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Rebuild a school to help rebuild young lives.

Written by: Ben Bowler - April 14, 2010

It's common for the little ones to take a nap in the heat of the day.

The Daylight School opened just a few months back at the beginning of February. It was set up to provide full time non-formal education for the children of Shan migrants living and working on the commercial orange farms located in the mountains along the Burma border in Fang District. These people have come to Thailand illegally, seeking refuge from persecution and oppression living under the Burmese Junta who currently rule their homeland, Shan State, with an iron and bloodied first.

Having no papers and not speaking the local language makes for a highly uncertain life in Thailand. These families must avoid the authorities while trying to eke out an existence doing jobs no one would take for wages and conditions no one else would accept.

For their children, education is essential for any hope of a positive future. Being able to speak, read and write Thai are necessary skills if they are ever to further their education in Thailand and enter a government school. Aside from Thai they also study their native Shan language and culture, this helps to preserve identity and keeps them connected to their heritage.

 


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Reach for the little stars

Written by: Jamie Hamley - 25 April 2009
Figure 1. Children playing at SounCha schoolDuring our 3 month stay at Moung Choum school we also worked with the significantly less well off Souncha school, which is primarily inhabited by the Palaung hill tribe.  The obvious lack of funding for this school (despite the well attended class sizes of 30-35) and the consequential dull school daily life faced by pupils-a small field with two worn out football posts, an old torn Takor net, and a couple of flat balls offer little excitement.  This coupled with the old classrooms sitting on this field, whose desks are rotten and uncomfortable, the teachers blackboards dirty and as old as the walls they perch on, show the school to promise little personal or academic development. 

After a couple of months teaching here we decided we needed to do something for these children, who seem all too often left out of trips and fun activities that bless the children at neighboring MoungChoum.

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Four months in volunteering in northern Thailand

Written by: Jamie Hamley - 15 April 2009

Figure 1:  Delivering aid to a Shan IDP campIn early January we (a couple of dashing young lads from London) got on a plane to Thailand, heading off to work as English teachers in the impoverished hill tribe regions of northern Thailand.

Upon landing in Chiang Rai we had a few days to relax and acclimatise to our new environment, which we thoroughly did– embracing the delicious taste of a spicy meal and beer for the price of a pound and the not so enjoyable eating of crickets – the beautiful thai culture; friendly, giving, with a great sense of community (which everyone wants you as a 'falang' to be a part of) and a love for alcohol that suggests a hatred of ones liver.  After exploring the local sights and ubiquitous markets our acclimatisation phase was soon over and we headed off to Fang (a town in the far north of Thailand) where we were to be handed over to the Blood Foundation.  This unexpected change of NGO (we were originally meant for the Khon Loy foundation in Chiang Rai) is typical of Thailand, where people treat life with a casual attitude; plans and events are all subject to their fluid concepts. 

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Overview of my time in Thailand

Written by: James Hallamore - 10 April 2009

Figure 1 Looking back at my time in Thailand, it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I arrived in Fang in early January 2009, amid the grandeur of north-western Thailand's jungle scenery and the foothills of the Himalayas. The English teaching placement took place in a small town called MoungChoum, 20 minutes from Fang. With the help of Jildou and Ben, we moved into our Thai house in the village so we could be closer to the school. It was definitely one of the best decisions we made as we not only became involved in village life but I think it made teaching at school easier. We were able to develop friendships with the teachers much more than if we had lived in Fang.


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