the zeitgeist movement

Program Director
Virat Somphobsuphanart

Mandate
To empower the men and women living in Bangkok's slum communities by giving them knowledge about their rights, providing access to everything that is rightly their own, and by transferring our experience to them so that their communities will continue to improve in future generations.

Geographic Coverage
Primarily Klong Toey, Bangkok's largest slum community, in addition to over 30 densely populated slum communities throughout Bangkok.

Activities
The HDF oversees the following community services:

• Housing - Construction and repair for the elderly and indigent - over 10,000 homes to date.
• Community Organization - Consultation, leadership, education, and coordination with welfare organizations and government ministries, the national housing authority, metropolitan police authorities, and the Port Authority of Thailand.
• Drug Rehabilitation - Program placement.
• Documentation - Obtaining proper birth and identity certificates required for government schools, health benefits, and hospitalization.
• Sports - Construction and maintenance of drug-free playgrounds.
• Financing - Small business start-ups and emergency low interest loans.
• Klong Toey Women's Group and Savings & Loan - Empowering poor women to control their finances and strengthen their neighborhoods.
• Klong Toey Handicapped Program - Uniting the physically handicapped in seeking their rightful benefits and gainful employment.

Fires and Other Emergencies
In the past three decades, responding to over 80 major slum fires, we have worked through the night and following days with the victims, primarily squatters, to rebuild homes and prevent eviction. In most cases, we provide the materials, social workers, and community organizers while the victims , their families and neighbors provide the labor. We also respond daily - often hourly - to individuals and families in crisis.

Origins/History
This program has been in existence since the HDF founder, Father Joe Maier, first arrived in the Klong Toey slums in 1973. In the early 1980s, the HDF developed the resources to build and renovate slum communities; and the National Housing Authority began turning to the HDF for assistance. By 2003, the HDF had completed the construction or renovation of over 10,000 homes in the slums. As with construction and housing, all our community efforts have been initiated to fill a void in a critically needed service for the poor. We meet each problem by starting with modest yet practical solutions in one poor neighborhood and then refining and expanding their implementation into the greater slum communities.

The Challenges
Housing, health, and welfare have generally improved over the years, especially in the more established slum communities. However, the migrant pull into Bangkok has swelled the numbers of urban poor. In addition, rampant amphetamine abuse has created a far more violent and unstable slum environment than in decades past.