Landing＃2 - Wat Thong Klang School
The Students We're Helping
Landing #1 - Nikorn Ratburana School​
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http://13101249.thaischool.in.th/
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On Tuesday, April 5, 2016, Iono donated 72 Flight Packs to this primary/elementary school in the Thai province of Nakhon Nayok, a rural area northeast of Bangkok. Surrounded by neatly lined farmland and khlongs (canals), Nikorn Ratburana teaches 101 students from kindergarten to 6th grade with 8 teachers and 1 administrator.
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Their community faces a serious drug problem. Many of the student's parents suffer from drug addiction and struggle to support their children's educational career. Additionally, most of the parents are laborers in the numerous farm fields, but work has been hard to come by as the region, like much of South East Asia, has been undergoing the worst drought in decades.
The young 3rd grade student in the middle picture is a boy named Mak. He lives just beyond another khlong and is several years behind in Thai reading level. However, he loves learning and even during school breaks he'll run over to the school yard to play or read. During our visit, he was in the middle of helping a staff member with chores. In return, the teacher gave him food and snacks to bring home, knowing that Mak's mother toils to make ends meet.
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While the school building itself is in good condition, the teachers have been trying fix a section of the school's fence. Local drug dealers sometimes use the back end of the school to cross into another area during police raids and escape. The teachers are disheartened knowing that many of their students are too poor to move away from the area, and the cycle of poverty will continue in their community.
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But, they continue to teach in the hopes that students like Mak will succeed.
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These rambunctious friends live and learn in the province of Ang Thong (Gold Basin), which is a 1.5 hour drive north of Bangkok. The area consists of rice farmland and quiet neighborhoods. The Wat Thong Klang School has around 70 students from the ages of 3 to 10. The chattiest of the bunch, Apple (5th from left), gushed over the prospects of new and more interesting toys to share with her classmates.
On Saturday, July 22, 2017, Iono donated sleeping pads, educational toys, and other supplies worth 11,129 baht (~$333) for the school’s numerous preschool aged children. The principal explained that while pens and paper are useful for the older students, the young children need stimulation in the form of constructive play, and we agree!
Nearly all the students (save a few toddlers) raised their hands when asked if they want to attend college. While the choice of higher education is still far in the future for them, we are thrilled that these students are setting empowering goals and working hard to achieve them. In the face of challenges like substance abuse and domestic violence for some students' families, we have great hope that the students' desires to learn and grow will prevail, and enable them to improve their community.
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