Education Thailand Project #38077

Empowering Youth Through Higher Education

by Warm Heart Worldwide, Inc

Project Report | Sep 17, 2023
Empowering Youth Through Higher Education - Onward and Upward

By Evelind Schecter | Co-Founder, project leader

Our Women College Grads

Look at what your support has achieved! We can keep going and do even more. This weekend, Nit is home for the summer break from her Master's program in Europe in Social Work Management. Jiu is home for the weekend from her second year at nursing school.

When we started Warm Heart, we aimed to have our children finish 9th grade, hoping they would continue and finish high school. In fact, most of our students complete 9th grade and a majority finish high school and beyond. Our first Warm Heart student started University in 2014. As of this year, we have 17 post-secondary (University and vocational Technical Colleges) Graduates - 14 girls and 3 boys. We have decided to update this project to include both girls and boys.

With coaxing and cajoling, we have been getting most of our boys to complete 9th grade. Once they are in high school, they start to see a future. We have improved our high school graduation rate for boys, but few go further. They have no role models and the pull of finding a job, even without career prospects, tends to win.

Most years we have more girls than boys and we are happy to give them the encouragement and coaching to aim high. We will continue to do so. But data shows that boys are lagging and we must also encourage them. As we build self-awareness and self-confidence, we tend to separate the girls and the boys, to make them more comfortable as they start to open up. They all need the same soft skills coaching.

We compiled a book of careers in multiple industries - with tips on the kind of natural abilities and skills required; educational requirements, and potential salaries.

We coach them on where to apply and remind them that we will help them work out a financial plan to allow them to attend. We ask that they pay back what we lend them once they are established, to let the next group of students enjoy the same benefits.

We are building a fund so we commit to supporting Warm Heart Children as they graduate high school and are accepted at university. We will put 10% of all donations to this project in the fund. As our graduates get stable jobs, their repayment will also go into this fund. A few have been able to start returning the gift.

September 18-22 is GlobalGiving's Little By Little Campaign and all donations up to $50 will be matched 50%, so we receive $75. In addition, if you can commit to monthly giving, we will receive an extra month (100%) after four months of continuous giving.

Please invite a friend to join this project as an ongoing supporter. This investment in education will keep on giving for generations as these students support their communities and create their own families.

It's exciting to see what your gifts have accomplished!

Thank you!

Dana, Evelind Michael, and the Warm Heart Family!

Links:

Check out our Anniversary Highlights!

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Jul 8, 2023
On our Anniversary, Our Higher Ed Grads Show the Impact!

By Evelind Schecter | Program Manager

Our Young Women University Grads

As my grandmother would say in Yiddish, we "kvell" with pride, looking back over the years and seeing what our students have achieved with the opportunity you gave them to continue their educations through high school and university.

Looking back, since 2018, we have 17 graduates from universities and vocational colleges - 14 girls and 3 boys. With a safe environment, the extra help from our after-school teachers, and visiting volunteers, all our teenagers finished 9th grade and 87% finished high school. Of those, 59% went on to post-secondary studies. All our graduates are working, sending money home to help their families. A few years out of school, they are starting to contribute back into a fund to repay a portion of their secondary school education costs.

Our dedicated after-school teachers know each child and come find me if they see one starting to lag. Our Children's home manager, Mali, and Soda are counselors for career guidance as well as the social and emotional challenges of being teenagers. Our graduates mentor the younger students. " It takes a village."

Our first two graduates, Meme in 2018 and Nit in 2019, led the way.

Then, in 2020-2021 we had 8 students graduate during the pandemic lockdown. Half of them had planned to work in tourism and hospitality, but the hotels and restaurants were closed. They persevered and all found jobs.

Meme, a store manager, helped a few get jobs at the 7/11 chain, which has some of the higher-paying jobs with career paths. A couple have stayed on. Another, in food services, has moved back to Phrao as a chef.
Kate started at an insurance company and is rising through the ranks there
Soda, with a Public Health degree, came to Warm Heart to run our program for the Elders and Disabled
Earn, with a degree in Environmental Science, came to work for us, leading the Farm Garden program.
New used her networks to find jobs in hostels and hotels (that would open for a short time, then close again) until she landed as a chef in a prominent Chinese restaurant and earns extra for her Chinese language skills.
Faa spent a year working at one of the Phrao District offices and then moved to Chiang Mai to do marketing for a coffee company.

Our 2022-23 graduates have been able to graduate and find jobs in their chosen fields

Joy is a receptionist at a growing hotel chain
Tanqua is a nurse at a hospital in Bangkok
Yim is teaching science in elementary and high school.

Currently, we have 30 students in high school (17) and post-secondary schools (13). They are all working hard to graduate and make their way in the world.

Thank you for making this possible!

Warm regards,

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the Warm Heart Education team.

Our Young Men University Grads

Links:

Celebrating our 15th Anniversary!

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Mar 10, 2023
Looking Forward after a Good School Year

By Evelind Schecter | Program Leader

Jiu starts nursing at university

As March arrives and the heat of the dry season has everyone moving slowly, we are celebrating the end of the first school year back in the classroom after the remote learning of the pandemic. We have 18 girls and 9 boys in higher education (9 in university and 18 in high school)..

Nuey S and Pokpong graduate high school on Monday, the 13th. They are both waiting to hear about scholarships - Pokpong for a 2-year program in welding and construction and Nuey for a teaching degree. Jaran graduates from vocational high school and will continue studying electrical engineering in a 2-year vocational college program. Nipa completed high school in hospitality and tourism and continued on to a two-year university-level certificate program.

Jiu and Naan are happy to be in classes at the Payap University Nursing School, associated with one of the major international hospitals in Chaing Mai, McCormick Hospital. Jui is in her first year, and Naan her second. Yim is finishing her fourth year of a 5-year teachers training program. She enjoyed teaching science at Phrao High School for an internship. over the summer.

Tanqua and Joy, our June university graduates, have found jobs they enjoy. Tanqua is a nurse at a hospital in Bangkok and Joy is a receptionist at a growing hotel chain in Chiang Mai. New is happy as a chef at the Chinese restaurant, where her Chinese is improving and that gives her a salary boost. Earn is busy leading the Warm Heart Farm Garden improvements, developing new vegetable beds, from our clay soil, and testing permaculture and no-tilling methods.

Nit received a scholarship through Erasmus Mundus for a two-year master's degree in social work. She will study in England, Demark, Portugal, and Poland. Nit finally received her visa to study in England, two months late, but the school accommodated her and other students with similar delays. She just sent a photo from Denmark, seeing snow for the first time.

We have six young women as rising high school seniors, thinking about nursing, teaching, hospitality, and retail marketing..

Everyone is looking forward to the school break before starting another busy year.

Thank you for making this possible! You are investing in generations to come.

Best wishes for the months ahead,

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the Warm Heart students and staff.

Jaran studying electronics

Nipa at school

Yim teaching high school science

Joy graduated from university

Nit sees the world, and snow

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