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	Irish American Priest Honoured As a Child Protection Ambassador of Thailand Roman Catholic Diocese of Cork and Ross December 17, 2009 http://www.corkandross.org/feeds.jsp?feedtype=newsarticle&artid=6706 Campaigning Irish American priest Father Joe Maier, C.Ss.R who has often been referred to as “the mother Teresa of Bangkok”’ and a co-founder and Director of The Human Development Foundation - Mercy Centre, was named an Ambassador of Child Protection in an award ceremony held at the Thai House of Parliament and presented by Prime Minister of Thailand, Abhisit Vejjajiva recently. Fr. Joe, whose late mother was a native of Cork City, was nominated for the award by the Child Protection Taskforce of Thailand, a coalition of groups working with street children throughout Thailand, in recognition of his continuous four-decade commitment to the protection and education of the poorest slum children in Thailand. Fr. Joe is the only foreign citizen ever given this award in its seven-year history. Father Joe, an Irish American and native of Longview, Washington, is a catholic priest ordained in the Redemptorist Order. He first arrived in Thailand in 1967, ministering to the poor Catholic communities in Northeast Thailand and to the Hmong in Laos before settling permanently in Bangkok as the Parish Priest in the “slaughterhouse” neighbourhood in Klong Toey, Bangkok’s largest slum community. In 1973, Father Joe co- founded The Human Development Foundation to protect and educate the poorest children of all faiths. Under his direction, the foundation now oversees the largest network of slum kindergartens in Bangkok; provides shelter to 200 orphan children; represents and defends poor children in police stations and courts; protects street children throughout the city; and advocates for the fulfilment of the 1999 Thai Convention on the Rights of the Child. The award, as Child Protection Ambassador 2009, follows a Lifetime Achievement award presented to Father Joe in 2004 by Her Majesty the Queen of Thailand as the foreign resident who, “over the long-term, has contributed the most to the promotion of status and protection of women and children in Thailand.” Father Maier still lives and continues his work for children in Klong Toey, at his foundation’s Mercy Centre.
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