timeline_2008_fang

11 to 18 June 2008*
2008 Thai Border Mission @ FANG & MAE HONG SON

Report

Overview

The 2008 trip to Fang & Mae Hong Son, Thailand lasted from 11/6/2008 to 18/6/2008, totaling 8 days. The group comprises of 14 Firefly volunteers:

· Brother Lim Meng Seng (leader)

· Sister Ling Choy Yoke, Elsie

· Sister Chua Sock Keng

· Brother Liew Kee Yong

· Brother Tan Gek Lin

· Brother Lin Rongxiang

· Brother Lee Heng Cheong, Arnold

· Sister Lim Fui Nee

· Brother Lim Jing Wei

· Brother Ooi Tian Yee

· Sister Areerat Ninpradap

· Sister Betty Tan

· Sister Chan Lai Wah

· Brother Quek Tian Soon, Lucas

We were privileged to have Venerable Thanom and Bhante Maha Pannya to direct us in Thai Myanmar border during the entire mission, for providing food and education aid to the children’s at Fang, Piang Luang, and Mae Hon Son.

Event Record

The following is a record of events of the schools visited during the mission. Each school is listed with its background information, the distributions made, and follow-up actions (if any).

Day 1, 11/6/2008

· Arrive at Chiang Mai airport.

· Makro Departrmart to purchase necessary dana items.

· Overnight at Ven Thanom place to sort and pack dana items.

Day 2, 12/6/2008

· Visited Mae Kha school

Background

· 2 teachers

· 67 students, 5 to 12 years old

· Parents are mostly farmers. Send children to school for child care and education, so that parents can go back to work on farm. This school is more stable in operation.

Distributions

· Distributed chocolate wafers, soccer ball

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

· Received drawings from children

Follow up

· Need Stationary, eg Colour pencils, pencils, Crayons, Exercise books.

· Visited Mae Soon Orange Orchard school center

Background

· 1 teacher

· 30 – 40 students, 3 to 12 years old

· Parents are mostly farmers working at the orchards.

Distributions

· Distributed chocolate wafers, 5 t-shirts, chocolate pieces

· Distributed red packet to teacher.

Follow up

· No follow up, touch and go.

· Visited Shan school at Standing Buddha Hill

Background

· 12 teachers

· 2 cooks

· 1 guard

· 270 students, 3 to 15 years old

· Currently building a new school extension.

Distributions

· Distributed 1 box of stationary, writing books, lollipops, 2 boxes of chocolate wafers, 2 soccer balls, t-shirts.

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

Follow up

· This school mainly support by SWAN, No follow up touch and go.

· Visited nearby temple, Wat Phrathat, next to the Standing Buddha Hill

Background

· 160 residents (monks and novices) with room for 50 visitors.

Distributions

· Presented hamper and Ang Pao to the Abbott

Follow up

· No follow up. Temple mainly supported by devotees from Bangkok.

· Visited Chiang Mai Tzu Chi School

Background

· Provide primary school education for children

· 30+ computers

· School fees of 8750 baht per semester. If parents are unable to afford the school fees, they are required to pay at least half, and perform service work at the school.

· Building secondary school by next year.

· Donated TB 5000 to the school for education fund.

Follow up

· No follow up. A friendly visit.

· Visited Ban Lan Night school(inside the orange plantation)

Background

· Two school locations. Total of 3 teachers.

· First location for 30 students, age 6 to 18. Teaching arts, Thai language, and music.

· Second location is deeper into the jungle, for 30 more students also age 6 to 18+. Teaching life skills and moral education.

Distributions

· Distributed chocolate wafers at both locations.

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

Follow up

· Can’t do much. The visiting is also depending by the farm landlord permission.

· Will visit this centre when FFM in Fang. Stationary needed.

· Overnight at Wat Phrathat

Day 3, 13/6/2008

· Five hours journey to Peng Luang

· Visited Wat Fah Veng Inn school center at Peng Luang (Lak Teang Pre School)

Background

· 12 teachers

· 1 cook

· 1 assistant

· 1 principal

· 200 preschool students, less Between 5-6 years old

Distributions

· Distributed chocolate wafers, 7 boxes of magi noodles, chocolate pies, chocolate pieces, and orange fizzy drink to school.

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

· This centre also supported by the NGO from BTBC and SWAN.

· There are visitors from others country (Christian group) also visited the center more on touch and go.

Follow up

· This centre need Stationary.(colour pencils, crayon, exercise books)

· Visited Kanchanapisek school center at Lak Taeng

Background

· 260 students, 6 - 18 years old. All living nearby. Last year was only 195 students.

· Teachers’ salary 4200 baht per month.

· Existing classroom block had walls erected by JRS.

· Facilities include 1 basketball and 1 sepak takraw court.

· 5 computers were donated by FFM on year 2007 Government not providing any form of assistance.

· 2 new blocks constructed from bamboo. Frequently needing renovation in the range of 30,000 baht every half year.

Distributions

· Distributed t-shirts, chocolate wafers, and box of stationary to school.

