Help 500 Thai children get an education

Educating Children and Changing Communities

Have you ever worked yourself out of a job? Done something so well, you were no longer needed? In many ways this is the mark of true success. One of the first places we started helping children stay in school was in a poor slum community in Chiang Mai. None of the children in this community were making it past 8th grade and many were dropping out or were forced to quit long before that. Imagine an entire neighborhood where there was not one single High School graduate! The lack of education was only adding to the poverty in the community. Without an education the youth could not get good jobs. Many of the girls ended up working in bars and were often trafficked into prostitution. Most of the young children were being raised by grandparents or other relatives because their parents had died of AIDS or had abandoned them to go find work in other cities.

We felt that helping these children stay in school and get a good education was of vital importance, both for the children but also if there was any hope for long term change in the community. We sponsored over 20 children in that community over the period of about 12 years. All of the children we sponsored either completed High School or finished some kind of trade school Of those who graduated from High School, 100% went on to get a college education. For the first time since any one could remember, this neighborhood could boast not only a number of High School graduates, but even College graduates! These kids went off and got good jobs and are living very different lives as a result of the help they received!

But what is even more remarkable is the change that took place in the community. After the first group of students graduated from High School the number of new students applying for help actually decreased. Less families were asking for help. Was this because there weren't any children wanting to go to school? No! In fact it was quite the opposite. More children wanted to stay in school and go on to college. The difference? Now, the families saw that it was possible, and more and more families were doing whatever it took to make sure their children stayed in school. Before, dropping out was the norm, but now that was becoming the exception. Within a few years we were no longer helping any students in that community. We had been so successful we worked ourselves out of a job there! Helping the first group of students gave hope to the entire community and now all the families are committed to seeing their children get an education. Girls are no longer going to work in the bars and boys are no longer being sold into sex-trafficking.

So, helping a child stay in school, doesn't only impact the life of that individual student. It has far reaching impact on families and even on entire communities!

We love the Education Matters program and we love helping kids get a quality education! But, it is always good to ask the hard questions - is it working? Are we really helping these kids? Does getting an education really make a difference? The answers seem obvious - of course, it makes a difference, but it is still good to ask the question and to look into the lives of those we have helped and see where they are now!

Out of the hundreds of children we have helped over the years, we have now seen over 20 children graduate from High School and almost all of them have graduated from College. Three of these college graduates recently had the opportunity to return to China to try to find their tribal ancestors in a very remote region of Yunan province. Many of the Mien tribe migrated from China into Laos and Thailand about 200 years ago to avoid war. Our students grew up in Thailand but they wanted to see where they came and try to connect with their heritage. It was so amazing to see how grown up these girls are, and to see their interest finding where they came from. 

The truth is, where these girls came from was a very poor farming village in the mountains of Thailand near the Laos border. Their families scrape out a meager existence by planting corn on the steep mountainsides. Most of the girls in their village quit school at a very young age and get married. But thanks to Education Matters, these girls stayed in school and even went to college. Now they have good jobs and can support themselves and also help their families. They are able to travel and visit the land of their ancestors and learn first hand about where they came from. They really are delightful young ladies who are living very different lives, because people like you invested in them and helped them get a good education! It really does make a world of difference!