Thailand Village Project Initiative

The Free & Easy Village Project

Starting from June 2008, every Free and Easy Thailand group is spending an afternoon at a local village school in the province of Krabi. The purpose is internationalization for both the students and our group members. We can share a bit about our country and they in turn can teach us about theirs. So far this has created a positive and meaningful exchange from which everyone involved have benefitted.  The students get to have an eye opening educational experience that their teachers could not hope to provide to them and our group members get a chance to see a side of Thailand that isn’t apparent at many of the traveler destinations where we spend most of our trip.

Activities have included teaching English and teaching about our home countries/cultures by sharing our games and songs that we grew up with back home.  In turn they show us their own traditional songs, games and dances. The visits are always a great success. Both the group members and the students say that they loved it.  The kids are genuinely thrilled to meet us friendly strangers from a foreign land.  It is sure to be an unforgettable experience for their lives.

In Thailand, the middle class is growing and more and more people are busing their children to the private schools in the bigger cities. This means that less and less students are attending the village schools which means that the funding is not there which means that some children are being left behind. So at the end of our day at the school we send around a collection jar to our groups and so far we have not dissapointed! June 2008 was the initiation of this project and each of our first 2 groups contributed over 500$ to some much needed building repairs. There is now a wall separating the schoolyard and the very busy road in front of Ao Nang Village school. And at Leompho Village School there will be a wall to keep the water buffalo and goats from eating the kids' garden project which is teaching them to be self sufficient.  Free and Easy is breaking down walls (metaphorically) and then building new ones (really)!

Both the schools and us at Free and Easy want to say thanks to our group members for helping out so generously!  We now have a waiting list of schools for our future groups to visit.  We hope to provide them with computers, school supplies and playgrounds.  Contact Chad at chad@freeandeasy.ca should you wish to contribute financially or in any other way you feel capable.