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

· 2 classrooms lacking tables and chairs. Each set costs 800 baht. Dana of 24000 baht made by Firefly and volunteers members to provide 30 sets of tables and chairs for one class room.(15 sets for each class room) Breakdown of dana is as follow:

1. Firefly Mission – 3000 baht

2. Sock Keng – 1000 baht

3. Rongxiang – 2000 baht

4. Lucas – 1000 baht

5. Meng Seng – 5000 baht

6. Liew – 1500 baht

7. Elsie – 2000 baht

8. Arnold – 2500 baht

9. Ade – 1000 baht

10. Chan – 1000 baht

11. Yiling – 1000 baht

12. Betty – 2000 baht

13. Fui Nee – 1000 baht

Total – 24000 baht

Followup

· Teachers in high turnover, explore possibility of 3 week teaching session by Firefly Mission.

· Explore possibility of donating 400,000 baht to build 2 new extensions for Primary 4. Person-in-charge of school to write proposal for Firefly to evaluate.

· Overnight at Wat Fah Wiang Inn.

· Meditation session conducted by Ven Sri Dhamma for Firefly volunteers.

Day 4, 14/6/2008

· Offering dana items to monks of Wat Fah Wiang Inn.

· Visited preschool center in Shan Refugees camp nearby Peng Luang

Background

· 2 teachers

· 50 preschool students, 3-6 years old

· School is free-of-charge; children are taken care of for whole day including food. The preschool enables parents to go to work on the farms, growing mainly garlic and chilli.

· Other NGOs visiting the school include

1. Thai Burma Border Consortium (TBBC)

2. Jesus Refugee Service (JRS).

Distributions

· Distributed 2 boxes of chocolate wafers, balloons, stationary, sharpeners, colour pencils, lollipops, and potato chips.

· Distributed red packets to teachers.

· Visited Shan Refugees camp Buddhist temple.

Background

Shan Refugee Camp Temple

· 2-3 monks from nearby Wat Fah Wiang Inn

· Temple constructed for the daily devotional needs of the refugees.

· Compulsory English class on Sunday morning in temple.

Shan Refugee Camp

· Refugees have been living here since 2002, 6 years.

· 137 families, 600 people. Approx family size is 4-5.

· Some born here, some in Shan state. Due to fighting between Burmese government and Shan state army, civilians were mistaken for Shan sympathizers and driven out of homes, crossing land-mined forests into here.

· Main occupation of refugees are weaving, sewing, and farming chilli and garlic.

· Newborns have documents from nearby Thai hospitals, but not granted identity cards as parents are not citizens.

· Basic clinic with 1 nurse. Hospital is 20km away. Medical supplies from NGO eg JRS. Also receiving aid from TBCC, however NGOs do not support temples, hence private funding is required.

· 200 children in camp with 4 computers, but no printer.

· Water is not a problem here.

Distributions

Not captured

Followup

· Need 4 shower cubicles in temple, 2 for monks and 2 for visitors who will like to stay at temple. Approximate 40,000 baht. The village already has the zinc sheet for the roof.

Day 5, 15/6/2008

· Visited Mae Hon Son school, stay for 2 days

Background

· 150 – 180 students

· Teachers paid lesser than normal, working there out of willingness.

· 20 years history

· Partially self-sufficient with paddy fields.

· Facilities include reading room, computer room, and office with internet access, science room with basic lab equipment, sewing room, and classrooms.

· 18 computers in room. Specs are: Intel Pentium Duo Core E2160 1.8Ghz, 504 MB RAM with DVD / CDRw drives. More than sufficient harddisks’ size of 160 GB.

· Extension storeroom block in construction.

· Oven coming soon to kitchen, for conducting cooking lessons.

· Students live in several dorm blocks, male and female are segregated.

· Students clean up their utensils after meals, taught to be self-dependent.

Distributions

· Distributed chocolate wafer, soccer ball, stationary etc.

· Distributed red packets to school.

· Gathering with school children at Dhamma Hall.

· Overnight at Mae Hon Son school

Day 6, 16/6/2008

· Activities at Mae Hon Son school, including rice paddy fields and practicing the rice planting with the children.

· Football match with school children.

· Cultural performances by Firefly Mission and school children at Dhamma Hall.

· Overnight at Mae Hon Son school

Day 7, 17/6/2008

· Leaving for Chiang Mai City.

· Shopping at Chiang Mai, before checking in to BP Chiang Mai hotel.

· Shopping at night market.

Day 8, 18/6/2008

· Dana to monks at morning market.

· Leaving for Chiang Mai airport,

· Depart for Singapore, transit at Bangkok International airport.

· Reach Singapore at 9:40pm.

In summary:

We have visited a total of 8 school and 5 monasteries. We provided 100 sets of stationary, 80 set of monk’s requisites, foods and token of Ang Pao to the teachers and monks. We also supported the building of school class room and class room furniture and novice education program. All the participants have rejoiced the good deed they have done.

Recommendation:

· There is a need of stationeries by schools. We should continue supporting the stationary supply.

· There are two new blocks of class room constructed from bamboo at Kanchanapisek school center (Lak Taeng). It frequently needed renovation in the range of 30,000 baht every half year. We propose to support for building two permanent class rooms in the school. The school representative will send the proposal to FFM through Ven Maha Panya. The estimate cost about 400,000 TB.

· The temple at the refugees camp need four shower cubicles in the temple compound, two for monks and two for visitors who will like to stay at temple. Approximate 40,000 baht. The village already has the zinc sheet for the roof.

The event was recorded by RongXian,

Edited by Meng Seng