FROM their home in Flora Hill, the Butchers are busy co-ordinating care and support for impoverished children and families in Thailand.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
And in a week, they will be making their fifth visit in two years to distribute badly-needed menstrual kits to girls and women.
Their charity work in Thailand has effectively become a full-time occupation for Maggie and Mal Butcher, who run the charity Dorca’s Threads for Thailand.
Mrs Butcher said it started when they met people living in abject poverty in the country’s remote areas.
“When we visited a hospital, we noticed that the people were just so poor. We saw children and their carers were in desperate need of support,” she said.
“We met a woman named Koi who lives in the slums with children without any sort of welfare. I told her we’d be back to help her out.
“We set up her own manicure and pedicure business, and now she has a job in that area.”
Koi was just one of hundreds of people that the charity has been able to help living in remote northern and southern Thailand, where public infrastructure is extremely poor and access to basic services is minimal.
Two years ago they raised $3000 to purchase 20 mattresses for children, who were living without parents.
They help to open bank accounts for the children so they have access to some funds when they turn 16.
The couple also make care bags filled with toiletries for poor patients in government hospitals, and raise money to feed impoverished people in southern Thailand.
But their work would not be possible without the support of the wider community.
Knitters in northern Victoria provide items to be distributed, while toys are donated by the Newstead community and the Maldon Baptist Church makes numerous donations.
Every year in May they host a High Tea and auction, and are collecting gifts this Christmas to distribute to a partnering church in Hua Hin. The Butchers also held a garage sale last weekend to raise further funds.
Mrs Butcher said supporting the poor in Thailand had become their life’s work.