A Story from the Field: A Second Home for the Children of the Sai Noi Fields

Pastor Prasert looks after a small church in a rural community in Sai Noi district, Nonthaburi, surrounded by rice fields and houses strung along the canals. Next to the church stands a single-storey building used as a youth centre. It has an after-school tutoring room, a music room with guitars, a keyboard, a drum kit and amplifiers, a small library corner, a kitchen, and a dormitory room used for youth camps during the school holidays, with dozens of folding mattresses.

Many children in the community come to the centre every evening. Some have parents who work in the city and get home late, so the centre has become a safe second home: a place to do homework, practise music and eat dinner together.

During the October 2026 floods, water from the fields and canals spread across the land around the church. The youth centre, whose floor sits lower than the church itself, took in about a hand-span of water for several days. Throughout that time the church also served as a drop-off and distribution point for donations to local families. Sacks of rice, drinking water and second-hand clothes were stacked in the dormitory room, and some of them got wet without anyone noticing.

When the water receded, the dormitory smelled musty, mixed with the sour smell of wet rice beginning to spoil. Folding mattresses propped against the wall had spots of mold. The music room smelled stale, and the fabric guitar cases had a white bloom of mold. The tutoring room had a tide line along the base of the walls, and the particleboard bookshelves had swollen. Some children who came back to help clean began sneezing and rubbing their eyes. Pastor Prasert and the volunteer team wanted to reopen the centre before the new school term, but were not sure how to make it genuinely safe.

Why a Youth Centre Needs Extra Care

• The main users are children and teenagers. They spend hours in enclosed rooms, sit on the floor, share equipment, and some have allergies or asthma.
• A dormitory full of mattresses. Stacked mattresses and pillows trap moisture and are an ideal place for mold.
• Wet donations. Rice, dry food and clothing exposed to water or damp become hidden sources of smell and mold.
• A music room full of moisture-sensitive materials. Wooden instruments, fabric cases, acoustic foam and carpet hold moisture and odour for a long time.
• A low, single-storey building in open fields. The ground around the building stays wet for weeks after the water goes down.
• Limited resources. Most rural churches run on volunteers and offerings, so recovery has to be targeted and good value.

There is also a question of trust. Parents send their children to the centre because they believe it is a safe place. After a flood, many parents will quietly ask themselves whether the building is really clean before they let their children return. Being able to explain clearly what was done, room by room, helps the church keep that trust. A short note to parents describing the clean-up, the disinfection and the ozone treatment, and the date the centre will reopen, answers most questions before they are asked.

Health Risks for Children and Volunteers

Floodwater in fields and canals often carries bacteria from soil, animal waste and wastewater, such as E. coli, which can cause diarrhoeal illness and skin infections. In rural areas where rats have moved into buildings to escape the water, there is also a risk of leptospirosis for anyone wading through mud or with open cuts. Mold spores from mattresses, the music room and bookshelves can trigger sneezing, itchy eyes, coughing and asthma in children. This article is not medical advice. If a child develops a fever, has difficulty breathing or has an infected wound, take them to a doctor.

For volunteers helping to clean, the main risk comes from handling wet, moldy items, especially spoiled rice sacks and moldy mattresses. Working without a mask and gloves can mean breathing in a large dose of spores.

What Volunteers Usually Try, and the Limits

• Mopping with floor cleaner and opening up the rooms. The floor gets cleaner, but spores in the mattresses, instrument cases and bookshelves remain.
• Sunning the mattresses and putting them back. Foam mattresses that stayed wet for a long time tend to hold odour deep inside. Sunlight helps the outside but does not reach the core.
• Spraying air freshener in the music room. It masks the smell for a moment but does nothing about mold in acoustic foam and carpet.
• Wiping instruments with bleach. This can damage the finish on wooden and metal instruments.
• Putting back donations that still look fine. Items exposed to even a little damp can restart mold growth across the whole room.

The Solution: Disinfection and Ozone Treatment for the Youth Centre by WHD

World Health Disinfection (WHD) provides an ozone treatment service and a disinfection service for churches, youth centres and community spaces, so the rooms children use are clean in both their surfaces and their air.

Disinfection with CHEMGENE HLD4H

After volunteers have cleared wet items and mud, the team applies CHEMGENE HLD4H disinfectant with an ultra-low-volume (ULV) fogger to floors, walls, tutoring tables, chairs, shelving, the kitchen and the toilets. The fine mist reaches corners and the undersides of furniture, dealing with bacteria, viruses and mold on surfaces children touch often.

Ozone treatment for the dormitory, music room and tutoring room

Next, the team uses a Master Ozone Generator to treat each room in turn. Ozone works its way into mattresses, pillows, curtains, carpet and acoustic foam, helping reduce mold spores and break down the musty, sour-rice smells trapped in them.

