The Angel of Bang Kwang Prison by Aldous Susan & Pierce Nicola

Author:Aldous, Susan & Pierce, Nicola [Aldous, Susan & Pierce, Nicola]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: family, Asia, books, Criminal, autobiography, Australia, arrest, Crime, Bangkok Hilton, Berlin, book, big tiger, prison, Thailand, volunteer, singapore, ebook, bangkok, American, Death Row, charity, Human rights, Melbourne, Death Penalty, Southeast Asia, Chavoret Jaruboon, Susan Aldous, Marriage
ISBN: 9781908518002
Publisher: Maverick House
Published: 2011-06-22T04:00:00+00:00

One of the first projects that I set up in Bang Kwang with Chavoret involved the elderly inmates. These were the men who had survived many decades of imprisonment, and, therefore, decades of insufficient and un-nourishing food, insufficient or no medical care at all, and decades of violence, either at the hands of the prison guards or other inmates. These are the men that tend to be the forgotten ones, with few visitors and even fewer letters. They try to stay out of trouble and walk about with their bowed heads, fearful of attracting attention; but they got mine. After their years behind bars they are vulnerable to sickness and depression, and when I looked at them I often got the feeling that most of them were just waiting to die. One of the first things to go is their eyesight. Something needed to be done. Around this time I received a substantial sum of money from a kindly, well-to-do Australian woman who was living in Holland. She sent me the money and told me to use it as I saw fit. An idea had been formulating in my head for a while, and this money arrived in perfect time for me to put my plan into action.

With Chavoret’s help, I organised for a team of optometrists with eye-testing machines to come into the prison. I helped them to set up in a room that was made available to us. Then the elderly inmates lined up outside, quietly but expectantly. They were all individually tested and then prescribed with the required lenses, which were made up later in the shop. The opticians said that their eyes were far worse than they should have been. Some of the prisoners had lost the sight in one eye and others had developed cataracts and other growths which obscured their vision. We had the glasses made up for less than $16 a pair and one of the happiest days of my life was when Chavoret and I were able to hand these men their glasses. Most of the recipients were aged between 58 and 82 and they were so docile and obedient that they literally held their glasses aloft in trembling hands, waiting to be given permission to put them on.

The room quickly filled with their laughter when they did put on their glasses; some of them were seeing the faces of their friends for the first time in years and howled at how much they had aged before realising that they probably looked just as old and weathered, if not more so. I don’t think I expected it to be so emotional, but it was. I found myself in tears when one old guy, named Wut, shuffled up to tell me how he had prayed for years that he might have glasses in order to be able to read his Bible again. He was beaming from ear to ear and thanked me for not only giving him back his eye sight but also his faith.

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