After 7 years of building needed school facilities and providing scholarships to students in the southern half of Mae Hong Son Province, Samsara Foundation shall re-directing it’s efforts to the northern half of the province in November 2011. Consistent with a Samsara Core Principle, this shift in focus was inspired by the request of Khunying Gasama Wotawan Na Ayuttaya, former Secretary General of the Office of Basic Education Commission, Ministry of Education, and comes at a time when Samsara is completing its primary building goals in the southern half of the province. 

 

Between 2004 and 2011 Samsara has realized many school facilities and scholarships in the 3 most southern districts of the province of Mae Hong Son: Sop Moei, Mae Sariang and Mae Lanoi.

 

Of course needs will continue to arise. There will still be schools in the south, which will need a dormitory or a canteen. But it does not need to be the Samsara Foundation, which is funding all those needed facilities. Samsara Foundation has identified enough parameters that most of these 185 schools will manage the further development needs of their schools.

Samsara believes that in non-emergency situations, development aid needs to create and stimulate development. It does not need to finance all development.

Interventions such as Samsara’s need to be the trigger for further development, which need to be carried out by the national and local government and the people themselves. This is exactly what Samsara observed happening in the 3 southern districts of Mae Hong Son Province.

 

 

Between 2004 and 2011 the total amount of schools in the southern half of the province increased from 175 to 188. The total amount of students in the 3 southern districts increased 20.8%; from approximately 24,000 to approximately 29,000 students; with an even higher percentage at schools where Samsara has built facilities.

* 3500 children have a safe, clean and dry place to sleep;

* 150 teachers stay in clean dormitories at the schools where they teach;

* 4500 children eat in a protected canteen and their food is cooked in a clean kitchen;

* 21,250 children and 750 teachers have access to clean drinking water;

* 45 more schools have water during the entire dry season, thanks to rainwater- collecting tanks;

* 2000 more children and 180 more teachers have electricity to watch school television, prepare their lessons at the computer, and study and eat in the evenings by electric lights.

* 350 students has received a scholarship to attend higher education.

And all of the above mentioned facilities will continue to increase the quality of the educational experience for students and teachers for many years to come.

 

On behalf of the involved schools, the dedicated teachers and the eager to learn children, Samsara Foundation would like to thank, all of our generous sponsors who have supported Samsara to achieve all of the above results.

 

So beginning in the second half of 2011 Samsara Foundation will shift its primary capital project focus to the northern half of Mae Hong Son Province.

During the period 2011-2015 Samsara will continue its scholarship program in the southern half of the Province, as many more very poor hill tribe children remain, who need the opportunity to go to High School, Vocational School and further education.

The northern half of the province is less densely populated. There are consequently fewer schools located in this area and because of the remoteness there are more very small schools, which are not feasible to develop. Our calculation is, to achieve the same results with the same impact in the north, as in the south; Samsara will need to build 70% of the school facilities in the 4 northern districts, as we built in the 3 southern districts.

This would roughly mean: 56 dormitories for students and teachers, 31 canteens, 24 toilet buildings, 70 clean water installations, 31 rain water collecting tanks, 28 solar energy based electricity projects; and the development of 8 regional schools.

As the realization of Samsara’s mission is a huge undertaking Samsara’s objective is to obtain commitments for the necessary funds (800.000 euro or 113,000 dollar), to achieve the projects mentioned above, in advance. This would preferably mean a commitment by the donors to invest their donations annually over a period of 4 years. 

That’s is why we need all your support.

 

Samsara would like to realize her mission during the next 4 dry seasons (2011- 2015).

Preparations are on the way to start the projects in November 2011 in Khun Yuam District (one of the 4 northern districts). Samsara is already assured of the collaboration and support of the Department of Education in the north. We have visited 14 mountain schools in Khun Yuam and identified their needs and checked their requests for new facilities. Based on that, Samsara made a project list to execute together with the schools. The actual building of each project is done by the parents of the children, who volunteer to build the school facilities in close cooperation with the principal and the teachers of the schools, rather than hiring paid contractors.

Samsara hopes to obtain all necessary funds for the coming dry season in September 2011. So that we can start signing the contracts with the schools in October. The construction will start in November 2011and most of the facilties will be finished in February 2012. At schools where Samsara will build several buildings, the last facilities need to be ready in May 2012.

 

 

Net4kids aims to build facilities at schools, with a regional function, in the mountains of Mae Hong Son over a period of three years. (Schools with a regional function offer middle school education in addition to elementary education). These facilities will provide overnight accommodation for both children and teachers alike. The villages where the teachers and children come from, many in the outlying areas, are too far away from the schools to be reached easily and walking daily to and from the school proves both exhausting and impractical for all concerned hence the necessity for overnight accommodation.

The 50,000 Euro Samsara received, for the second year in a row, went towards building and refurbishment projects at the Mae Khit and the Le Kho schools.