For a building like this, the combination matters. Disinfection deals with what children touch: tables, chairs, door handles, the kitchen counter and the floor they sit on. Ozone deals with what they breathe: the spores and odours trapped in soft materials and hanging in the air of closed rooms. Doing one without the other usually leaves the job half finished.

Safety and respect for the church's belongings

• During ozone treatment, children, volunteers and pets must stay outside the building. Potted plants must be moved out.
• After treatment, doors and windows must be opened for the ventilation time the team specifies before anyone goes back in, and children should only return once rooms are fully aired.
• Electric instruments, amplifiers, microphones, computers and projectors should be removed or covered. For instruments with delicate rubber parts, the team advises on covering them and controls the ozone dose accordingly.
• Bibles, crosses, communion vessels and items of religious significance are moved or stored by the church itself. The team does not handle them.
• Whether the worship space is treated at all is for the pastor and church committee to decide.

Step by Step: Restoring the Youth Centre

1. Meet with the pastor and volunteer team. Agree which rooms to treat, and let the church put away items of religious significance first.
2. Sort donations. Rice and food that got wet or smell wrong must go. Items that are still completely dry are moved elsewhere for now.
3. Sort mattresses and books. Mattresses with deep mold or soaked foam should be replaced. Heavily moldy books are set aside.
4. Care for the instruments. Wipe them with a dry cloth, open their cases to dry, and move them out before ozone treatment.
5. Disinfect every room with CHEMGENE HLD4H.
6. Ozone-treat room by room: the dormitory, music room, tutoring room and library corner.
7. Ventilate with doors and windows open until the ozone smell has gone.
8. Re-check before reopening, looking for odour and mold, and advising on raised, ventilated storage for mattresses and donations.

Lessons from Serving as a Donation Point

Many rural churches and religious buildings open their doors as donation and distribution points during floods, which is enormously valuable to the community. But it can leave a risk behind once the water drops, because large amounts of donated goods end up on floors or against walls in rooms that were never designed as warehouses.

• Next time, place donations on pallets or raised shelving, and leave a gap from the walls.
• Keep dry food separate from clothes and blankets so damp and smells do not mix.
• Check the bottom of every pile each day. Any rice that starts to smell should be removed straight away.
• When the relief work ends, clean and disinfect the room before it goes back to being a space for children.

Pastor Prasert now keeps a short checklist pinned inside the dormitory door for any future emergency: where pallets are stored, which room is for food and which for clothing, and who checks the piles each evening. It took ten minutes to write and could save the centre weeks of disruption next time.

Caring for Instruments, Books and Equipment

A youth centre's equipment is often donated or bought slowly over years, so it is worth taking care of whatever can be saved.

Instruments

Acoustic guitars and other wooden instruments should be dried slowly at room temperature, never in direct sun, which can crack the wood. Open the cases and let them air separately. Fabric cases with mold can be brushed outside, washed if the material allows, and dried thoroughly, or replaced if the smell remains. Drum shells and hardware can be wiped dry. Electric instruments and amplifiers that sat in water should be checked by a technician before being plugged in.

Books and learning materials

Books that were only slightly damp can be stood upright with their pages fanned open in a breezy spot until dry. Books with mold spreading across many pages are usually not worth the risk for children and are best replaced. Laminated worksheets, whiteboards and plastic learning toys can be cleaned and disinfected.

Furniture

Solid wood and metal tables and chairs can be cleaned and disinfected. Particleboard shelving that has swollen will not return to shape and tends to keep holding moisture, so replacing it with shelving raised off the floor is usually the better long-term choice.

When the Children Return: Small Habits That Keep Mold Away

Once recovery is complete, involving the children in looking after the centre helps keep the rooms dry and clean, and teaches good hygiene at the same time.

• Set up a "window team" so older children take turns opening windows on arrival and closing them before leaving.
• Wash hands before dinner every time, and keep hand gel outside the tutoring room.
• Keep wet school bags and shoes out of the music room and dormitory.
• Store camp mattresses upright on raised racks, not stacked on the floor, and take them out into the sun once a month.
• Open instrument cases after practice so they can air out.
• Ask one volunteer to check the smell and corners of each room weekly during the rainy season, and look for the cause as soon as any mustiness returns.

Supporting Families in the Community, Too

A youth centre rarely stands alone. The same children who come for homework help and music practice go home each evening to houses that were also flooded. Many of those houses face the same problems the centre did: mattresses that smell, clothes that grew mold in the wardrobe, and damp walls in bedrooms where children sleep.

Churches in rural areas are often in a good position to share practical information with families. Pastor Prasert asked the team for a few simple pointers he could pass on at the Sunday gathering: how to tell whether a mattress is worth keeping, why clothes should be washed hot and dried completely before going back into a wardrobe, how to dry a room safely, and when to call in professional help. Volunteers wrote the points on a single sheet and handed copies to parents when they collected their children.

Small actions like this spread the benefit of one restoration far beyond a single building. When the homes children return to are healthier, the centre itself is less likely to see sneezing, coughing and skin rashes in the weeks that follow.

