BANGKOK (UCAN) -- Catholic students who visited an elderly home as a Lenten activity were glad to bring cheer through their visit, but some realized they need to give more of themselves in their daily life.

About 25 students from Catholic girls' schools in Bangkok and central provinces made the March 11 visit to St. Louis Home for the Aged in Lam Sai, Pathum Thani province, about 30 kilometers north of Bangkok.

The visit was part of a Lenten camp. Catholic schools and parishes in Thailand organize these camps annually for Catholic students to cultivate a sense of service and awareness of social realities.

Lent overlaps with the long break in March and April between school years, and Songkran, the Thai New Year, also comes during this break. April 14, the second day of the three-day New Year festival, is National Elderly Day, a sign of the traditional respect for elders in Thai society. Visiting or serving elderly people is a common Lenten camp activity.

The students aged 13-18 years who visited the St. Louis home sang for the residents and talked with them. They also gave each a handmade card with a Gospel message and an envelope with 100 baht (about US$3). Some also brought food and treats as gifts.

The home for elderly people with no family to care for them began in 1959 at St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok but moved to the Holy Family Church compound in Lam Sai in 1994. It still receives financial support from the hospital as well as the St. Vincent de Paul Society and private donors.

Most residents are Catholics, but the 18 elderly women and seven men currently living here include a few Buddhists and Protestants.

Sister Agatha Nongsawat, director of the home, told UCA News the staff arranges recreational and social activities besides looking after the residents' physical needs.

The St. Paul de Chartres nun is also concerned about spiritual needs. Some residents join her for morning prayers in the chapel each morning at 5:45, and all are invited to attend the Mass that follows. Sister Nongsawat said some who are not Catholics want to be baptized eventually.

One of the visitors on March 11 was 13-year-old Thunpitcha Dowpised from Mae Phra Sakol Songkhro School in Nonthaburi, a province that borders Bangkok. She said it saddened her to see the elderly people living "alone," because she realized how much she would rather live with family when she gets older.

Thunpitcha added that "not having time" is not an excuse for people to abandon their parents. She resolved to pay attention to her older relations, and to come visit the St. Louis home again.

Apinya Hiranyawech, 17, from St. Joseph Convent School in the capital, admitted she had not thought much about the situation of elderly people before the visit. She sensed that even though the residents had fun and appreciated the time with their young visitors, they would like more than anything to be sharing the love of a family.

Reflecting on her tendency to devote all her free time to her friends, she said she would show more interest in her family, "especially my grandfather."

Earlier during the school break, Apinya went to Mae Jam, in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand, to teach village children as part of a program her school runs.

Somchit Panichkarn, 77, has stayed at St. Louis for four years. "I may live happily at my home here, but I cannot relieve the loneliness or sadness in my heart," she told UCA News. She had no one to look after her after her husband died, because they did not have any children.

Nonetheless, she smiled as she told UCA News she has plenty of time to pray and live close to God. She said she was glad to spend time talking with the students and showed the white envelope they gave her with a 100-baht note in it.

In January 2007, Mahidol Population Gazette, published by Mahidol University, put the number of Thais 60 or older at 6,824,000, about 15 percent of the 65 million population. It said more than 418,000 of them lived alone.

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(Accompanying photos available at here)