Take Care Kids

Those who benefit from this project:

Our project is in favor of Khmer origin children (Cambodian) who live on the island of Koh Chang in Thailand. A small Dutch organization started it a couple of years ago and called it "education before all". We decided to cooperate with them in order to strengthen our belief that only through solid education all children of different races, economic backgounds and religions, can develop the skills to face life with greater perspective.

Koh Chang

It is the second island in size in Thailand, located in the province of Trat and very close to the Camodian border. It's a very popular island for its natural beauty and it attracts over 200000 tourist a year. There are two daily flights to and from Bangkok and it can also be easily reached from land (500km from Bangkok) and ferry (40 minutes from Trat).

Why Cambodian kids?

Like all the islands in Thailand Koh Chang has also undergone a very significant change in the past ten years. Mass tourism created the need for more buildings and services in order to receive all the people coming in. Many workers, therefore, came from Cambodia (they work at lower wages) to build and then work in the hotels. These workers came with their families and sadly, with the economic crisis, many workers lost their jobs and therefore their rights to medical assistance and education for themselves and their childre. This is why we decided we would help these children get a good education, correct eating habits and minimum health coverage. (there have been cases of Malaria and Dengue Fever)

The project:

The children, approximately 40 0f them, are between 3 and 16 years old. They go to a small school called "Kid's School" that was built by a Dutch association in the forest right behind one of the most beautiful beaches of the island, Klong Prao Beach. They have two very young Thai teachers, and they are divided in two classes, one for 3-7 years ld and the other for the 8-16 year olds. The teachers tech Thai, History, Geography, and of course basic Maths. English is also taught in the school at a very elementary level.The school itself is very small and quite basic and the playground area has a slide, a swing and a basket. Every morning a bus picks up those who live the farthest and bring them to school where theystay all day and where the teachers also cover the role of cooks in order to feed them at least one good meal a day. The roof is made of hay and there are no side walls so it's open to all climates. Rainy seasons are a big problem and generally cause relevant damage to the school.

What we need:

We actually need a little of everything. This year we will rebuild the roof because after surviving two rainy seasons, it is ready to collapse, and we will enlarge the storage room in order to fit a small kitchen where they can cook indoors. We would like to give them a new playground with toys strong enough to resist the rains. We need stationery material like pens, pencils, notebooks etc... And we also need human support on the island.

We need a volunteer to go 3-6 months to teach English and since we also want to start an artistic project we need two more volunteers (25 years old minimum) to stay 3-6 months in these kids' company. As usual, we will not hide our need for economic support beacuse the cost for fixing and running the school is approximately 9000 Euro, but we are sure that just like all the other projects before, this one will have it's own success thanks to all the support we'll receive from each and every one of YOU. Thank you from our hearts!

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