, bursar at the Acorn School in Nailsworth, is due to fly out to meet Natasha next week and plans to use £2,000 raised by the school wherever it is needed.

"Natasha is an angel, a wonderful person." said Mrs Whiting. "She has got the biggest heart and is loved by every child at Acorn."

The young charity worker has even attracted the TV cameras. On Saturday she gave singing star Ronan Keating a tour of the beaches for music channel MTV.

Proud dad Graham Whiting, head of the Acorn School, said his daughter had coped tremendously well with the strain of working with traumatised youngsters.

"She is an exceptional person," he told the SNJ. "It must be heartbreaking for those children but she has got them smiling."

Pupils and staff at the Acorn School swam an amazing 70 kilometres at Archway swimming pool last week in support of the campaign and two 10-year-old youngsters raised £125 by busking with violins in Nailsworth.