School and Community Unite

Kelly Kirkpatrick and Sasha Gross
Thailand
At 7 am, eight-year old twins, Gott and Golf, leave their house in Samaki Patana Community and set out for Nong Wang Elementary School in Khon Kaen. They navigate down a muddy road, scarred with deep potholes. They pay no notice to free-roaming fowl and the deafening approach of an oncoming train. The twins like going to school. “Sometimes they are upset or cry when they don’t get to go,” says Pian, the twins’ grandmother.

One year ago, this morning routine would not have been so typical.

Most of the 272 students at the twins’ school reside in surrounding slum communities near the railroad tracks. With poverty a common fixture in the families of most students, getting the kids to school is not always an option for parents.

Teachers and administrators at Nong Wang realized they had a problem when students weren’t showing up for school. “Originally it started with concern over students’ absences,” says Ajaan Chutiton Huttapanon, a third-grade English teacher at Nong Wang. When the teachers started to question students, they received explanations like, “yesterday it was raining and I had no dry uniform to wear to school.”

With support from Nong Wang’s Deputy Director Boontham Boranmoon, the 24 teachers at Nong Wang devised the “Visiting Homes Project” to investigate the living situation of each student. “We thought there might be some other issues in the community to look into deeper,” said Ajaan Jittima Srivilat, a long-time English teacher at Nong Wang.

Split into seven teams and armed with gifts, resolve, and concern, the teachers try to visit every student’s home. On these visits the teachers listen to stories like that of Gott and Golf whose father left them when they were six, and whose mother left them with their grandparents. “Their father doesn’t send any money, and last year we didn’t have any money for school books,” said Mrs. Pian.

In an effort to address these issues and others they observe, the teachers created “The Fund for Goodness” in late 2006. The fund was put together through personal donations, fundraising and, later, the support of the municipality.

The goal of the fund is to provide a venue for wealthier individuals to give back to the community and directly effect change in students at Nong Wang. The fund, say Ajaan Jittima, has “helped to encourage [those donors], who have the ability to help those students, to work together.”

In just the past year, the fund has impacted the lives of twenty-three students who now enjoy regular meals at school, a textbook lending program, encouragement, and funds to continue their education beyond Nong Wang. After elementary school graduation, teachers will continue to track the progress of their students.

For Gott and Golf, the fund has provided math textbooks, uniforms, and other items of clothing. Additionally, teachers from Nong Wang check in on the boys regularly. Mrs. Pian said that the teachers told her that if she ever needed anything she could go to the school. “I think the school really plays an important role [in this community]. I really want [the twins] to have a good education in case my husband and I are not around.”

Gott and Golf’s story demonstrates how the relationship between teachers, students, and their families has little to do with money, and everything to do with community. The former boundaries between school and community have dissolved, and in their place a partnership has formed.

As Ajaan Jittima puts it, “This school aims to help community. The community and the school are one, united.”

(Republished from Isaan Bizweek)