Education Thailand Project #15582

Educate 140 Refugees on The Thai-Burma Border

by The Branch Foundation

Project Report | Jun 9, 2016
Update Report - June 2016

By Tom Rosen | Co-Director/Project Manager

Local monks learning English

Since our last report to you, there have been many developments in regards to this project. With the help of external evaluators and after many discussions with the community leaders, we have put in place new systems and practices to ensure the long-term sustainability of providing education to the youth of this vibrant community.

Previously, many of the English teachers at the camp were supported by another local organisation however due to funding restraints, they have been unable to continue to provide teacher wages. Understanding how important education is to this marginalised community, The Branch Foundation has offered step in and ensure that all nine English teachers are rewarded for their dedication and hard work. We have also continued our commitment of supporting the wages of the local computer teacher and education coordinator. Not only do we support wages within the camp but we also provide teacher training to ensure high levels of education are achieved, new teaching materials such as updated text books and the provision of native English speaking volunteers to help out during the classes.

As this project moves along, we hope to include more community contribution so that the residents of the camp have more ownership over the benefits that education can bring to the lives of youth whose families have fled violence and persecution in their homeland.

The teachers not only educate but also inspire. One young female English language student recently told us the following when we spoke to her during our last visit to the camp:

"Thank you for the support of my education. The classes have motivated me to become an English teacher in the future so that I can also help my community".

Now that we have grown the project to support more teachers, your support is even more important. Please consider setting up a regular donation or asking a friend or family member to do so in order for us to continue to provide wages to the local teachers of this inspirational community.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom Rosen and The Branch Foundation Team

A mother and her child at Koung Jor refugee camp

The youth of the camp at the local Buddhist temple

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Mar 15, 2016
Update Report - March 2016

By Tom Rosen | Co-Director/Project Manager

The camp headman teaching evening English class

Over the past few months, The Branch Foundation staff and leaders from Koung Jor Shan refugee camp have been working hard to ensure continued and sustainable access to supplementary education for the children and young adults of this vibrant community. Every once and a while, it is good to take stock of the project as a whole and that's exactly what we have focused our efforts on.

With the help of external evaluators, we conducted interviews with the community leaders, teachers and students to help us understand what the current needs are and how best we can serve them. During this process, we learnt many things to help us improve the educational activities. For example, the Burmese language classes were not seeing the attendance levels that the community expected mainly because the students wanted to focus their attention on English. This means that we can redirect our support to the areas that the community and students feel is most vital for their education and future career paths.

There are many other things that we learnt from the assessment and we keen to work with the teachers and students of Koung Jor Shan refugee camp to refocus some areas of this project and to help implement systems that enable the long term sustainability of providing children and young adults with the opportunities to reach their full potential.

During the recent interviews, one 14-year-old female student told us the following:

"I can learn a lot in our camp. Classes in subjects such as English and Computer Studies are a big help for my future."

We look forward to keeping you up to date with all the exciting changes that will be happening over the next few months.

With sincere gratitude,

Tom Rosen and The Branch Foundation Team

Iona & Tai Leng (the camp's Education Coordinator)

Camp residents practising their English skills

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Dec 17, 2015
Happy holiday season from The Branch Foundation

By Tom Rosen | Co-Director/Project Manager

Teachers receive their certificates after training

Firstly, The Branch Foundation team would like to take this opportunity to wish you a happy holiday season. December is a month when many people take time to reflect on what they have achieved over the last year, and we are no exception. With the help of your donations, we have managed to accomplish many of our goals in terms of providing education to those who would otherwise have little to no access to quality teaching. Your contributions have enabled us to implement 3 teacher training sessions in the refugee camp, buy educational materials such as grammar books and stationary, and pay the wages of 9 local teachers.

Tai Leng, our Education Coordinator who lives in Koung Jor refugee camp, recently updated me regarding the success of providing supplementary education in topics such as Information Technology:

"Students can apply the skills they learn from the classes. There are some students who come to learn computer every night and they are able to make presentations using Power Point, write homework assignment using Microsoft Word and edit videos by themselves. Therefore, we believe that computer class benefits to children in their further education and future professions."

The need for funding for educational opportunities such as these is ever present; therefore we would be extremely grateful if you would consider giving the gift of education this holiday season so that we can continue to enhance the future opportunities of such talented children and young adults. Please click the link below to find out how you can further support this project:

https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/educate-140-refugees-on-the-thai-burma-border/

With sincere gratitude,

Tom Rosen and The Branch Foundation team

Some of the younger residents of the refugee camp

The teachers practice new activities

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