ECYCLING FOR A GOOD CAUSE

Used phone cards are playing a big role in helping out families with disabled children

Story by LAMPHAI INTATHEP

Used prepaid mobile phone cards are useless to most people, but are quite valuable to children with disabilities , not only in terms of money but also in terms of rehabilitation . Since 2002 the Foundation for Children with Disabilities, a non-governmental organisation, has been campaigning to collect various invalidated plastic cards, mostly prepaid mobile phone cards, membership cards and credit cards from contributors nationwide.

Some are brought by collectors, who come to the foundation looking for those elusive, hard-to-find cards. However, this doesn't make a substantial amount of money _ the cards sell for only 50 satang to 60 baht each.

Most of the cards collected are transformed into different kinds of hand-made products, such as handbags and tissue boxes, by the parents of children with disabilities. The sale of those products can earn at least 1,000 baht a month to support the foundation's activities, while some of the income is offered to the children's parents.

''However, making money isn't the goal,'' said Apiradee Wanichakorn, the foundation's office manager and the project manager.

She said the real objective is to ease the stress on parents, who have to take care of their disabled children and help them with their rehabilitation every day.

Ms Apiradee said the families are the most important factor in helping to rehabilitate disabled children. If parents come under too much stress, they may even abandon their children, which would put a bigger burden on society. Therefore, all parties should find a way to help them relax, she said.

The foundation and its projects focus on helping children with cerebral palsy , a non-progressive, non-contagious condition that causes physical disability.

Cerebral palsy is the second most expensive developmental disability to manage over the course of a person's lifetime, and is second only to mental disabilities.

''People with disabilities are not treated in the same way as others in society. They just want a chance to be able to stand on their own and this is what we want to help them do,'' she said.

Unfortunately, Ms Apiradee said, the mobile prepaid cards are made of paper instead of plastic nowadays and are easily damaged and not durable.

To help out, phone Foundation for Children with Disabilities at 0-2539-2916.