Provide Education and Hope for Children at Risk

We started a new school year with our focus on academics, a range of extracurricular activities, including English language learning, mindfulness practices, and pre-professional skill development, adapted to the various age group at the Children's Home.

Mid-May arrived with the smokey air receding, and the weather cool enough to get the new school year off to a good start. There were still cases of COVID being reported and everyone arrived in their classrooms with masks.  Within a month, half the school had caught a mild version and with recovery, the masks were off most of the time.

We have five new students - four in 7th grade and one in 2nd grade from hill tribe villages in the surrounding mountains.  They all arrived two weeks early to have time with our after-school teachers to be assessed and assigned lessons to fill in the gaps from their prior school.  They all continue to get the extra help they need to be on grade level with their peers.

We settled Pokpong into Technical College in Chiang Mai for a 2-year certificate in welding and construction.  Nuey S. started up at Chiang Rai Rajabhat University, in a program to train teachers who will come back to their rural communities when they graduate.  She has a scholarship for her tuition, and we are helping with the rest. 

We were pleased to have some volunteers this spring from the UK and Canada.  They engaged the children to practice their English, playing games, singing songs, and baking cookies.  Finn, our Upskills/English teacher ran an English camp with Tovah, who is on a gap year after high school in Canada.

We also had a visit from Prem, one of the international schools in Chiang Mai, to plan joint activities over the course of the school year.  One project is to foster young clothing designers, using recycled, upcycled materials and presenting them at a Fashion Show fundraiser for Warm Heart in the winter. We will keep you posted.  

We are continuously evaluating our programs and learning from our peers in our network of private children's homes in Chiang Mai.  Mali, the Manager of the Children's Home worked remotely as she started back from maternity leave.  Soda, our lead for the Elderly Access to Care program filled in for her.  Now that Mali is back, they are still working together to track each child and identify programs and solutions to ensure a successful school year ahead.

Your gifts make this all possible!  Our children see the students who have graduated and are in university or out working and know they can strive for their own dreams.  

Best wishes for a wonderful summer!

Dana, Michael, Evelind and the Warm Heart staff and children

Links:

• Celebrating our 15th Anniversary!

The children are happy to be back with their friends in school and have enjoyed having volunteers and visiting students from international schools.  Our volunteers arrived from Canada, England, Nagaland (India) Columbia, and the US.  Anne B., our former volunteer and wonderful photographer, was back after 10 years, took new photos, and interviewed students that have grown into young adults.

Our students have done well in school and we had six boys on the school soccer/football team.  We've had students win academic awards at the provincial level and the boys did respectably in competitions in Chiang Mai.  It's hard to get them to come off the fields in the evenings.

Next week is high school and grades K-9 graduations. We have three high school grads, all continuing at vocational programs or universities.  Two graduate from kindergarten to first grade."C" graduates 6th grade and starts middle school.  We have 5 graduating 9th grade and all are planning to continue high school.  We have 8 new students interviewed and ready to arrive in April to get acquainted before everyone returns. 

The volunteers have been cooking with the children and getting them to practice their English.  Groups of students visited from the US, Myanmar, and Chiang Mai international schools.  Our students enjoyed meeting their peers, sharing sports, and practicing their English.  

And the mobile library run by the Bookworm Foundation is back!

Thank you for your enduring support.  We hope you enjoy seeing the children thrive and grow up.  You make this possible.

Best wishes for the months ahead,

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the children and staff of Warm Heart

The first school term is finished and the grades are coming in. They're looking good! We have our high school senior and 9th graders planning for next year.  Nuey plans to attend a healthcare aide training program when she graduates from high school, which will give her access to jobs in private doctors' offices, working with children or elders.

We have finally had the pandemic restrictions lifted enough to take the children out for activities.   

A friend runs the Glom Immersive Theater Company in Chiang Mai.  They set up an interactive "immersive theater"  event to engage the children in creative thinking.  The venue was a large warehouse space with lots of wall space for street art and huge paintings.  The children loved the event and then spent as much time in the art gallery, playing with the sculptures and taking photos with the characters in the paintings.

We had an emergency repair of the older girls' dormitory - the mud house - because the bugs were starting to eat through the walls.  I guess the straw and plaster were edible.  The girls moved into the library for a month while the walls were scraped and replastered.  The building got some long-delayed repairs - a ceiling in the common room and an upgrade of the electrical system, to meet the building codes.

Thank you for giving us the resources to care for these children and watch them thrive!

Dana, Evelind, Michael, and the staff and children of Warm Heart 

P.S. # Giving Tuesday is coming up on November 29, from (00:00:00 EST to 23:59:59 EST). GlobalGiving will give away $1.2 million to nonprofits around the world as part of their #MoveAMillion campaign for GivingTuesday.  Each donation, big or small will help us unlock a greater share of those bonus funds! Join us to finish the year and start the new year on a firm footing!

The children gathered for the new school year in early May.  We were gifted with two talented volunteers who launched a great English camp to engage the new and returning students.  Along with our staff, they set up a three-day camp to get them back to learning and critical thinking. They practiced English while starting science projects, playing telephone, thinking through their values, and writing letters to their future selves.  The seven new children were shy at first but soon joined in the raucous activities.  One of the older students helped out when they got stuck on English.

Although we were not sure until the Friday before the start of school, classes opened in person.  For the first month, every Sunday night was COVID test night and our nursing students helped get through all the children in short order.  A few students caught COVID and our kids were quarantined until we were sure they were ok. Over the first month of school about 5 children had COVID but were able to shake it off with isolation and care since they had all been vaccinated.

Everyone has settled into the routines of school, homework, chores, working the gardens, and getting out to play soccer and volleyball. We have had an early rainy season and the gardens are flourishing.  The students have been helping to raise the vegetable beds and try some new plans for the gardens, with the help of a friend who has introduced some new ideas that the children and staff have agreed to try out.

The children are growing and thriving, thanks to your love and support.

Many thanks from Dana, Michael, Evelind, and the Warm Heart children!

It is mid-March, hot and hazy and the children are looking forward to the term break.  The school year ended this week and will resume in the middle of May. Many of the children will go to their mountain villages to stay with families or relatives.  The high school students must wait a couple of weeks for placement tests and will help clean and prep the dormitories and kitchen/dining areas.  Our core of about 10 children will stay with us and practice English and help around the farm and cool off at the sticky waterfall nearby.

We had 10 children graduate from k-12.  All did well in school and look forward to another year of studies. "Pon" will start 1st grade in May.  "B" and "Suda" finished 6th grade and start middle school.  7 students finished 9th grade and all will continue to high school.  The girls will all go to Phrao High School; they will know which track by the end of the month.  The two boys will start vocational high school in Chiang Mai, studying mechanics.  We are especially proud of these boys, both have good grades and no incomplete (This is the first year we have not had to coax and cajole to get the incompletes finished and graduation assured.)

We expect at least seven new students in the upcoming term.  So far, we have four of the new students living with us now, finishing their school year online. Two boys start 2nd and 4th grades.  "Son" came to us through friends in Chiang Mai when his family unit fell apart.  Two girls, ages 4 and 7 will start Kindergarten and 2nd grade.   Their mother, "Goi", came from her mountain village to run the kitchen gardens for Warm Heart after her husband passed away suddenly. We have three starting 7th grade from hill tribe villages that have small schools up to 6th grade. 

And last, but not least, 'Jiu" graduated from 12th grade and has been accepted at Payap Nursing School in Chiang Mai, joining another one of our girls, who is finishing her first year.

Please note that all names included are "nicknames" created to protect the privacy of our children.

Thank you for your enduring support! Giving these children and their communities a bright future!