A Reopening Day the Children Will Remember

Recovery after a flood can feel heavy for young people. They have seen their homes damaged, their routines broken and their parents under stress. Reopening the youth centre is a chance to mark a turning point.

The volunteers in Sai Noi chose a Saturday afternoon. The rooms had been disinfected, ozone-treated, fully ventilated and checked. New shelving stood in the tutoring room, and the dormitory mattresses were stored upright on racks. The children were invited to bring one book or drawing each to place on the new shelves, and the music group played the first song in the freshly aired music room. Parents stayed for a simple meal cooked in the cleaned kitchen.

It cost almost nothing, but it told the children something important: their safe place was back, and it was ready for them.

Planning Ahead for the Next Rainy Season

Sai Noi is low, flat land, and seasonal flooding is likely to return in future years. A little planning now can make the next event far less disruptive.

• Keep an up-to-date list of the centre's equipment, with photos, so it is easy to see what was lost and to report it to donors.
• Identify which items should be lifted first when water rises: amplifiers and electronics, mattresses, books and the donation stock.
• Store spare pallets or plastic crates somewhere dry so donations never sit directly on the floor.
• Agree in advance which room will be used for relief supplies, and keep it separate from rooms used by children.
• Save the contact details of the people and services you will need afterwards, including an electrician and a disinfection team.

10 Reasons Rural Churches and Youth Centres Choose WHD

1. Children come first, with fewer spores and germs in the rooms where they spend the most time.
2. Surfaces and air together with the disinfection service and the ozone treatment service.
3. A quality disinfectant: CHEMGENE HLD4H, used for high-level disinfection.
4. Tackles spoiled-rice and musty mattress smells that ordinary mopping cannot.
5. Understands music rooms, advising on moving and covering instruments before treatment.
6. Respect for the church: items of religious significance are handled by the church itself.
7. Works with volunteers, with a clear division of tasks: volunteers clear, the team disinfects.
8. Reaches rural areas including Sai Noi, Bang Bua Thong, Bang Yai and nearby districts.
9. Clear safety guidance in line with best practice for residential ozone disinfection.
10. Easy to extend: add the dust mite removal service for camp mattresses and the mosquito spraying service around the building.

Before and After: The Sai Noi Youth Centre

In the Customer's Words

"When we opened as a donation point, it never occurred to us that the rice at the bottom of the pile would get wet. After the water went down, the smell was terrible. The team helped us plan so the volunteers cleared everything first, then they disinfected and ozone-treated every room. We put away the church's important items ourselves. The children are back practising music now."

— Pastor Prasert, rural community church, Sai Noi (illustrative scenario)

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When can the children use the rooms again?
A: After ozone treatment and ventilation for the time the team specifies, once the ozone smell has gone. The team recommends reopening after a re-check, for peace of mind.

Q: Can instruments stay in the room during ozone treatment?
A: Electric instruments and anything with delicate rubber parts should not. Move them out or cover them. Fabric cases and the music room itself can be treated.

Q: Can donated rice that doesn't look wet still be used?
A: If the sack is dry, has no smell and no mold, it may be fine. Sacks from the bottom of a pile, from against a flooded wall, or with any unusual smell should be thrown away to be safe.

Q: Does the worship space need treating as well?
A: That is up to the pastor and church committee. If they wish, the church first puts away items of religious significance, and the team then suggests a suitable approach.

Q: How should volunteers prepare?
A: Wear a mask, rubber gloves and boots while handling wet items, wash hands often, and keep young children away from the clear-out area.

Q: What about the small library?
A: Set aside heavily moldy books, air-dry books that are only damp, and ozone-treat the room with its shelves. Books of special sentimental value are best discussed with a conservation specialist.

Q: Can the team work around church services and youth activities?
A: Yes. Most churches prefer a weekday so Sunday services and evening activities are not disrupted. The team plans the order of rooms so the worship space and kitchen are ready when the church needs them. That way, the children can return exactly when promised.

Make Your Youth Centre a Safe Second Home for Children Again

Churches, youth centres and community spaces in Sai Noi, Bang Bua Thong, Bang Yai and nearby areas are welcome to contact us for advice.

Book Ozone Treatment, Click Here

See Disinfection Service, Click Here

Call 065-556-6294 · LINE @whd268 · Email worldhealthdisinfection@gmail.com

Related Pages and Sources

• Residential ozone disinfection
• Dust mite removal service
• Ozone deodorising and chemical residue removal
• All articles
• External sources: WHO: Floods and health and Department of Disease Control, Thailand

#OzoneTreatment #MustySmellRemoval #MoldRemoval #PostFloodDisinfection #DisinfectionService #Disinfectant #YouthCentreAfterFlood

Keywords: church youth centre after flood, rural church flood Nonthaburi, music room mold, youth camp mattresses, musty smell removal, post-flood disinfection, ozone treatment, Sai Noi, Nonthaburi 2026