Feisty Priest Brings Hope to Bangkok's Neediest

The images slide by -- beautiful children with the hollow-eyed look of sickness. Father Joe Maier knows each by name, and his commentary is heartbreaking. "They're both dead. God love them." Maier's work in Bangkok's slums is heroic. More than half a million people have benefited from the schools, hospices, legal aid clinics and homes for abandoned children he has set up through the Human Development Foundation, an organization he founded 30 years ago.

Comparisons to Calcutta's Mother Teresa are natural but unwelcome, although Maier says she deeply influenced his life. Like her, he has adopted the view that it is the work that is important, not the personality. He paints a picture of himself as a youthful renegade, sent to Thailand as a missionary because he didn't fit in well at home in the United States. Now 62, Maier found the Redemptorist priesthood, believing it to be the best way to help others. Being a slum priest has been joyful work, he says.

Maier writes a column in the Bangkok Post, often about the street children he knows. His radio broadcasts challenge the Thai government to provide more effective drugs for people with AIDS. He has set up 32 preschools for 4,500 children. With help from University of Toronto law students, he set up a Children's Rights Law Center. Most of 250 workers at Maier's foundation benefited from his guidance, got an education, and have returned as teachers, nurses and social workers. "About the only thing we pride ourselves on is that we're not some funny little organization," Maier says. "We're cutting edge. We're taking kids nobody else wants." Maier is in Toronto for tonight's 6:30 p.m. fundraiser at the Steam Whistle Brewing Roundhouse, hosted by CBC's Michael Enright. Tickets to the fundraiser, which includes Thai food and dancers, are $60 at the door.

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