the ambassador SPRING 200922 SPRING 2009 the ambassador 23

featuresABOT KAMAY

featuresABOT KAMAY

Susan Kieliszewski of the Prem

Center’s visiting schools program

and senior Anna Lorentz report on

how the Abot Kamay group has

changed lives in northern Thailand.

Building a Future

culture, and teambuilding-based trips abroad. Alex Brodard, owner of Contact Travel, had worked with the Visiting Schools Program regularly to connect with remote communities in need of service. Schools often come to Michael seeking community service opportunities for their class trips or clubs. Alex had come across Stacia’s blog and approached her about bringing students to provide service to the remote and under-funded school.

Thousands of miles away, in Tokyo, over 80 students at The American School in Japan were in an Abot Kamay meeting planning a haunted house for their Halloween celebration. Abot Kamay is a student group that annually fundraises money for community service abroad. They gather donations through school projects such as haunted houses, and selling gifts on Valentine’s Day, Spirit Day and Winterfest. Approximately 20 students from the group travel across borders each year for one week in February. High school counselor and club sponsor, Warren Lavender, knew that the group had the ability to make a difference in someone’s life but was wary of giving donations to an organization that wouldn’t get it to the people in need. They all wanted to see the fruits of their efforts flourish. At the time, none of these people knew how perfectly their pieces of the puzzle would fit together.

In Febraury 2008, the first Abot Kamay group visited Kew Sua to lay the foundation for a new kitchen. As the first group of volunteers they were welcomed by smiling eyes, both from the children and from Stacia. In the short time that Stacia had been working, her heart had begun to grow and she dreamt of giving the students a higher standard of education, higher than the government’s funding could provide. Abot Kamay donated roughly $3,000 USD towards a sanitary kitchen to prepare food and school supplies. All building supplies were purchased and transported to the village by Alex Brodard’s team at Contact Travel. For the ASIJ students it was a learning experience without walls; for the Kew Sua children it was a clean place to prepare meals; for Stacia it was the beginning of much more.

By the end of Stacia’s assignment student groups from The Prem Center’s Visiting Schools Program had completed a full eating area and new kitchen. With funds from volunteers, a new dormitory was built and a refrigerator was purchased for the Kew Sua School. The dormitory, which houses 20-30 students, enabled the school to reach students from six surrounding villages rather than the four. The ability to house students brought a significant increase in attendance from students usually kept at home to help in the fields. Stacia saw the overwhelming support for improving education and founded All God’s Beautiful Children (AGBC), which received nonprofit status from the state of Washington in June 2008. In August 2008, she returned to America to raise funds for an English learning center.

Stacia wanted to improve the education of children in rural areas all over northern Thailand. Many of these children come from hill tribes, and some struggle with Thai as their second language. Most schools in rural areas are not provided with appropriate funds for

In the quiet village of Kew Sua the locals live a simple life as one of Thailand’s many Karen hill tribes. Young couples farm rice, produce, and cattle along the surrounding hillsides. Elderly

mothers remain at home weaving and tending the livestock beneath their houses, which are raised on stilts to improve air circulation. In July 2007, students from this sleepy village school sat in the sweltering heat and met their new English language teacher, Miss Stacia Lee Davis, sent to them by FERC which is a Chiang Mai based nonprofit. Experienced in elementary education, Stacia had come to document her work with the children and complete a personal photography project featuring Thai people and culture. Her assignment within the village was for 14 months, but Stacia had no idea when she boarded the plane from Washington that her life was taking a sharp turn in the right direction.

Forty miles south of Kew Sua, or seven mountain tops away in a valley along the Ping River, lies the jewel of Thailand’s north, Chiang Mai. This bustling modern city is home to shopping centers, clubs, and international cuisine making it sometimes seem worlds away from the calm hillsides around it. It was here that Michael Cumes and Alex Brodard were coordinating community service opportunities for international schools. Michael, the head of the Visiting Schools Program at The Prem Tinsulanonda Center for International Education, hosts school groups looking for adventure,

the ambassador SPRING 200924 SPRING 2009 the ambassador 25

featuresABOT KAMAY

featuresABOT KAMAY

health services and are unable to offer sanitary conditions even in the classroom, let alone the kitchen. In the poorest regions of Thailand, the money just isn’t there. Farming in large plots in the countryside is this village’s main income. Often children are expected to work in the fields alongside their parents to provide for the family. On any given day the school in Kew Sua will see 60-70 students out of its 86 registered pupils. Education is not always seen as a main priority; putting food on the table always comes first. In this sense, parents sometime believe that more can be learned in the home than in the classroom, underestimating the value of the child’s education.

