Donation for dormitories and clean drinking water.
Donation for special educational needs for disabled children.
The Hansje Sillevis Foundation, which specializes in funding facilities for disabled children in poor countries, donated €27,000 (US$36,500) to Samsara for equipment and teaching materials for children with special needs in the North of Thailand. There are no special facilities for special needs students in mountain areas – they attend regular schools.
Teachers are often not trained and equipped to attend to their special needs properly. Samsara has set up a training programme for teachers from 35 mountain schools to help them teach children with learning disabilities. A special 4 CD-ROM set, developed in Bangkok, was distributed to the schools to assist with the training.
For the School for the Blind Children and the School for the Deaf Children in Chiang Mai, Samsara funded the development and production of special teaching and learning materials – for instance, Braille books that are not widely available in Thailand.
At the Sop Moei primary school, accessible only after an hour-long trip by a long tail boat, Samsara built one dormitory for teachers, one for students and two water-cleaning installations. This means that parents can save money by sending their children to this nearby school instead of to another school far away. Parents with disabled children are now willing to send their children to schools as the boarding and lodging situation is much safer.
Two big dormitories built at Huay Dua School
The “Give and Live” Foundation from the USA donated €5500 (US$7450) to Samsara to build two big dormitories for students at the small Huay Dua mountain school for Karen children. Forty out of the 170 children need to stay at school all the time except during school holidays because their villages are more than a day walk away. This school did not have any accommodation for these children. The two dormitories were handed over to the school on 9 March.
Private donations for Mattresses and Furniture for school facilities.
Samsara received donations from private donors from the Netherlands and the United States to buy mattresses and furniture for dormitories, canteens and kitchens at poor mountain schools. Sometimes a school does have a dormitory and a canteen, but these are often of a primitive nature. The children sleep on concrete without blankets and have to sit on the ground while eating their meals. There is not enough equipment to cook and to clean the facilities. Also, there are not enough shelves and bookcases to keep the schoolbooks organized. Samsara appreciates the donations which enable us to provide schools with the necessary equipment.
Rotary Club of Calgary Centennial and private Canadian donors gave €13,500 (US$18,265) for school facilities.
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The branch school Um Loo Saka was an initiative of Director Deng who regularly passed by a small village without a school. The villagers asked him to start a branch school, which was at first not recognised by the Department of Education. Director Deng built a classroom from bamboo by himself and the local administration paid for one teacher. After one year there were 70 children in that classroom. With donations from Canada, Samsara could build two new classrooms including the desks for the children and cupboards for the books, a toilet building and water facilities. Once these and other facilities became available The Department of Education has recognised the school officially. It now provides more teachers and has taken over the maintenance. In the next school year 140 children will start their education at the school. From this donation Samsara could also provide ten schools with clean drinking water facilities. Ten other schools received sets of schoolbooks. And at the Huang Puung Mai School we were able to build another toilet building.
geheten. Daar pauzeerde hij altijd. De dorpelingen vroegen hem om een lagere school op te zetten. Toestemming uit Bangkok kwam niet af. Dus bouwde hij een klaslokaal uit bamboe. Er stond ook een gammel houten hutje dat als toilet dienst deed en de leraar sliep bij een familie thuis. Samsara had in 2005 al een kantine en een slaapvertrek voor de leerkrachten gebouwd maar kon nu uit deze donatie twee klaslokalen bouwen en een toiletten groep. Inmiddels gaan er 140 kinderen naar deze lagere school. Daarnaast zijn er 10 water zuivering installaties voor 10 scholen uit deze donatie betaald en hebben 10 scholen lesboeken ontvangen
The Dr. Bos School in Utrecht, the Netherlands donates a kitchen and canteen equipment
The Pamolo school, a small primary school for Karen children, received dishes, bowls, pans, ladles and a gas stove from funds raised by the students at Dr. Bos School. The Dr. Bos school students organized a fundraising event and provided information about the problems of the schools in the mountains of North Thailand. Samsara is enthusiastic about this initiative and would like to or
The Jan and Oscar Foundation of Switzerland donate 260,000 baht.
This donation enabled Samsara to purchase mattresses and bedding for 110 children at the Long Phe Wittaya school. Until now the children at this school slept on the concrete floor without so much as a blanket. The school is situated high-up in the mountains where in wintertime the temperature drops to less than 6 degrees centigrade. In the canteen, made of bamboo, the children had to eat their meals while sitting on the floor. Tables and benches were also provided from this donation.
The Herrmann Family Foundation donates a ward for sick children.
Thanks to a donation from the Herrmann Family Foundation (USA), Samsara was able to build a ward for sick children at the Tong Sawat School in 2007. This is a big school with 1200 children. Many of them stay at school the whole year round, except for the holidays. When sick they can now be looked after in a dedicated building with eight beds. The remainder of the Herrmann Family donation has been spent on a number of other projects during 2008.
The Springer Publishing Company from Germany donates a clean water installation.
A donation of 3000 Euro provided for clean drinking water at Huay Dua. This school never had access to water in the dry season. Newly constructed water pipes from a village two kilometres away from the school now provide water the whole year through. A new water purification machine filters and cleans the water so that it becomes drinkable. The donation also provided a toilet and a shower for the teachers.
Rotary Club Vancouver Sunrise donates a water purification system.
The Luum Naam Witaya had not always clean water at its disposal. A donation from The Vancouver Sunrise Rotary Club enabled Samsara to provide a pump that pumps the water up from a river running in a valley below into a newly constructed concrete water tank. A water purification machine was added to guarantee clean drinking water.
Eight orphans progressed one more study year.
Samsara, in cooperation with the Rotary Club Chiang Mai South, has provided educational expenses for eight orphans during a period of ten years. The school period 2007-2008 is the seventh year of the sponsorship. Most children go to high school or a vocational school. The study results vary from reasonable to good.
Samsara sponsors 40 students with scholarships from individual donors
Samsara provides scholarships for 40 students from private donations. Of those students, 15 go to a vocational school; the others go to high school. Children from the mountains are almost never able to continue their studies after primary or middle school. High school is only offered in the valley where room and board is much too expensive for their parents. A scholarship provides for those costs and gives the children the opportunity to continue their studies. Samsara offers scholarships for a period of three years. Within this period children are able to finish high school or a vocational training.
Samsara is grateful for all these generous donations in 2007.
In 2007 a total of 152 145 Euro has been spent on projects (7 150 815 baht/238 360 dollar)