JiiNou is doing great both physically and mentally. He has come a long way from being that tiny frail little jungle boy we found 4 months ago. He still has a long way to go, but he is growing leaps and bounds. As of today, he is 25 lbs and 35½ inches tall. Yes, he needs at least 20 more lbs. and 10 inches to catch up, but he’s getting closer by the week. When we first took charge of him, he was the size of a 1-1/2 year old baby. His strength has improved much, with increase in muscle mass and fat. He actually has squeezable chubby cheeks and dimples and folds on his arms and hands. His legs are also increasing in size. We are making good progress in this area; despite he is now a picky eater. He gets over a liter of special formulated milk for severely malnourished patients and high protein milk too. He seems to be quite sturdy, no more night fevers. He is healthy as ever. He has a cold now, but is already much better.
Many people have asked us if we adopted JiiNou. The answer is no. We remain his caretakers and as volunteers we will do our best to help him overcome his shortcomings to become an abled body person in the future. So as volunteers we need funding to keep him well taken care of.
JiiNou is going to school in Thailand 5 days a week now. The school is for disabled children such as him but they do not have a full day program. He goes from 8:00am – 12:00pm everyday five days a week. As a result, we had to find a permanent caretaker to look after him during the week. We were very lucky in that the school staff found a very kind lady who has experience in early childhood education, lives very close to the school and just loves taking care of JiiNou on a full-time basis. She takes him to and from school everyday. She takes care of all his day-to-day needs including feeding him, toilet training, bathing him and even doing physical therapy to help him gain more strength and stamina. She has taken the initiative to find creative ways for him to learn how to stand, grasp things and hold on to them. She is very loving and maternal towards JiiNou and he is very fond of her too. He calls her Amah. We are very lucky to have found her to take care of JiiNou during the week. We pick him up Friday afternoons and deliver him back Sunday evening. He is already in love with her and her little poodle Muay.
School: He is a regular attendee at school now. We just got his new uniforms. He wears a different color everyday of the week. He participates in all of their activities. He gets physical Therapy and Occupational therapy 4 hours, 5 days a week. I feel this is so crucial to his long-term learning. They are professional in this area of disability learning for children. He is a welcome challenge for them since they are working with many children with much worse motor function and cognitive skills than JiiNou does. He socializes with his peers. He gets along very well with his new friends. There is an autistic girl who is smitten with him. He brings out her caring nature.
Funds for JiiNou are rapidly running out. The caretaker costs $300.00USD plus food per month. He drinks special milk at $15.00/3 days , medical bills and more medical visits to maintain his health is all surmounting. All we have enough just for 3 more months. I need to make it to next May 2017 with him. Not sure if we can do this without the help of friends of JiiNou and Give Children A Choice. We want him to get accepted full-time in Khon Kaen School for the disabled. We really appreciate you help and kind support.