Humour helps because smiling and laughing triggers the secretions of morphine-like chemicals known as endorphins and relaxes the body. Humour also works because it distracts people from their worries and pain and it restores perspective. Humour doesn’t alter the situation, but it helps people living in difficult circumstances to cope.

Some of the schools we visited provide a completely free service and are open to children of any religion or ethnic group. They drive to collect the children free of charge from the surrounding area. They also feed them and in some cases pay for medical care. The other schools have to charge a low fee which allows them to provide the children with a basic education and some protection from being sent to work or having to scrape a living from begging.

I think It's important to point out that the parents, dedicated teachers and carers...however difficult their circumstances, see the value of education for the children and somehow manage to find a way of giving them some schooling despite the lack of any real resources. I applaud the commitment of the staff who work in such circumstances for very little reward.

Many of the families and orphaned or abandoned children are surviving without much in the way of handouts. Some of them are forced to try and make a sort of living by scavenging on the local rubbish dumps or turning to even worse ways of surviving. While others try to make a living doing hard manual work for much less than the official minimum wage. Therefore it can be very hard for these families to afford even the most modest school fees.

The story of the migrant people around the Thai Burmese border is well known and I'm not in the business of making political comments about this situation. But I am in the business of trying my best to help bring a little much needed laughter and joy into the lives these people living in extremely unfortunate circumstances.

I hired a minibus and driver to take me from Bangkok and filled it with lots of toys, clothes and school equipment to hand out at each school. Those donations were put together in the space of just two weeks by my friends, their children, some company employees and a wonderful group of British ladies in Bangkok. (Please see the list of sponsors below)

I'm an entertainer and not a journalist...so I won't try to offer any further written explanation of what really made me cry with happiness during that tour...I'll let you see for yourself in the following pictures.

For coming-up with the concept and a personal cash donation: Chris Stewart. Journalist, Hong Kong.

Cash donation from the St Georges Society of Bangkok: http://www.bangkokstgeorgesoc.org

Clothing and toys from the Glaze family who now have an 'Eckie Box' to save up goods for the next project...Special thanks to this great family!