Introduction
70 Rai - Bangkok
A Family Neighborhood
Photographs by Yoonki Kim
In the heart of
Klong Toey, Bangkok’s largest slum community, you’ll find a neighborhood
called “70 Rai.” Just next to Bangkok’s busy port, 70 Rai has an unsavory
reputation, mostly to do with drugs and violence.
But you should
ignore its notoriety and come visit 70 Rai yourself some day. When you do,
you will see a traditional Thai neighborhood, much like rural Thai villages,
with community leaders setting the tone of each neighborhood on blaring
loudspeakers; families going about the business of celebrating life; and
lots and lots of kids in the streets doing kid-like things. The parents here
are the day laborers who carry goods to and from the port and the food
vendors and scrap collectors who fill all of Bangkok’s streets. Subsistence
living is the norm here. Parents work mighty hard for the sake of their
children and just barely get by.
70 Rai is a holy
place, too, with many houses of worship. There are temples and mosques
here. A sacred grove full of temple relics lies just a few hundred meters
down the road. A vibrant Catholic community can be found just beyond the
bend, beside the slaughterhouse, where I worked many years in their church
as their Parish Priest.
Perhaps what defines
70 Rai with greater clarity than anything else – more clearly than the
temples and mosques, the danger, the fear, or the poverty - are the many
grandmothers who live here, the proud matriarchs who support large extended
families and who maintain the spirit and joy and holiness of our
neighborhood. These grandmothers may chew more than their fair share of
beetle nut; they may be tough as nails when they have to be; they may work
long, arduous hours every day at the most menial chores; but somehow they
also find time to hug their grandchildren and even spoil them with their
love.
To support the
matriarchs of 70 Rai, we have a long-standing Slum Women’s Group & Credit
Union operating at our foundation. The credit union helps keep these women
out of debt to neighborhood loan sharks, which helps keep their struggles in
life more manageable and gives them a little more time to bake candy for
their grandchildren.
For several months
photographer Yoonki Kim joined one of our social workers, Ms. Saisunan
Tomyin, on visits to our Women’s Group members.
Most photographers
look at the dark side of the slums, but Yoonki sees something different. He
looks at 70 Rai through the eyes of our grandmothers and grandchildren, our
teachers, our Monks, Imams and Priests, our food vendors and our noodle shop
ladies: He sees 70 Rai as we do - as a vibrant family neighborhood, full of
life, full of hope, full of love.
Father Joe Maier,
C.Ss.R.
Human Development Foundation
Klong Toey, Bangkok
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