When the USM was launched in January 2010, Rycote committed to donating one pound from every mount sold to a recognised charity. After much deliberation, the company directors chose the not-for-profit Future Light Children's Home in Tak province, north-western Thailand, which provides a home to 40 orphans from Myanmar (Burma).
Founded in 2006 by a Thai couple and now run by volunteers Jennifer Lo and Natasha Whiting, the Future Light home was begun to provide accommodation for several orphans from over the nearby border with Myanmar, who were discovered begging under a bridge in the village of Mae Sot. The home has moved and expanded several times since, taking on more children from a variety of broken homes and poverty-stricken households in Myanmar, and now occupies a large wooden house built by volunteer effort. Nearly 40 children are currently housed at Future Light (numbers continue to grow), and over 30 of them now attend the nearby Baan Taad school daily.
The land owned by the home supports 25 vegetable patches tended by the directors and volunteer help, a pigsty with three pigs and plenty of chickens running free, but despite this, finding enough food to keep the children's daily diet rich in nutrition and vitamins is a constant struggle. The children are fed three times daily, which makes for over 800 meals a week.
Rycote's donation to the Future Light home consisted of the total of all the £1 donations on every USM sold between January and August 2010. Natasha Whiting commented, "These children have all gone through so much in their short lives; now they are happy and well looked after, and eager to learn and experience new things. With your help they can have a brighter, happier future than the beginnings they have had. Many thanks for all your support."
Simon Davies, Rycote's managing director, adds, "We're delighted to be able to assist Future Light's hard efforts to forge a proper start in life for these children, and we look forward to helping them again in the future."
(Jim Evans)
