Attached Link: http://zorares.com/pictures/LostBoy.JPG

The boy about 2 years, from Khoa Lak is missing his parents. Nobody knows what country he comes from. If anyboy known him please contact us by phone 076-249400-4 ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail : info@phuket-inter-hospital.co.th
(this email might be bad. I did find this one though: info@phuket-international-hospital.com)

Great idea posting this here. I hope the poor little mite finds his parents or someone recognizes him from his extended family. Our thoughts go with all the survivors and their families!

That child was shown all over CNN over a week ago, and his Grandmother saw him and flew down to Phuket to get him. He is from Sweden and his mother was lost in the tsunami, but his dad was in the hospital. As far as I know, he is no longer "lost"

Attached Link: http://snopes.com/inboxer/children/hannes.asp

No problem, it doesn't hurt to post as it could have been another child and like you said, there are folks from all over the world that visit here. (:

Nice one, some good news out of the gloom!

Good .. glad this one turned out well. But please be wary of getting sucked into participating in huge 'chain-mail' type events. I'm sure we'll see lots of them developing in the coming weeks. Ones like this, where you're asked to contact a hospital direct, could result in probably their only reliable method of communication getting swamped. Just a thought. Mooch

Message edited on: 01/07/2005 13:03

chain mail? anyone who has warm blood pumpin in the vains has/is done some thing. shoot me , but this is not the place

This one, and others like it, shouldn't linger, but some appeals for help over the Internet have lingered for years, getting passed on as some current event. That is the sort of thing that moochie is worried about. When the website and the apparent contact point are using different domains, be particularly careful. Even something genuine could lead to an out-of-date appeal.

Please understand, I wasn't trying to spam anyone. In fact, this is the first time that I've ever done anything like this. I guess seeing the picture of this boy (I have a 4 year old son) really hit home and I thought that if I could help in any way I would. I did check hospital and verified their email as legite. I'm sorry if I pissed off anyone. I was just trying to help a small lost boy!

never worry when you have a warm human heart. What mooch says is also true: when too many people would try to contact a hospital or send mails to some private search site with limited bandwidth (and none has unlimited!), they would crash the mailbox and so prevent real communication. this was not your intention, zorares. No one did think it was.

There is another issue to consider.....

The tsunami disaster, as horrible as it is, goes far beyond this one little boy. There are 10's of 1000's more just like him. Each with their own tragic story to tell.

As much as our hearts go out to the victims -- there is simply no way to post all of them in this forum.

I was just trying to help a small lost boy!

A noble motive. And I don't think that anyone would say otherwise.

It's good to hear that this boy's story ended well: or at least as well as it could under the circumstances.

Would that all of the children gained the same.

No worries zorares. No one's p'd at you. There are huge international aid agencies on the ground, with fantastic administration systems. They're the people to rely on in cases like this. We throw money at them so they can make things happen without having to worry about the funds.

Since this is somewhat related,(and this thread is already a bit astray!) look at links before donating, or passing on any stories. This week a person (or group) posted several pictures claiming they were of Tsunami victims at the time a wave hit. The photos turned out to be a Tidal Bore in China, but the worst part the end line asked people to donate to the Red Cross International. The link was to a My Paypal account with a Amaozon look-a-like page. If one clicked on the Link it brought up Amazon.com's donation page for the Red Cross, but any payment would have been processed to the associated Paypal Account. I reported it to Paypal and Amazon when I discovered it and the site was shut down and account frozen that same day. I notified the person that sent it to me so they could also notify the person that sent it to them. I was informed by the sender that his friend that had sent him the notice had donated $500 and several of her friends that she had forwarded the message to had donated money to the site. The Paypal Account was emptied every 15 or 20 minutes by making so called purchases using the balance (apparently buying with money added to an account will not trigger any of Paypal's safeguards against fraud). So, be cautious and activate the bottom status bar of your Browser so you can see where links go before you activate them or so when you get there you can tell that they might be bogus.

I back moochie, no worries, zorares, you have a great heart and you did a good thing.

@zorares, I do hope you don't think I was offended by your post in any way.......as I was Not but have been home for the last couple of weeks "babysitting" my granddaughter and all she will let me do is watch TV. LOL! That's how I knew about the lost child. (: Your intensions were good, but the advice that others are giving is also worthty and we all should take note.(:

In addition to RC's post....

I've been receiving a lot of e-mails of late with regards to donations from various countries including my own.

Tho some are legit, I would advise generous people to do a check of these organisations. A friend of mine was scammed this way.

Damn some people who take advantage of the situation.......

how can people abuse people who want to donate money to help? Ratscloset stories like yours make me so sick. How can you steal over the back of victims who need help. That's just so low. I don't understand how people like that can sleep at night, i really don't :(

I think what we all need to do is: Donate to those "established" fondations that we are familiar and trust. I gave to the Red Cross, just as I did on Sept.11th. It really isn't about who you gave the money too, it's about what those foundations will do to help those in need. (: I have to admit, that I don't donate to them on a regular basis as I tend to give to foundations like the "GuideDogs for the Blind", but when push comes to shove......I am more then happy to contribute what I can.

I guess this one hit home because this sweet child looks so much like my son! This whole situation is very hard to handle as is!

Attached Link: http://ww.cfamerica.org/images/The_Philanthropic_Response.pdf

You might recall the furor over the way that the Red Cross spent part of the 9/11 Liberty Fund donations on unrelated items -- such as office equipment.

At the time, many donors to the fund were very angry. The situation led to the forced resignation of Bernadine Healy, the CEO.

In addition to this, many "legit" charities end up spending only a small percentage of donation money for the intended purposes (I.E. tsunami victims). Sometimes, 75%-90% of the money ends up going for "operating expenses".

Such as a new Mercedes for the president of the charity. Or new carpeting in the office building. "Operating expenses" like that.

It's always a good idea to know where your donations are actually going.

The funds might even end up lining the pockets of corrupt third-world dictators.........and never reach the people that need the help.

Message edited on: 01/07/2005 23:33

Ah, but that's the beauty of democracy, no? Even Charities are accountable. And to be efficient they all need a hard-core of professional, paid experts. The Red Cross has 37 unpaid volunteers for every salaried member of staff. The charity has been in operation for donkey's years and does sterling work around the world. I don't believe in 'ring-fencing' donated funds for specific causes. The charity knows better than me where monies are most needed, and we all know that some causes are 'less sexy' than others, but every bit as deserving. I'm proud to be helping the Red Cross and would like to publicly thank all those who have purchased my M3 Pity pose pack in the past few days. I'm off to the bank in an hour to pay in the first 100 to the cause .. the direct generosity of the good people here.

i cant help but put my pennysworth in im not religious but have some good mates who are in the salvo and they have all gone to the disaster area on their on money all qualified in various tasks wich will help those affected, including 4 policemen and our local firebrigade has paid for 4 guys with a shit load of stuff to go across so dont donate over the internet just look to your local neighbourhood and youll find ligit guys and gals doing their bit and in my home town in the uk every store has a donation box