EMPOWERING THE POOR WITH EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Hand to Hand is in partnership with the Thai government education department, creating a learning centre for older youth and adults who have had no access to education. The centre provides lessons in Thai reading and writing and numeracy from 9:00am - 12:00pm. After lunch the students have an opportunity to learn job training skills such as cooking, growing food, furniture making/restoration, sewing and bead making. The student’s range in ages 12 to 52 years old and many of them cannot even write their name.

The teachers are provided by the Thai education department free of charge. The Hand to Hand Foundation is responsible for providing the classrooms, teaching materials such as computers, monitors and stationary. Students must wear a uniform to comply with the Thai ministry of education and these are supplied to the students by Hand to Hand. At the end of their course the students with receive a certificate of completion which will enable them to be able to find employment. Currently many of the people are garbage collectors or exploited as construction workers as they have no education.

An important part of the program is the job training skills in the afternoon. Equipping the students with the skills such as cooking, growing food, furniture making/restoration, sewing and bead making enable them to earn a small living straight away and setting them up for success in the future. Additionally, these students will have instant success in achieving goals which will improve their self-esteem. This will encourage them to continue to study as they can see their lives transforming immediately.

Hand to Hand was donated some desk chairs which are great for the students to use. We need finances for uniforms, stationary, food and money to run the skills training project. The current class is upstairs in a building that is not yet complete. We need to divide the group into 2, so the other class will be on the dirt floor underneath. It will cost $4000 to simply cement this area and create a new classroom. 

Thank you so much for all your love and support. This is a big step in our program and we are excited for the future!

The Haand to Hand Foundation in Pattaya, Thailand, teamed us with onother organisation in Chiang Mai, Thailand to help young hill tribe teens learn a new skill and provide STEM toys for the preschool children. The teens were selected and taken to the Chiang Mai university to meet some 1st year engineering students. Hand to Hand sent photos of the toys they would like and the engineering students had to design so that they were stron, safe and were able to be used by preschools. The students were assessed on their ability to design the toys, teach the hill tribe teens how to make them and finally how functionable they were in the preschhol.

Each toy was based on helping the children to use their critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. They included a large abacus, life size 'kerplunk' toy, a set of moving gears, giant balance scales and a naughts and crosses game.

Both the teens and the engineering students learned a lot from each other and the toys are now being enjoyed by the preschoolers at the Hand to Hand Foundation.

The university is interested in doing further projects as the activity was so successful and gave the engineering students a 'real life' project. The teens learned some great new skills and their eyes were opened to  possiblitles after leaving school if they studies hard. The  children were happy just to have fun!

Links:

• Hand to Hand Foundation