Inspiring and empowering students in rural Thailand

When: Sunday June 12, 2011 – Sunday June 26, 2011
Location: Udon Thani, Thailand
Email: projectthailand11 [at] sealnetonline.org
Project Leaders: Parinda Wanitwat, Panchompoo Wisittanawat
Project Blog: pthailand2011.wordpress.com

Executive Summary

In Thailand, a great disparity in academic achievement has manifested itself between the rural provinces and the city proper. PT11 believes the inequity here is one that diverges at a deeper level than a lack of resources: the students’ fundamental lack of motivation, self-expectation, and confidence in their own abilities, stemming from a downward spiral of falling social expectations supported by a rickety educational infrastructure.

PT11 aims to target the matter at its core by traveling to three junior high schools in the province of Udon Thani, located in the northeastern Thailand. As “mentors,” we will be creating a systematic method of identifying and teaching the skill sets that will provide target students with the academic and motivational edge they need. We will then be training “mentees” in these skills before proceeding to tutor students in the “target group” alongside the mentees. To ensure sustainability, the ultimate goal of the project is to finish with a model applicable to the type of the educational community service generally carried out by Thai college students.

When: August 22, 2010 – September 5, 2010

Location: Bangkok, Thailand

Executive Summary

The importance of high school and college-level education has become more evident in the changing face of Bangkok’s socioeconomic landscape. Many Bangkok youths are unable to continue their education because of socioeconomic reasons. Project Thailand’10 aims to bridge the ‘education opportunity’ gap among Bangkok youths.

Wat Nimmanoradi School, our local partner in the outskirt of Bangkok, is an elementary-middle school with very well-equipped facilities. A few alumni from this school has made their way to higher education, with a promising future, yet there are many more who pertain potential but are prevented from the chances to grow. PT10 hopes to open the windows of opportunity for those individuals by improving a career and education guidance system.

During the 2 weeks of our project, we will organize series of events, aiming to help students realize the passion in their lives as well as to encourage them to strive for it. Additionally, we will work with and motivate a group of high school students from the country’s top institutes to step up and learn the problem from the first hand. We hope to develop leadership and foster public service initiative spirits among students at Nimman School and our high school student mentees

Community Challenge

Wat Nimmanoradee School is a large public school in suburb of Bangkok with relatively well-equipped facilities. However, the school is situated in a middle to low income neighborhood with various social problems. Some students were forced to leave school for family work or prostitution. For example, a math-whiz prodigy friend of one of our project leaders was unable to go on to college due to family’s difficulty. On the cultural level, there is a somewhat common view that high education is relatively an unimportant factor in their life and is seemingly beyond their reach. The challenge pertaining to this belief is that students do not make effort in school and are not motivated to become as successful as they could potentially be. The result is the school faces low classroom attentiveness, below-standards academic achievement and below-average percentage of students who go on to high school and college.

Objective

•  Empower and equip students with necessary skills and information for their self-development, especially along the educational path
• Improve guidance system within the school and open opportunity windows for the students
• Promote service leadership spirit among Thai youth

Approaches

• Mentorship and tutoring program
  • Pair up middle school students with a local high school students from top schools in Bangkok as to promote peer relationship and inspire middle school students.
  • Start a tutoring program with English and Science clubs.
• Outreach initiative
  • Organize opportunity fairs for both parents and students (e.g. guest speakers, high school admission panel, etc)
  • Initiate drop-in advising/office hour
  • Education plan workshop
•  Leadership Development
  • Train high school students leadership skill through different activities and discussion, rather than imposing leadership theory on them
  • Let them investigate the issue along with us, while fostering peer relationship between them and their peer middle school students
  • At the conclusion of the project, we will encourage them to come up with a solution and take ownership of their own future project

Local Partner

•  Wat Nimmanoradee School is a elementary-middle school located on suburb of Bangkok in low-income neighborhood

Team Member Responsibility

• Work with local teachers to design and facilitate activities, aiming to provide more opportunity for higher education for the middle school students
• Engage middle school students seeking advice on higher education
• Publicize to/recruit highly motivated high school students interested in service leadership
• Provide leadership training for both high school and middle school students
• Mentor high school students and help them foster peer relationship with the selected middle school students
• Mentor students who may come up with further projects of their own

Skill Required

• Passion to guide younger people to success
• Interested in learning different culture
• Interest in Thailand/ SE Asia in general
• Willingness to take initiative and take responsibility
• Eagerness to have fun!

Project Leaders

• Natthacha Assawachananont (natthacha ‘at’ sealnetonline.org)
• Tiam Jaroensri (tiam ‘at’ sealnetonline.org)

Rote-memorization is a problem commonly found in Thai education system, which affects Tesabaan 5 School as well. With focus on lecturing, students are not prepared to critically think and analyze lesson materials. We hope to engage students and teachers in active classroom environments.

