Regent’s students explore global responsibility

Kids rock on at start of Songkran festival

Happy Songkran to all

Regent’s students explore global responsibility

Four students from The Regent’s School, Pattaya, recently embarked on an adventure to Luxembourg to participate in the inaugural Global Issues Network Conference. Once there they met with over 200 like-minded passionate young people who share their vision of a better world. From 23-25 March Marite Metsla, 15, Girish Balakrishnan, 15, Kyu Bak Lee, 17, and Punpilas Asawasudsakorn (Nics), 17, took part in the conference designed to give students from around the world a platform to share what they are currently doing in their communities to address some of the major problems facing our world today and discuss and debate what they could achieve as an active network of informed and caring students around the world.

Marite and Punpilas (Nics) with Ryan’s Well founder Ryan Hreljac
We arrived at the Chambre de Commerce du Luxembourg feeling both excited and nervous as we awaited the beginning of the Global Issues Network Conference in Luxembourg. The day began with our first Keynote Speaker of the conference, Jean-Francois Rischard. He is the author of the book High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them, from which the Global Issues Network bases its mission and principles. In this book, Rischard, a Luxembourg national and the World Bank Vice President for Europe from 1998 to 2005, expresses his personal views on the future and the most urgent global issues of the decades.
Rischard began with the slideshow presentation showing the unprecedented changes the world is going through at the moment and how they ultimately create 20 global problems. These global issues are real international issues that are of immense importance and need urgent attention that only global co-operation can solve. In order for the issues to be easily understood, he classified the 20 issues into 3 main categories. Firstly, Sharing Our Planet, which includes global warming and biodiversity and ecosystem losses. Secondly, Sharing Our Humanity, such problems are the fight against poverty or global infectious diseases. And lastly, Sharing Our Rulebook, for example, illegal drugs or international labour and migration rules. The latter was also the topic of our school’s debate at the conference. Rischard noted that the key to solving these problems is that experts from different fields will have to work together as a network and hierarchy must be minimized.

On a day trip with our new friend Bisrat Mesfin, from A-CET in Ethiopia

Not only is this where the idea of the Global Issues Network originated, but Rischard also presented short-term and long-term plans for the network in order to effectively solve these issues and to be able to assess its performance. Ultimately, he concluded, in order to successfully gain international cooperation, which is what the Global Issues Network is aiming for, we must all think of ourselves as a global citizen first, and then as a national citizen. A challenging shift in paradigm, but one worth making in order to ensure our future.
On the second morning we met Ryan Hreljac; a fourteen year old who made the impossible, possible. A fourteen year old who brought strength back into the lives of Africans. A fourteen year old who is an individual who has helped save millions of lives across the African Continent. In January 1998, aged only 6, Ryan was told about the need for clean water in Africa by his first grade teacher. She explained that children had to walk for hours to find clean water and that $70 (Canadian) would be enough to drill a well and save many lives. Having learnt this, Ryan went on a mission that other 6 year olds wouldn’t even dream of: to save millions of lives in Africa. His first step was to beg his parents for $70 and offered to do chores to earn the money. After only 4 months, he raised the $70 and contacted a charity that drills wells in Africa. However, to his dismay, he learned that to build a well in Africa actually costs $2,000. Determined to make a difference, Ryan said, “I’ll just have to do more chores.” Ryan’s effort paid off; his own foundation was born. To date, 201 wells have been built in ten countries changing 352,323 lives.
For the past 8 years Ryan has traveled the globe visiting villages where his wells have been built. He has been making public appearances and giving speeches, determined to spread his message and continue to make a difference.
During the conference in Luxembourg Ryan gave a speech concerning what he has done during the past 8 years and his future plans. He had many sessions during the conference to inform interested delegates more detailed version of his speech such as issues that he had to face and the problems he had to overcome and the experience he gained.
Ryan Hreljac, where would Africa be without him? We hope that many more young people will grow up to be like him.
During the course of the conference we also met different people from around the world. Everyone was different. One of the informative sessions we attended was about African children. It was very interesting.
The presentation was by an organisation called the African Children’s Educational Trust (A-CET) that mainly helps the children of Ethiopia. We met Mr. David Stables who is the founding chairman of trustees and chief executive officer. David has worked overseas for most of his life. He has also been a military Engineer trainer, a factory managing director, a VSO business advisor and lastly, a relief field delegate with the International Red Cross Society in Africa. Right now he is retired and operates the trust from his Leicester home. The other person we met, Mr. Bisrat Mesfin Geremichael, is a trustee. He was a refugee when he was a little boy, selling souvenirs to make money for food. He is also a survivor of many forced relocations, family losses and fragmentation. He has been working with David since 1992. Right now he runs his own Tourist Agency and is studying for his degree.
Nowadays, many students from Ethiopia have survived an inconceivable childhood and are studying in the universities. They also get good grades and have been quite successful. This is all thanks to A-CET which has sponsored them and given them new faith in mankind.
After seeing this presentation everyone was ready to take action and help those who are struggling in the various parts of the world. It was a very good experience to have an opportunity to listen to them and learn from them. Thank you A-CET!
On the final morning of the conference, Claire Bertschinger, a truly extraordinary woman inspired us all with a speech so moving and passionate that by the end, the whole audience was left speechless and our standing ovation was much less than what she deserved. As a young Red Cross nurse in Ethiopia, during the famine of 1984, Claire was given the unimaginable job of deciding each day which of the starving children would be let into the feeding station to live, and which of them were too sick to be saved and would eventually die.
Yet the madness of her task did not stop her from doing what she was passionate about: helping others less fortunate than herself. Eventually, her chance to tell her story to the world came when she featured on several BBC television reports. These moving reports then inspired pop singer Bob Geldof to take action and as a result, he organised his original Band Aid and the Live Aid concerts that raised unprecedented amounts of money. However, during all this time Claire just continued her daily ordeal not knowing that she was the reason the world was sitting up and taking notice and she did not find out about this until she returned to England the following year. She also told us about her reunion with the famine survivors in 2004, where she was warmly welcomed as “Mama Claire”. This was the moment of the speech that really touched our hearts.
And if all this is not enough to amaze anyone, she also worked in war zones in Ethiopia, Lebanon and Afghanistan and as a result was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal in 1991 for those who have distinguished themselves in times of peace and war. One of the main messages she effectively conveyed to us was that “war is not the solution to anything”. All her ordeals and experiences are described in her highly recommended autobiography entitled Moving Mountains. This opportunity to meet someone so inspirational is an experience that all of us will cherish for the rest of our lives.
In addition to learning from these and countless other wonderful people we each presented a 50 minute session about the action that The Regent’s School takes to help in our region of the world. We shared our experiences of the Baan Ompai Hill Tribe project; the HIV/AIDS awareness, fundraising and relief work we carry out all year round; our Tsunami Relief projects, both short and long term, on Koh Phi Phi; and what it means to be a Round Square school. Being on the other side of the presenting desk was an exciting challenge for us all and we certainly feel that our peers were able to learn as much from us as we did from them!
We returned to Pattaya eager to continue our involvement in the Global Issues Network which only serves to deepen the strong service ethos of The Regent’s School. We look forward to many more networking opportunities with the friends we have made during the three days of the conference and know that we will be doing our part towards solving the global issues that face us today as citizens of the world.