At the Mae Khit School dormitories were built to accommodate 40 students and six teachers. An existing dormitory at Mae Khit has also been cleaned and renovated; Samsara provided bunk beds, wardrobes, mattresses and blankets. An existing canteen has also been renovated and refurbished with Samsara providing tables, benches, cupboards and kitchen equipment on behalf of Net4kids. Another building has been refurbished to enable children do their homework, seated at a desk, after school finishes in the evening.

At the Le Kho School a new canteen, a dormitory with accommodation for 40 students, a dormitory for four teachers and a toilet block has been built. The teachers and students at Le Kho also offered to clean and refurbish an existing dormitory and on completion Samsara provided bunk beds, mattresses, blankets and wardrobes.

 

In 2010 Angela and Joop from AsianKidzSupport visited some of the Samsara projects and promised to raise funds in the Netherlands for both a dormitory for children at the Mae Naa Chaang Nua School and a water installation at the Padeng Luang School. Through their sponsorship both projects have been successfully achieved. The Mae Naa Chaang Nua School received blankets and mattresses for an existing dormitory for elementary school children and a new furnished dormitory has been built for future middle school students.

At the Padeng Luang School, which had no access to drinking water at the end of each dry season, Samsara provided two kilometers of pipes from a water source and constructed a large concrete water tank together with a water filtration installation to provide clean drinking water for the school. Angela and Joop attended the opening ceremonies at both schools and now plan to raise further funds to provide facilities at the Luang Mae Uko School. Samsara wishes Angela, Joop and AsianKidzSupport lots of success in their endeavours.

 

In 2011 Samsara installed solar energy units at four schools – between 2009 and 2010 Samsara installed solar energy units at a total of 40 schools. The installations are geared towards remote mountain schools without electricity and with limited teaching staff. The school television programmes are an added support for the teachers at these remote mountainous schools. Unfortunately, however, not all schools are able to directly receive these programmes all of the time due to situation, environment and climate. Samsara will many of the programmes copied onto DVD’s for distribution amongst the 70 schools which have received, or will receive, these solar energy installations. There is also enough money leftover to provide all 70 schools another set of new batteries in two years time after the present ones expire.

 

 

The Chaleurmrat Wittayakom School is a middle school and high school for hill tribe children and more than 300 children stay overnight in the dormitories. At the school in the evenings these students had no covered shelter to do their homework or have their meals. Through the generous donation of the De Beer Foundation, Samsara built a large multi purpose building. Furthermore, the donation also funded an area with toilets, showers and a place to do laundry next to the existing girls’ dormitory.

 

 

 

At the Chaleurmrat Witayakom School (see also donation of the De Beer Foundation) a dormitory for 40 boys was built. At the Huay Haa school a dormitory for four teachers was completed. The Huay Mak Nun en de Mae La Phaa Wai schools received a new canteen. At the Mae Ok Nua school Samsara built a small building to house two teachers, in a supervisory capacity over 40 children, in a newly built Samsara dormitory.

The Mae Sariang School received a new dormitory for students. The school’s director did a round on her motorbike every morning and afternoon to ferry eight small children back and forth due to their distance from the school. Another twelve children slept, in difficult conditions at the school, in a shed of wood and bamboo constructed by the director herself. Now these 20 children have a beautiful new dormitory funded by Samsara and built by parents.

 

Ten percent of the Ralph Scriba Family Foundation (USA) donation goes towards Samsara’s scholarship programme for hill tribe children to enable them to complete higher education.

 

 

 

This year the donation was spent on the construction of a canteen and a dormitory for teachers at the Huay Naam Saai School, toilet facilities at the Hua Mae To School and dormitory furniture for teachers at the Mae Ok Nua School. The female director of Huay Naam Saai School is proactive, invests a lot of time and effort in the school and has a good relationship with the parents’ committee. As a result of her endeavours help from the parents is always forthcoming and all new facilities are built by them in record time.

 

Samsara receives regular donations from this Rotary Club in Canada.

The Club is very impressed that overhead costs are only 2% and are pleased to provide funding for facilities at mountain schools that are a basic necessity.

 

To fill teachers’ posts in remote mountain schools is a major problem for the Ministry of Education and poor living conditions are partly responsible for this. When teachers are guaranteed better living and working conditions, like a teachers’ dormitory, they are more willing to take up teaching posts in remote areas and, consequently, increase the number of students attending these schools. This is the main reason Samsara continues to receive this level of support from the Lloyd George Asia Foundation. Two new teachers’ dormitories have been completed at the Khun Mae La and the Padeng Luang schools.

 

 

Not many schools, particularly in the remote mountainous regions, have access to clean drinking water. A water purification system is of vital importance when developing a school and access to safe drinking water reduces health problems amongst children, reduces levels of absenteeism and teachers are willing to teach in these schools when better conditions prevail. The provision and organization of “Safe Drinking Water” is a daunting task for Samsara. Groups of schools implement, install and assist each other with these projects and transfer their knowledge to other schools, which is the key to the success of these projects.

 

 

Before the dinner commenced Samsara gave a presentation and outlined the work undertaken and accomplishments made. Bidding for prizes, provided by Skåll, was high. With the money raised Samsara bought mattresses and blankets for the new dormitory at the Mae Sariang School