Problems

• Students at the school learn by rote-memorization, which leads to the lack of conceptual understanding of materials. Exams further reinforce rote-learning by having students regurgitate facts from lectures. Gradually under this system, students lose actual learning motivation and problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
• The library, seen as a boring place, could not motivate students to learn independently. Students do not see the need to seek additional resources because they think the materials their teachers feed them are sufficient.

Local Partner

Who: Yonok Foundation

Yonok Foundation, founded in 1988 along with Yonok University, is an educational foundation in Lampang, Thailand. Its mission is to support education, campus ministry, health, and public and civic affairs in Thailand. Yonok partners with the Ministry of Education, Health, Commerce and schools such as Stanford University and University of Washington. The foundation will facilitate contact with the school and provide us with logistical support on the ground. They will also help sustain our project activities after the completion of our project.

Objectives

• For the students in the school
  • To become engaged in active classroom activities
  • To increase learning motivation
  • To be equipped with problem-solving and critical thinking skills
• For the teachers
  • To implement active classroom environments
  • To create active learning curricula
  • To hold regular support group or discussion on the transition to active learning
• For the school
  • To create an environment that encourages students to independently make use of resources of their interest

Approaches

• Active classroom environment
  • Collaborate with teachers in designing fun, creative curricula that will engage students in actively learning school materials
  • Lead fun classroom activities with teachers and motivate students to be excited about learning
  • Help teachers form support group to help ease the teaching style transition period
• Leadership training
  • Train school’s student council to become better leaders through active learning activities
  • Mentor and supervise leadership project of the student council: help them in brainstorming and implementing library-related activities
  • This group will be responsible in continuing the activities and setting up an example for other students in the school
• Library renovation
  • Renovate the school library and create a welcoming learning environment that fosters independent learning

Team Member Responsibilities

• Design an active learning curriculum with local teachers
• Engage students in fun classroom activities
• Teach leadership skills
• Mentor students on leadership project
• Create a welcoming learning environment for the school library

Skills Needed

• Interest in empowering youth and in shaping a better future for them
• Interest in education and teaching experiences would be an asset
• Energy, determination, motivation, and willingness to try and learn new things

Project Leaders

• Kin Fucharoen: kinf ‘at’ sealnetonline.org
• Adriana Miu: amiu ‘at’ sealnetonline.org

Project Leaders:

Ping Punyakumpol: pingp ‘at’ stanford.edu
Job Jivasantikarn: jobj ‘at’ stanford.edu

Local Partner

Ban Home Hug (Home of Love) is a hospice located in the northeastern Thailand. The hospice is home to around a hundred orphans, most of them infected with HIV through their parents. This hospice was founded by the Suthasinee Foundation, currently run by only twenty staff members and volunteers.

Problems

• People in the community around the hospice still have stigma against the infected children. Once the children’s friends know that they are HIV-infected, they reject the children. Therefore they feel unloved and think of themselves as a burden to the society.
• The children, especially the high schoolers, want to contribute to the foundation, but they are not confident to reach out to the outside society.
• With monthly expenses of more than $15,000, the foundation is financially struggling. Its revenue from donations barely covers half of the expenses. As a result, Ban Home Hug cannot afford to hire more staff to take care of the children.

Objectives

“World of Understanding and Hope”

• To better the lives of the children by helping them regain respect and acceptance from the community and equip them with a set of useful skills that will help them in real life situations
• To create a link between Home Hug and the community through the HIV-infected children.
• To raise public awareness about the problems of AIDS.
• To help make the foundation more financially sustainable.

Approaches

Service Component

• Work closely with children in Ban Home Hug to get them exposed to new learning experiences and obtain self-esteem by creating the workshops to train students to carry out such activities as performing musical and cultural shows, painting, publishing their meaningful life stories through documentary, writing and video taping. The community center will also educate people about AIDS in general. This permanent exhibition will be run by the older students from the leadership sessions .The aims of this center are to raise public awareness, act as an agent to help bridge children from Ban Home Hug with the community help the students in the foundation regain self-esteem and bring about a source of pride for children.
• Initiate the AIDS-Product Campaign in Thailand by collaborating with various companies in producing a line of specially-designed products to be sold at slightly higher prices. The extra income will directly support the foundation.

Leadership Component

• Set up leadership training sessions for the children of ages 12-16 in Ban Home Hug and high school students from the area. These sessions are aimed to advise them on the skills necessary.
• Train local high schoolers to work with the HIV-infected youths in Ban Home Hug.They will be in charge of reaching out to the society to publicize the HIV-infected children’s activities through the community center.

