Footnote to the Cave Rescue

A few days ago we were discussing the plight of the boys who were trapped in the cave in Thailand, and their subsequent rescue.
Online, the criticism of the boys' soccer coach, Ekapol Jantawong, was pretty harsh.  Some felt that he had led the team into danger and had acted irresponsibly. So I was glad to read this article, from the African Mail and Guardian, in which it was clarified that Ekapol had actually gone into the cave to find the boys:

"It all started off as an adventure: Twelve boys — aged between 11 and 16, members of Moo Pa, Wild Boars football team — journeyed to the Tham Luang cave complex, in Chiang Rai
Until then, it had been an unusually dry season, which meant that the cave was open and free to explore.
With 700 baht (R282.50) worth of sweets and cold drinks, the boys rode their bikes to the cave to celebrate the 16th birthday of Pheeraphat Sompiengjai.
They had intended to inscribe their names on the wall of the cave — a tradition for many of the children who live in the region.
But their adventure to a much-loved play spot ended badly when a torrential downpour — which is not unusual for the season — trapped the boys in the cave.
With worried parents wondering about the boys’ whereabouts, the Wild Boar’s coach, 25-year-old Ekapol Jantawong, volunteered to search for his team.
After finding their bikes outside Tham Luang, Ekapol entered the cave to find his team and got trapped himself. The team and their coach remained in the dark for the next 10 days before they were found by British cave divers John Volanthen, 47, and Rick Stanton, 56, on July 2."


And this article from the Australian news site, Perth Now, has some interesting background on Ekapol and some of the boys:

"'When he was a boy he (Ekapol) became a monk and studied while he lived in the temple (in Lamphun, several hours south); his parents were Burmese but had died, so he is a stateless person. He liked to do meditation and pray,” Am Sandford, a fixer for news teams at the scene said on Friday.

“He moved to Mae Sai (in Chiang Rai, near the cave) to stay with his grandmother. He loved to play football when he was a little boy. And he met many hill tribe kids on the Thai-Myanmar border. He felt they are like him — poor and with no opportunity to play football."

"...John Volanthen, 47, and Rick Stanton, 56, had a short and touching conversation that was recorded on video and has now been seen by millions around the world.

“How many of you?”

“Thirteen,” Adul Samon, 14, one of the boys said.

...Later, more details emerged about Adul, who won praise for his ability to speak four languages — Thai, English, Burmese and Chinese — and being polite.

“The first thing that comes to mind when I talk about him is his nice manner. He gives a ‘wai’ (traditional hand gesture) to every teacher he walks past, every time,” his instructor Phannee Tiyaprom at Ban Pa Moead School told AFP.

Adul is from Wa state, an autonomous area in north-eastern Myanmar notorious for its drug trade. Like many children in the north, his parents, who are Christians, sent him, at a young age, to get a better education in northern Thailand.....He is one of more than 400,000 people who are registered as stateless in Thailand and stuck in a legal limbo....With no birth certificate, ID card or passport, Adul cannot legally marry, get a job or bank account, travel outside the province, own property or vote....The desperation of poor parents to get their children a decent education in these parts is sometimes quite remarkable....The cave drama has put a spotlight on the plight of these needy highland kids. The Thai government has been educating tens of thousands of migrant children but the process for giving citizenship and legal status for hill-tribe groups is appallingly complex and slow."