Kids rock on at start of Songkran festival

Ariyawat Nuamsawat
Hard Rock Hotel staged the Kids Wanna Rock project on April 14, bringing pupils from Pattaya School #7 to welcome Songkran with a variety of activities.
General Manager Andrew Khoo and his management team and staff welcomed the young visitors, and special guest was General Khanit Phoemsap, deputy chief aide-de-camp to His Majesty the King.

Dousing the Mask was enjoyed by all
Kids Wanna Rock is organized by the hotel regularly on special occasions and is designed to help the children express themselves. There were 50 boys and girls from Pattaya School #7, and they enjoyed activities that included a surfboard competition and other water-based games along with group dancing. It all added up to a fun Songkran atmosphere for the kids, and everyone tucked into the hotel lunch with gusto.
General Khanit gave a brief talk to the children, saying they represented the future of the country and so they had to learn to help others, and that this in turn would bring them love and friendship. “Study hard, listen to your teachers and your parents, and your lives in the future will be happy,” the general told his young audience.

The children enjoyed playing games during the Hard Rock Hotel Songkran event.

“Kids Wanna Rock!”

Happy Songkran to all

It’s all about caring

Helle Rantsén
RLC and PILC Welfare Chairperson
For the past 3 years I have been joining the local homecare nurse Mat on monthly food deliveries around the slum areas in Ban Chang, just 40 min from Pattaya. A food delivery consists of a plastic bag with oil, fish sauce, noodles, soap, sardine in cans and 5 kg of rice. Every month RLC spends 5000 baht on these very basic food items, working closely with Ban Chang’s public hospital.

It was a joy to see how this family enjoyed their Songkran treat.

When driving around Khun Mat’s area I have met many different people with very sad stories. Old grandmothers looking after grandchildren whose parents have died from AIDS. Very low income families who make their living from collecting garbage and living next to the garbage dumps. Many young people sick from HIV having children who sometimes are sick themselves.
As a special treat, and using the Thai New Year Songkran as an excuse, I asked the RLC members to make a special Songkran box (the biggest one from the post office) for individual children that I had met on our food delivery trips in the Ban Chang area. Some of the women had met the children on a earlier trip, sometimes they would pick a child the same age as their own children, and get their own children involved in filling the box with different goodies like cloths, toys, snacks, and shoes. These kids have nothing and probably have never received a present like this before. They could hardly wait to open up their box to check out all the things inside. Sometimes they would eat a piece of candy while checking their box.
The family in the picture has 6 children, from 11 to 1 year old. 5 boys and 1 girl. The oldest boy looks after the rest of the kids when mum and dad are working at the mango plant where they live.
All the kids checked their boxes and all the snacks and drinks were put aside to be enjoyed later. This was organised by the oldest boy. A total of 38 children were given a Songkran box and I am sure it was an eye-opening experience for all the RLC members and their kids who took part. A lot of questions from our own children about the “other” children’s living conditions were asked and needed an answer.
Perhaps a similar box delivery tour could take place in Pattaya for the children in the Pattaya slum areas? I am willing to organise the tour if the readers of Pattaya Mail would like to join in? For more information contact: www.123hjemmeside.dk/charitywork-thailand

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