Team Member Responsibilities

• Plan and facilitate training sessions for the group of ten AIDS patients and local high school students
• Mentor and assist the group with the activities the group will execute such as creating workshops. For instance, the team members can lead the music, painting and documentary videotaping workshops for the children to exhibit their work in the community center.
• Collaborate with Ban Home Hug staff and students to establish the community center

Skills Needed

We are looking for people with interests in AIDS issues and passions to help better AIDS patients’ lives. Experiences and skills in one of these following areas would be a plus:

• Teaching/Mentoring skills
• Experience in publicity and multimedia
• Experience in working with children and youth groups
• Artistic skills such as painting, drawing, designing and playing musical instruments

Project Leaders:

Potay Parapiboon: potay ‘at’ stanford.edu
Fern Jira: fernjira ‘at’ stanford.edu

Water shortage and sanitation problems are prevalent in the northeastern part of Thailand. One of the many schools afflicted by such problems is Ban-Nong-Tong-Lim School. We hope to ameliorate the situation there, and use this school as a representative model that other schools in the region facing similar problems can emulate.

Problems

• No sanitary water supply for students in the school.
• Rain is the main source of drinking water for people in the village. However, the rain spouts and storage tanks at the school are old and in a poor condition. In fact, because they are situated in an open area, birds and pigeons often excrete into the tanks.
• Currently, there is no tap water system in place. All the school has are storage tanks for water drawn from artesian wells. The water is supposed to be distributed throughout the school. However, the tanks are not high enough, and the pumping system is not sufficiently powerful for that to happen.
• As a result, students have to bring drinking water from home, or buy soda at school, incurring unnecessary expenses and inconvenience.

Local Partner

The Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand’s largest non-profit organizations, will support and facilitate our work and logistics on the site. They will also ensure the sustainability of our project.

We will also work closely with the Youth Government group, a group of college students passionate about pokies games online addressing social problems.

Objectives

For the community:

• Address the water shortage and sanitation problems at Ban-Nong-Tong-Lim school
• Create awareness of the issue and impart knowledge of water sanitation and conservation to the community

For the Youth Government:

• Develop leadership skills for members of the Youth Government and equip them with necessary knowledge and skills to carry on the project once we leave

For SEALNet members:

• Fully engage participants in all aspects of the project
• Foster a service mindset, and allow participants to grow personally and learn valuable lessons from creating positive impact on the community

Approaches

Service:

• The SEALNet team will raise funds to buy new rain gutter, water filter and water storage tanks for the school. We also hope to introduce water filters for use in households.
• Introduce mini-projects to engage students in the conservation of water and energy. Projects can range from games, competition, creation of simple inventions that are applicable to the local needs and serve our purpose.
• With help of PDA, our “green school” will serve as a model for other schools plagued by similar problems in the area.

Leadership with students in the school:

• Sanitation education: Through media and group activities, we will educate students on basic sanitation as well as conservation of water and other natural resources
• Community Service Day: Allow students and project participants to work together to create concrete impact on the community

Youth Government:

• Leadership Workshops: We will organize leadership workshops for the Youth Government. The goal is to develop their public speaking, communication, and problem solving skills.
• Leadership at work: We hope to work closely with the Youth Government in every aspect of the project to let them apply and hone their leadership skills.

Skills needed

• A strong desire to better the community and an interest in Thailand
• Knowledge of water sanitation/water management is a plus, but not required

Project Leaders:

Potay Parapiboon
Mac Pasawich
Top Pongmorakot
Contact: pt07-leaders [at] sealnetonline.org

Problems

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake triggered a tsunami that devastated the coastline of southern Thailand, resulting in enormous environmental and structural damage, sanitation problems, homelessness and unemployment. The lives of the inhabitants of this region continue to be disrupted by the consequences of the catastrophe.

The local people lack awareness of environmental problems and knowledge of how to prevent future catastrophes. This, in turn, has led to past environmental problems, such as the deforestation of mangrove trees, causing the area to be more vulnerable to the effects of a natural catastrophe.

Objectives and Approaches

Prevention : In order to reduce the impact of future natural disasters, we will engage in mangrove restoration, strive to educate people about the ecological importance of mangroves and raise the environmental consciousness of local communities.

Reconstruction : We plan to help out in the ongoing reconstruction process by helping to provide infrastructure and sanitation facilities.

Education : We plan to educate local people on the preservation and conservation of natural resources by running campaigns that will help to raise local awareness. In addition, we will donate relevant books to community libraries and set up exhibitions.

Generating leadership : We will work with the local youth government in the aforementioned projects, endeavoring to develop leadership skills through our joint efforts. Moreover, we will encourage them to initiate their own projects to address local environmental issues of their interest.

