Help Educate Children Living in Poverty inThailand

Dear Supporters,

July to October have been very busy for the GVI Phang Nga community programs! Armed with resources purchased from your generous donations, our volunteers have been able to make tremendous strides in the way of sustainable community development in Ban Nam Khem.

Last quarter we purchased medical equipment which allowed us to begin our new healthcare initiative delivering free health checks to people in the community. This quarter we have seen incredible success in this area. In only 4 days we collected 125 results of participants aged 8 to 79 within Ban Nam Khem. Moreover, we saw increased interest in what these results mean and we saw individuals asking how to improve their health! This is remarkable as it means we are well on the way to one of our objectives: to promote healthy lifestyles/behaviours and encourage the community to take interest and responsibility for their health.

So, we gathered 125 results. What’s next? With all the success we soon realised the importance of having a clear account of the data we have gathered. Yet again we were saved by or donors kindness! Previously, we had used the laptops purchased through the Trust solely for educational purposes teaching computer skills classes but we used these vital resources to create a database with all the information collected from our health checks. Now, all the data we collect is sorted by location gathered and all the participants information can be clearly viewed and arranged on a number of aspects of their health. This data is crucial as it means we can tailor our healthcare workshops to meet the needs of the community.

Over on the teaching program we pushed ourselves yet again, educating over 300 students in total across the quarter. Your donations go a long way to provide the students with invaluable educational resources which help them meet their potential. September saw the students conduct their second English exam which goes toward their final grade. The scores from these tests have shown that our varied teaching methods (made possible by you, our donors!) are effective. One student even scored 47/48, dropping only one mark on the whole paper!

This quarter saw many of contributions and we really appreciate the continued support from you all, it really does go a long way!

With Gratitude,

Phang Nha Community

Dear Supporters,

This quarter we have taken our projects in exciting new directions and used our volunteer’s expertise in cooperation your generous donations to accelerate our development more so than ever before! With new partners, investments in new, sustainable projects and fundraising there’s certainly a lot that happened throughout the last three months!

April marked the final month of the school holidays here in Thailand which meant many of our regular partners were closed. But this didn’t mean the work was over for our volunteers; in fact, quite the opposite! Throughout April we conducted 6 summer camps across 3 different partners and even ran an independent summer camp at the tsunami memorial which Ban Nam Khem is so renown for. In total, we reached nearly 100 students and provided them with a fun, safe and educational way to spend their holidays.

In May, all our schools reopened which meant we were kept busy preparing to go in and meet the faces we would be working with during the upcoming academic year. Our volunteers took to our classes with gusto and have tackled tricky topics that have kept students and volunteers alike on their toes. At the Community Development Centre (CDC) we have been teaching grades 5 to 9 English as well as offering students from grade 6 and up the opportunity to join us after school to play games and practice their English in a conversational relaxed fashion. Meanwhile, over at our other partner, Ban Nam Khem School we have taught grades 1, 3 and 4. Grade one has begun the Jolly Phonics curriculum funded by the Trust and grades 3 and 4 have been working on a unique curriculum devised by the GVI team.

Over to healthcare now where we have seen enormous advancements and owe huge thanks to the Trust and our devoted donors. We have initiated a partnership with a Montessori school nearby and have rolled out the Jolly Phonics curriculum which has been an enormous success. We’ve also begun conducting developmental tests with students from our 4 kindergarten classes measuring areas such as memory as well as fine and gross motor skills. 98 children have been measured thus far and we continue to monitor as well as improve these skills to make sure no child is left behind as they advance through their education.

In June we conducted the fourth annual GVI Fun Run for Camillian. 20 volunteers took to the streets of Ban Nam Khem to run 5km in order to raise funds for the Camillian social center, our partner of 6 years. We raised £350 for our partner which will be used to create a sign for the center, which supports the development of children and young adults with disabilities, in order to raise awareness of the center. This way more families and individuals with disabilities can be reached by the center. Not to mention the publicity, bringing new business to the shop the center recently opened selling food, drink and souvenirs (made by children from the center) allowing the center to hopefully one day be financially independent.

Another new addition made possible by the trust was the addition of community health checks. With donations from the GVI Trust we were able to purchase a range of equipment that can give us accurate measurements of a person’s weight, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and much more! Already we have collected data on over 50 individuals from the community and with this data we can spot areas of concern within different subcultures and general issues in the community allowing us to tailor our health education to suit the needs of the local people.

Lastly, we received a donation that gave rise to an incredibly exciting new approach to our adult education classes, Camillian sessions and one that will improve the education of each and every student we teach. We received funding to purchase two laptops, two printers, a projector and speaker for use in our English classes in addition to computer skills classes. This permits even more engaging English lessons which will capture the student’s attention as they capture our volunteers’ hearts.

With Gratitude,

GVI Phang Nga