Empowering Youth Through Higher Education

As the holiday season and the New Year arrive, our graduates begin to check in—sending greetings, or better yet, coming home to visit. This year, our Karen Hill Tribe staff and children, together with friends, traveled up into the mountains to celebrate Christmas. Graduates returned from Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and nearby communities, filling the house with familiar faces and stories from their new lives.

Koon, who studied nutrition and graduated during the COVID-19 lockdown, stopped by with her baby daughter and a crate of sweet tangerines from her family’s farm. After working as a chef in the city and later closer to home in Phrao, she married into a farming family that has diversified beyond rice and corn. Today, they are proud producers of fruit, and her visit was a joyful reminder of how paths continue to unfold in unexpected ways.

Tangua was home briefly from her nursing position in Bangkok and spent part of her visit filling out applications, hoping to find a hospital position closer to home in Chiang Mai.

Joy and New also returned during their time off from work as a restaurant manager and a receptionist. Joy is hoping for a transfer to Bangkok with her hotel chain next year. Like many of our graduates, they are balancing multiple responsibilities—paying back their education loans while also sending money home to ensure their parents’ security.

Tawatchai, who graduated this past year, has been hired as a mechanic by a large Honda dealership. Jambo and Jaran both stopped by after completing vocational high school to share that they are continuing on to earn degrees in electronics.

Natdanai is currently in Korea, working hard and saving carefully. He recently wrote to say he has begun helping to repair his mother’s house.

Nit spent the past two years working with an organization that supports families of political refugees. She is now welcoming the New Year in Sweden with her French partner, who is completing a postdoctoral fellowship in mathematics, building models for biomedical applications.

Your generosity made all of this possible. In the coming year, we will have 20 students attending university, including three still pursuing nursing degrees. As the year draws to a close, we invite you to consider making an additional year-end, tax-deductible gift to support these remarkable young people and those who will follow in their footsteps.

Sending our warmest wishes for a joyful and healthy New Year,

Dana, Michael, Evelind, and the Warm Heart Family

P.S. Matchung funds are stiill available through December 31.