In February 2009, Abot Kamay returned to Kew Sua for a second year of community service. Prior to their visit the group had raised over $6,500 through various activities at school events. The group of 20 visiting students brought tables, food, cooking supplies, mosquito nets, books, stationary supplies, and also over 200 pairs of shoes for children who often arrive at school barefoot.

Working with AGBC, the Abot Kamay group hopes to sponsor students to continue their education past grade six. Annually, it costs approximately $250 USD to send one student to secondary school in Mae Wae. Abot Kamay will continue fundraising throughout the year to provide as many scholarships as possible for the children of Kew Sua and the surrounding villages.

More information on the Prem Center can be found on the web at <www.premcenter.org>.

Out of ClassAbot Kamay is just one of 106 co-curricular activities for students from kindergarten to grade 12. Other service clubs in high school, include Habitat for Humanity, the Philippine Relief Organization, Sok Sabay, Amnesty International, UNICEF and the Global Issues Network (see page 13). From taiko and ballet in elementary, to the middle school play, kyogen (see page 16) and the spring musical, there are plenty of opportunities for budding performers to take center stage throughout the year. Musicians also get to shine and show off their talents in our handbell, strings, choir, vocal jazz and band concerts. On the field, in the gym or in the pool, athletes of all ages can compete in more than 40 sporting activities that range from Tae Kwon Do and tennis to wrestling and volleyball. Student leadership is encouraged in all the co-curriculars, but is the focus of each division’s student leadership group, while other clubs such as Model United Nations and Peer Counselors provide further opportunities. With so many choices, deciding what to do can be a tough decision for our students!

Abot Kamay was initially devoted to raising funds to provide improved facilities for AIDS orphanages in hopes that a cleaner, enhanced lifestyle would brighten,

or possibly even extend, the lives of afflicted children. Two years ago, however, it became clear that although we had not “cured” these children, we had done all that we could to improve the facilities of the orphanages. They had received generous donations from large organizations and it seemed that our work there was done.

We expanded the club to support poverty-stricken children and now we visit a hill tribe village every year for several days, sleep in tents and help families by improving the facilities of the villages. The first year, we built a new, more sanitary kitchen, and this year our main project was a new English classroom in the village’s school. We decided that in addition to paying for new facilities in the village, we should use some of the money we raise to give scholarships to the village children who cannot afford schooling as we believe that “education can end poverty.”

Although we only stayed at the Kew Sua Village for four days this year, the difference in the amount of work we got done was really visible. We almost finished building an entire classroom, painted the kitchen that we worked on the previous year, and still had time to play with the kids. This was my second time at the village and a lot of them remembered all of us and asked why some people from last year (who had graduated) didn’t come back. It had been a whole year, so it was clear that we had left a huge impression on them and were an important part of their lives.

We saw kids playing soccer barefoot the previous year, so we made a point to come back and make sure everyone had a nice, sturdy pair of shoes to run around in this year. After we passed out the shoes from the shoe drive, the children were so content with what they had already but you could tell that they were very excited to receive the shoes. One of the boys who got the light-up Batman shoes was dancing around at night and was saying things like “No way, this can’t be happening! Red lights!” in Thai. I learned that we are so lucky to have what we have and to be able to live such a privileged lifestyle. I also learned that teamwork can really accomplish anything. With a team of 30 students all working hard mixing cement and putting posts in the ground, we managed to build a kitchen in four days, which will come to great use to the villagers.

A group like Abot Kamay is important to ASIJ because it makes the entire student body and community realize that there are so many people out there living under the poverty line and who need our help. The club provides a means of connecting us students to these needy people. By helping out with Abot Kamay, you know that you are making a difference in the lives of others.