Empowering Youth Through Higher Education

Look at what your support has achieved! We can keep going and do even more. This weekend, Nit is home for the summer break from her Master's program in Europe in Social Work Management. Jiu is home for the weekend from her second year at nursing school.   

When we started Warm Heart, we aimed to have our children finish 9th grade, hoping they would continue and finish high school.  In fact, most of our students complete 9th grade and a majority finish high school and beyond.  Our first Warm Heart student started University in 2014. As of this year, we have 17 post-secondary (University and vocational Technical Colleges) Graduates - 14 girls and 3 boys.  We have decided to update this project to include both girls and boys.  

With coaxing and cajoling, we have been getting most of our boys to complete 9th grade.  Once they are in high school, they start to see a future.   We have improved our high school graduation rate for boys, but few go further.  They have no role models and the pull of finding a job, even without career prospects, tends to win.  

Most years we have more girls than boys and we are happy to give them the encouragement and coaching to aim high.  We will continue to do so.  But data shows that boys are lagging and we must also encourage them.  As we build self-awareness and self-confidence, we tend to separate the girls and the boys, to make them more comfortable as they start to open up.  They all need the same soft skills coaching.

We compiled a book of careers in multiple industries - with tips on the kind of natural abilities and skills required; educational requirements, and potential salaries.  

We coach them on where to apply and remind them that we will help them work out a financial plan to allow them to attend.  We ask that they pay back what we lend them once they are established, to let the next group of students enjoy the same benefits.

We are building a fund so we commit to supporting Warm Heart Children as they graduate high school and are accepted at university. We will put 10% of all donations to this project in the fund.  As our graduates get stable jobs, their repayment will also go into this fund.  A few have been able to start returning the gift.

September 18-22 is GlobalGiving's Little By Little Campaign and all donations up to $50 will be matched 50%, so we receive $75.  In addition, if you can commit to monthly giving, we will receive an extra month (100%) after four months of continuous giving.  

Please invite a friend to join this project as an ongoing supporter.  This investment in education will keep on giving for generations as these students support their communities and create their own families.

It's exciting to see what your gifts have accomplished!

Thank you!

Dana, Evelind Michael, and the Warm Heart Family!

Links:

• Check out our Anniversary Highlights!

As my grandmother would say in Yiddish, we "kvell" with pride, looking back over the years and seeing what our students have achieved with the opportunity you gave them to continue their educations through high school and university.

Looking back, since 2018, we have 17 graduates from universities and vocational colleges - 14 girls and 3 boys.  With a safe environment, the extra help from our after-school teachers, and visiting volunteers, all our teenagers finished 9th grade and 87% finished high school. Of those, 59% went on to post-secondary studies.  All our graduates are working, sending money home to help their families.  A few years out of school, they are starting to contribute back into a fund to repay a portion of their secondary school education costs.

Our dedicated after-school teachers know each child and come find me if they see one starting to lag.  Our Children's home manager, Mali,  and Soda are counselors for career guidance as well as the social and emotional challenges of being teenagers.  Our graduates mentor the younger students. " It takes a village."

Our first two graduates, Meme in 2018 and Nit in 2019, led the way. 

Then, in 2020-2021 we had 8 students graduate during the pandemic lockdown.  Half of them had planned to work in tourism and hospitality, but the hotels and restaurants were closed. They persevered and all found jobs. 

• Meme,  a store manager, helped a few get jobs at the 7/11 chain, which has some of the higher-paying jobs with career paths.  A couple have stayed on.  Another, in food services, has moved back to Phrao as a chef.
• Kate started at an insurance company and is rising through the ranks there 
• Soda, with a Public Health degree,  came to Warm Heart to run our program for the Elders and Disabled
• Earn, with a degree in Environmental Science, came to work for us, leading the Farm Garden program.
• New used her networks to find jobs in hostels and hotels (that would open for a short time, then close again) until she landed as a chef in a prominent Chinese restaurant and earns extra for her Chinese language skills.
• Faa spent a year working at one of the Phrao District offices and then moved to Chiang Mai to do marketing for a coffee company.

Our 2022-23 graduates have been able to graduate and find jobs in their chosen fields

• Joy is a receptionist at a growing hotel chain
• Tanqua is a nurse at a hospital in Bangkok
• Yim is teaching science in elementary and high school.

Currently, we have 30 students in high school (17) and post-secondary schools (13). They are all working hard to graduate and make their way in the world.

Thank you for making this possible!

Warm regards,

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the Warm Heart Education team.

Links:

• Celebrating our 15th Anniversary!