A Williams Lake family has raised $20,000 to install solar panels on a Thailand orphanage which rescues children from the sex trade industry.
On Jan. 5, Anne and Rudy Dyck, along with three of their four children, Kennady, 20, Adella, 16 and Callum, 15, flew to Thailand, where they are spending the next eight weeks helping at the Abundant Life Foundation orphanage in Ang Sila, Chon Buri, Thailand. Besides the money raised for the solar panels, their trip is self-funded.
“We’ve been involved in missions work, our family, for the past 15 years, and it’s something that’s really been on our heart,” said Anne.
For the Dycks, who own a solar sales, service and installation company in Williams Lake, homeschooling their children allows the family to participate in missions. Their two children did summer school to get ahead in their studies and prepare for the trip.
Rudy will oversee the project at the orphanage, ensuring everything is done to code. Thirty LONGi 500-watt panels will create a 15 kWh system, explained Anne, noting in Chonburi, electricity costs around 23 cents a kilowatt, double what you spend in B.C. Installing solar panels on the orphanage will save them around $300 a month, and the panels are guaranteed for 30 years.
Once the panels are installed, the family will spend the rest of their time with the children at the orphanage, doing crafts and teaching them a bit about life in Williams Lake, including how to rope a cow. Kennady, a certified lifeguard, will also teach swimming to children who don’t know how.
The family first got involved with the orphanage after their oldest daughter, Amanda Kurtz, went on a mission trip to Chonburi in 2009. The family visited in 2020, hoping to return right away; however, COVID-19 prevented this, making this year’s trip four years in the making.
Funds were raised with the help of the family’s church, the Williams Lake Alliance Church.
“The church, the people here in Williams Lake, have been very, very generous. They’ve enabled this project to happen by their generosity,” said Anne.
Beekeeper Bobbie Dickens was particularly instrumental in helping raise funds, donating all of her 2023 harvest toward the project, said Anne, noting people paid up to thousands of dollars for a jar of honey.
On Christmas Eve, a family from Williams Lake handed the Dyck family the final $1,500 needed for the solar panel project.