Mother of Perpetual Help Center

Mother of Perpetual Help Aids Center began as a “Welcome House” in 1997 where persons infected with HIV/AIDS could come for counseling and moral support. The Center was started with the help of a former seminarian from the Diocese of Udon Thani and operated out of a simple rented family house where he and his wife lived on the upper floor with office and meeting space on the ground floor. In the early years there was a small staff of Mr. Ratanakul Photi with his wife Fon and two volunteer workers, one of whom was HIV positive herself and still remains with the Center today (2009). An HIV monthly group meeting was formed where those infected with aids could meet regularly as a means of group support and to learn about health care.

As time went on and the group grew the Center staff went out on home visitations weekly and eventually larger training sessions evolved where health care workers from the Public Health Department and the hospital were invited to give medical help and advice. Other training sessions began with village groups in order to give more education about HIV/AIDS so as to minimize the fear which became more and more evident as the sickness increased among so many.

The Center would have had to close its doors had not the SVD Brothers come to help with the Center, especially to enable projects to be written and presented in English. The local staff of the Center did not have sufficient command of the English language to write and present projects to overseas agencies. One of the first tasks of the Brothers was to write projects firstly for the day to day activities and salaries of the Center. It was a slow and difficult task in the beginning to become known and trusted among agencies.


With time and patience gradually enough grants were received to maintain the day to day activities of the Center and eventually grants also came to help with the building up of the infrastructure.

The first two years were spent listening and going on weekly visitations to persons and families with HIV. It was not always easy in the beginning to know just what was going on in particular with the language. The time was well spent and as a result a good grasp of the needs became clear and help being received which made possible the construction of the new Mother of Perpetual Help Center and at the same time the construction of St. Michael’s Catholic Church, the first in the Province of Nong Bua Lamphu.