Bangkok: A charity handling $240,000 raised for baby Gammy plans to buy a three-bedroom house for the family of the boy who has Down Syndrome and was left with his Thai surrogate mother by a West Australian couple.
Peter Baines, founder of Hands Across the Water, has organised a long term plan for the baby at the centre of a surrogacy scandal that prompted Thailand's military rulers to move to outlaw commercial surrogacy in the South-East Asia country.
The plan will include paying the family a monthly stipend of the equivalent of $531 to cover the living expenses of Gammy and his two siblings, many times more than Gammy's birth mother Pattharamon "Goy" Janbua has been making at her food stall in the family's village outside of Bangkok.
"This solution will allow Goy to remain at home with him and remove the need for her to work during the day," Mr Baines, a former policeman, said after meeting Ms Pattharamon several times in Thailand.
The Australian-based charity has also arranged to pay for Gammy's medical costs and the physical and speech therapy he requires.
The house, to be chosen by the family, will be near a private hospital where specialist care will be available for Gammy, who was born on December 23 last year.
Staff of the charity will remain in weekly contact with Ms Pattharamon to provide assistance and access to resources.
Bunbury couple David and Wendy Farnell took Gammy's twin sister, who they have called Pipah, to Australia, leaving Ms Pattharamon to care for Gammy who was gravely ill at the time.
Mr Farnell is a convicted child sex offender.
Mr Baines said the money, raised through an online crowd funding campaign for Gammy after Fairfax Media revealed the baby's plight, will be sufficient to cover his medical treatment at a private hospital into early adulthood, even after a property is purchased for the family.
"Gammy is a strong little boy who certainly appears healthy and full of life," said Mr Baines.
"Speaking with a member of the community who has known Gammy since very early on, I am confident he is much healthier now and Goy - who is a loving mother to three children - is in a far better position to care for him, thanks to the donations of so many generous people around the world," he said.
Ms Pattharamon, 23, has been struggling to deal with a media frenzy surrounding Gammy and says she misses Pipah and would take her back if authorities believed she could not be cared for by the Farnells.
She also said last month she wants to travel to Australia to see Pipah.
"I just want to hug Pipah again … I miss her a lot every day," she said.
Meanwhile, monks and Buddhist advocates have agreed at a seminar in Bangkok that surrogacy raises a number of moral questions and should not be encouraged.
Thailand's military-dominated parliament is expected to pass legislation soon that will ban surrogacy except involving family members.
Western Australian Child Protection Minister Helen Morton said last week that Ms Wendy Farnell had taken Pipah to China to attend her mother's funeral.
