The campaign, “Feeding Friends Patong”, comes as the COVID-19 lockdown provisions have left many of the renowned resort town’s people without any income at all, and fully reliant on relief projects, many of them just to eat.
Patong has been hit particularly hard by the disease, with at least 86 of the island’s confirmed infections being identified in the town, and the drive by officials to shut down businesses and strongly “requesting” people to stay indoors has left many of the people stuck with no way to support themselves,
Patong was the first area on the island to be isolated by roadblocks in the hope to preventing the spread of the disease.
“Tony Love-Linlay and I decided to put a volunteer program together to raise funds to feed locals,” explained Wal, who for years became well known for leading the police volunteers programme in Patong.
“We hope to donate 100 to 150 bags of uncooked food each day. Uncooked for locals to get involved and enough food for four people in each pack This is plus 250ml milk pack and a treat for kids when available,” he added.
Wal fully recognises and supports how much other people are doing to help people in need in Patong.
“It’s not all our doing. We have spoken to others doing similar things. There’s Dave “HalfwayInn” Wilson from Soi Kebsup and Divan Mydeen from Madras Cafe in Soi Sansabai who also has the Indian community behind him,” he said.
“Staff from both our shops Tony Tong Fa massage and Sweet Restaurant do a lot of the hard work shopping, packing and delivery with my marketing manager Pronprom ’Khun Koi’ Thongtham,” he added.
However, with true humility, most of the people involved in the project do not want their names released, Wal noted.
“The reason behind food packs and not single pack meals is to keep locals active as well and give an element self-sustainability. This is important in the camps around Patong,” Wal explained.
“So far we have pledges of around B90,000, most of which is from Australia and Aussies. Our costs are around B13.000 per day and we intend to do deliveries every day,” Wal said.
In a post on a Facebook over the weekend, Cynthia Getchell-Rouse explained, “Any donation will be greatly appreciated. $5 will feed 3 people. $50 will feed 30 and $100 will feed 60 people.
“We understand that we are in challenging times here, please donate what can. Please send us an inbox message of your donation receipt,” she added.
Donations can be made to the following accounts:
In Thailand:
Account name: Tony Love-Linlay
Bank: Bangkok Bank
Branch: Jungceylon Shopping Center
Swift code: BKBTHBK
Account No: 674-0-364812
In Australia:
Tony Love-Linlay
Commonwealth Bank
Account No: 062-500 10301247
“Or people can call me at +66844471978 – the same number as with the Region 8 Police volunteers,” Wal said.