Local Partner

Population and Community Development Association (PDA), one of Thailand’s largest non-profit organizations, will support and facilitate our work on the site. It will also assist us in ensuring the sustainability of the projects within the community.

Team Member Responsibilities

Team members will be expected to engage in and work with the youth government on environmental issues. In addition, they will plan and execute projects to address environmental problems, raise local awareness and educate the community on environmental issues.

Skills Needed:

We are looking for people of diverse perspectives, skills and passions, who are committed to group learning and teamwork. Those with interest and experience in environmental issues are encouraged to apply.

Recommended project arrival and departure dates:

Arrive: June 21 early morning
Leave: July 1 late in the day

PT 2006 is organized by SEALNet in partnership with Gulf Electric Public Company Limited. Gulf Electric has been involved in several community service initiatives in Saraburi, thus it has the local contacts and familiarity with the area to help SEALNet implement PT 2006 successfully.

The project will be held in Bangkok and Saraburi from June 21st-July 1st, 2006.

PT 2006 has two main components:

• Sustainable community service project
  • Having surveyed the needs of the local students and teachers, SEALNet will be donating 52 computers and various educational softwares to 8 schools in Kaeng Koi, Saraburi.
  • In addition, we will set up the computer labs in those schools, as well as train the teachers on how to integrate the softwares into their teaching.

• Developing young service leaders to serve their local community
  • We will use the SEALNet curriculum to hold workshops on leadership, teamwork, project-planning, and public speaking for local students from Thai schools.
  • In turn, these students will use the skills to conduct the leadership conference for the Saraburi students. This is “Intergenerational Development,” whereby SEALNet members develop local service leaders in Thai schools, and provide these service leaders with the skills necessary to develop less fortunate students in the Thai community.

  

  • We will also guide the students from local high schools in planning their own community service initiatives during the trip.

What SEALNet trip participants will gain from Project Thailand 2006:

• Leadership and teamwork skills: Members will have a great opportunity to sharpen their leadership and teamwork skills by learning from SEALNet advisors, implementing the project, delivering the skills to international high school students and Saraburi students, and learning from one another.
• Cross-cultural learning and lifelong friendship: Members will have the unique opportunity to learn about both the urban and rural Thai culture from close interaction with local people, and form lifelong friendships with a multicultural team comprising of members from the U.S. and Southeast Asian countries.
• Opportunity to empower Thai youths to make a difference in their own lives and their local communities.

What local Thai students will gain from Project Thailand 2006:

• Leadership, teamwork, project-planning, and public speaking skills. Our curriculum is developed by professional executive coaches, and we will provide each of the local student participants with a certificate for having completed the curriculum.
• A unique community service experience. In PT 2006, participants do not simply volunteer — they empower the less fortunate people that they work with by providing the latter with the very same skills that have empowered them.
• Mentors who can help participants with their future community service project initiatives, and provide them with advice on college life, internships, and more.

Tentative Time Schedule

June 21 Wed

• Arrive BKK and settle in
• SEALNet internal briefing
• Sleep over in BKK at Century Park Hotel

June 22 Thur

Press Conference with Gulf Electric—location TBD

• Lunch with Gulf Electric Representatives
• Local Thai Students’ Multi-Skill Workshop I
• Travel to Saraburi, check in at Supalai Pasak Resort
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 23 Fri

• Recce all schools, lab sites, press conference site, computer storage area
• Hardware set up
• Training of SEALNet team + local Thai students to use the computer lab
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 24 Sat

• Lab Setup + Training I: 1 SEALNet + 1 intl’ school student + 1 local teacher/student
• Note: If the workshops are easy to conduct, then Thai school students will lead. Otherwise, they follow.
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 25 Sun

• Lab Setup + Training II: 1 SEALNet + 1 local Thai high school student + 1 local teacher/student
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 26 Mon

• Mid-Project Fun (temple, waterfall, pasak dam visits and river cruise)
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on (optional)

June 27 Tues

• Lab Setup + Training III
• Local Thai Students’ Multi-Skill Workshop II: Training curriculum + Facilitating discussion so that they can identify their interests and start their own ventures
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 28 Wed

• FEEDBACK I: We observe how the teachers use the facilities and provide feedback. (2 sessions/day)
• Saraburi Students’ Leadership Workshops (led by local Thai Students and assisted by SEALNet members) – location TBD
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 29 Thu

• FEEDBACK II
• Dinner—Closing Ceremony, interact with the teachers + local students + FUN
• Nightly debrief + Spotlight on

June 30 Fri

• FEEDBACK III
• Interviews with Saraburi press
• Return to BKK

July 1 Sat

• Goodbye everyone!!!

Project leaders:

• Suki: tiramisuki [at] gmail.com
• Kevin: kevsiew [at] gmail.com
• Viet: viet [at] stanford.edu