Little Survivors
Thai boxing is a well known and popular sport.
Long before football or soccer culture arrive in this country,
many men will stay in front of TV waiting to see the match every weekend.
So many boxers in the past and present time that we (as Thai people) can be proud of, some of them turn themselves to be actors or even singers.
At November 2007 and February 2008,
I had a chance to work as “fixer” for 2 photographers.
This started from 2 famous photographers from
National Geographic held workshop in Bangkok.
So many photographers flew in from all around the world for this class
and some of them need local to help them get around and communicate with Thai people in order to get pictures they need for the workshop.
I was the local who help them get around,
work as interpreter in the same time, for this they call my position “fixer”.
Issue about kids boxing in Thailand,
we went to the boxing camp in Klong Toey slum area.
Spend a lot of time there to get the good pictures of kids training in that camp.
During while the photographers did their job I had a good chance to talk with trainer and kids in the camp.
The camp was founded from personal passion of the trainer,
with the location under the highway in Klong Teoy slum.
The camp has help prevent kids in the area from drugs and other crimes.
Many kids came from other part of Thailand, got parents work in another part of Bangkok, kids stay in the camp, went to school near there
and visit their parents once a week.
Camp responsible for food, school fee, allowance,
and arrange boxing match for the kids.
Regarding to the trainer, all the money from the match went to the kid.
Camp will cut percent of income once the kid grow up enough to go on adult match and when one become champion they earn a lot of money.
Thing is… they are kids … boxing is somewhat violent kind of sport.
Is it appropriate?
I talked with kids, and ask what they wanna be when they grow up.
Almost all of them said “I wanna be champion boxer”
Cute…
I asked how are they doing in school, one of the boy can make very good grade in school, even he has to train his boxing skill every evening, he said adult boxer sometime help him with the homework.
Cute…
On the match... I went to couple of them with photographers.
I look at the boxing ring and think to myself, ah… that's look like stage.
All the boxer are here not only for victory, money but also entertain audiences.
Ah… many people think that see 2 person try to kill each other is entertaining.
Interesting… indeed.
It was crowded, as I said, boxing is a quite popular sport for this country.
Amazingly, there are all kind of people, women and men, kids, teen, adult, oldies.
A lot of money on betting goes round and round.
Our little fighters did their very best.
Everything that they has been trained for, show on this stage.
The art of real Thai boxing can be seen easier in kids match, I think.
To be able to survive, be accepted in the society,
this seem to be the way of living for these kids.
Training camp is not only a place to stay, but a place for building up a future career.
In my opinion, if no such camp exist, what these kids gonna do?
They have to find a way to help their parents make money and take care of themselves.
We can't choose a family to born but we can choose a person to be. I think.
As long as they keep training, and discipline with the camp rules, I believe that they will grow up to be a good fighter and a good person.
What they are doing may not be completely legal.
May against some of children rights that accepted all over the world.
12 years old, with this age aren't they suppose to play and have fun?
On training process, I saw lots of smiles and laughs going among them.
Looks fun to me…
These are children that parents are proud of.
These are children that one day the country will be proud of.
All little survivors, I salute you.
