Volunteer Program

VOLUNTEER POSITIONS AVAILABLE!
We’re looking for enthusiastic and driven English-speaking volunteers to work on a variety of projects with us. Our Field-Volunteer positions are largely in English teaching, though we welcome skilled contributions for all of our projects.

TEACHING PROJECTS

Moung Choum Goverment School.
Co-ed. Pre-School - Grade 9. Age range 5-17.

Situated 3 km from the Burmese border and nestled among beautiful mountains, Moung Choum Government School is a wonderful cultural melting pot of the region's diverse people groups. The school is made up of roughly one third Shan Burmese, one third hill tribe children and one third local Thai students. Blood Foundation runs an OLPC project at the school with 40 XO laptops, we run a Food to Grow project here and we place volunteer English teachers into this great school. This school does have a projector that can be used.

Fang Dhammasuksa Temple School
Boys. Grade 7 - 12. Age range 11-19.

Fang Dhammasuksa school is a school for novice monks in the Fang District. Located on the grounds of Wat (Temple) Sri Boen Ruang, this school caters to boys who are orphans or whose parents are unable to take care of them. Apart from the religious training they receive as novice monks these boys are given a conventional education including Math, Science, Art, Thai and English. Many of them are very keen to learn English because it opens up so many career opportunities should they leave the monkhood later in life. Blood Foundation runs the renowned Monk for a Month project here and has been involved in English-learning programs since mid -2007.

At both schools you will be required to prepare your own lessons of approximately one hour each. Lessons can be compiled from our Blood Foundation manual or resources found on the Internet. The children are still learning basic English such as colours, numbers, greetings, occupations.

A few logistical details:

• Our teaching volunteers need to be very committed: our schools and children will be relying on you!
• Minimum teaching stay is three months in order to ensure continuity for the children and school
• Teaching qualification is preferred but not essential, as long as you can provide us with a convincing plan for your time with the school.
• The price for a teaching stay is 12000 THB per month. This covers your accommodation, use of moped, volunteer support, a budget for photocopying and supplies for teaching.
• Core hours of working are 8.00-16.00 Monday to Friday, you chose 4 days of your choice which includes one non-school day for preparation.
• You will be placed in a school (or schools) depending on the need at the time, which will be decided by your volunteer co-ordinator.
• You will need to be able to drive a moped or willing to learn! You do not need a driving licence to drive a moped in Thailand.

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OTHER PROJECTS

FLOW – Income generation project for woman’s group in a Shan Refugee camp. We sell Ethical Trade hand woven scarves and bags made by women who are not free to bring these quality products to market.

FOOD TO GROW – Many groups in this region are suffering from malnourishment. The Food to Grow program teaches children valuable agricultural skills while providing them and their familles with nutrient-rich produce.

LEARN TO LIVE - Working together with other NGOs and teams inside Burma the Learn to Live project is getting valuable education projects into Burmese communities.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE SOFTWARE – Our vision is to build some effective English language learning software from the ground up specifically for the purpose of teaching children in developing countries the language of the world.

Examples of the types of skills we’re looking for outside of education Projects:

• Marketing and branding
• Graphic and eDesign
• Business and entrepreneurial skills
• Software development
• Gardening and agriculture
• Photography, video and multimedia
• Journalistic and copywriting
• PR and advertising
• Fashion and textile / production management
• Creative teacher training and curriculum development

Of course, our projects are in a constant state of flux and development. We welcome anyone with innovative ideas and skill-sets to proactively input new ways to make a difference and help build on the work we are doing.

Our volunteers usually work across the different projects, helping and contributing according to their individual skills and the stages of the projects at the time.

In many instances our volunteers will be bringing new skills that we don’t already have within our small existing team. We therefore need people who can work well within our team but also are self-motivated and independent: happy to drive projects forward on their own, with background support from us.

A few logistical details:

• Any ideas for how you could contribute in new ways that are not listed are welcome!
• We recommend one month minimum stay depending on your skills and the sort of input you’d like to have.
• Core hours of work are 9.00-17.00 Monday-Thursday.
• The price for volunteers on is 11,500 THB per month, covering accommodation, use of moped, and volunteer support. If you would like to work from your home country then there is, of course, no charge.
• You will need to be able to drive a mope or willing to learn! You do not need a driving licence to drive a in Thailand.

What are we looking for from our volunteers?

• People with valuable skills that can be applied to any or all of our projects.
• Energetic, passionate, self-motivated people to help us drive projects forward.
• ‘Ideas people’ who come up with new ways to offer support and add value to our team and community.
• Experience is desirable but not essential: most important is a willingness to get involved, and an honest commitment to and interest in our projects.
• For teaching projects your English language skills need to be of a demonstrably high level and you must have the confidence to stand in front of a class. They are beautiful and well behaved children.

How to apply

Please email us at Dit e-mailadres is beveiligd tegen spambots, u heeft JavaScript nodig om het te kunnen bekijken with the following:

1. CV including details of relevant experience.
2. Photograph of yourself so we can put a face to your name.
3. Cover letter explaining how the projects or schools will benefit from your input; a description of the specific skills you can bring; and why you’re interested in joining us.
4. For taching projects only: one sample individual lesson plan (detailing your ideas for activities for an hour’s lesson) and a strategic overview of your high-level plan for the three month project (highlighting the themes you would suggest covering with a class, and what activities you would plan to support these themes). (You may like to view our English Teaching Manual at www.bloodfoundation.org for lesson plan ideas).
5. For teaching projects only: if you do not have teaching experience, you will need to arrange a minimum of one week’s teaching work experience shadowing a teacher and submit a report on your experience OR complete a short TEFL course.