Alexandria woman working in Thai camps

Oct 3 2008 by Tina Kemp, Lennox Herald (main ed)

A FORMER Alexandria woman is bringing hope to dozens of children living in squalid labour camps in Thailand.

Tracy Cosgrove, 43, has opened a second day care centre for the families of construction workers in Pattaya.

Around 50 children, who live with their parents in the camp, will benefit from the on-site facility which provides them with a safe and fun environment.

The centre, which opened last month, comes a year after Tracy launched her first nursery in a bid to alleviate the appalling conditions in which the workers, many of them migrants, live.

Tracy is now working with the country’s booming construction industry to build similar facilities on 23 labour camps over the next five years in Pattaya, Bangkok and Hua Hin.

It’s the latest achievement for the Melissa Cosgrove Children’s Foundation – launched by Tracy and named after her daughter – which has transformed hundreds of lives in Thailand and Burma.

The charity, set up in 2003, provides accommodation, schooling, healthcare and clothing, as well as love and support for street children, child prostitutes, orphans and youngsters with HIV and AIDs.

During regular trips to Thailand – where she now lives – Tracy was appalled by the conditions of the camps where housing, sanitation and security are poor.

She said: “Each of these camps is home to hundreds of workers and their families sometimes with as many as 800 homes on one site.

“Each house is six feet by six feet, made from corrugated iron sheets with no windows, running water, electricity or toilet. The only way of washing is in communal baths – massive concrete tubs of water shared by the whole community.”

Large numbers of workers live together, many families living in just one room where food is also cooked and illness is a major problem.

Tracy and her husband Brian pledged to help deprived children in Thailand after visiting the country together, but sadly he was killed in a road accident near their Alexandria home in 1997.

To help them come to terms with their grief, Tracy took her children, Paul and Melissa, on a round the world trip and a visit to Thailand rekindled the dream to bring hope to destitute and sick youngsters.

Since then the foundation has funded the setting up of schools, orphanages and street children’s projects.

DELIGHTED: Tracy with some of the workers and their families at the centre in Pattaya.

ALL SMILES: A mum and baby who are benefiting from the new day are centre.