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Students and teachers go hungry at Regent’s 24-hour Famine Camp
Michal - Misho Curpek
(Year 13 - IB Student)
The 24-hour Famine camp of the Regent’s School Pattaya made the annually
held World Around Us Week even more special for 2008. Our school, as the
first school in Thailand, showed a great deal of entrepreneurship when
organising its own version of the 24 hour long hunger challenge within the
campus.
 Misho
and Hyun Jin lead the closing ceremony in the Globe.
The carefully prepared interactive programme, which even referred to some of
the Round Square Pillars (IDEALS) had helped to keep the participating
students throughout the whole event well-focused and eager to gain the
knowledge regarding the issues of famine and the other global factors
causing this phenomenon.
In the whole event with participation of around 80 students, we found
representatives of all the year groups from year 6 up to 13. In addition,
even some of the teachers found the courage to challenge themselves and go
without food for 24 hours.
The whole event was commenced by the “Balloon Ceremony” where a group of all
the participants released their helium-filled balloons above their heads, at
the same time as the counter started to count down to the start of the 24
hours of the hunger challenge.
 Students
attend a workshop to understand the reality of earning a living from making
paper bags all day.
For the duration of whole Famine Camp, all the participants were grouped in
eight different country groups, when at the same time each participant was
representing either the group of rich or the poor world. This was done in
order to give the students a feeling of belonging and opportunity to learn
something more about their allocated country, likewise being able to easily
spot the difference and contrasts between the rich and poor countries of the
world.
The well balanced programme consisting of interactive class-workshops about
poverty and survival laid a very solid basis for the next day’s
presentations and discussions. In addition, all the participants took part
in the resource teamwork activity, thrilling night walk and the entertaining
and relaxing Third World dodge-ball. Moreover, every participant had the
opportunity to watch the capturing presentation about the issue of racism.
 This
group successfully completes their team building challenge.
Overall, the variety of activities scheduled during the event reaped its
benefits, when even in spite of the very busy schedule it was very rewarding
to see the participants enjoying themselves and in addition somehow
forgetting about the hunger and need of food. All in all, it was very
important that all the workshops and documentaries attended by the students
greatly stimulated their thinking about the outlined problems of famine and
the world around us. Thus, during the discussion sessions when the
participants of the rich and poor world met, the knowledge about the issues
of each country absorbed by the students was apparent.
As a result, the final presentations contrasting the differences between the
rich and poor worlds were presented in the final assembly in the Globe,
where the selected representatives of each country had their say about their
country’s specific problems and the possible solutions to overcome them.
 The
students understood the difficulties of collecting drinking water and the
value of it.
Before the final countdown, all the participants managed to gather in the
Primary playground near the Globe Theatre and through hand-printing each of
them gave their personal pledge towards solving the problem of famine in the
world.
Finally, at 2 p.m. Saturday November 29, 2008 the 24hr Famine Camp organised
by The Regent’s School in association with the World Vision Thailand came to
its end. 85 participants including students and some teachers survived the
24-hour challenge without food and were leaving the campus with a great
feeling of achievement and had gained knowledge of another global problem,
which, without a doubt, famine is.
Most importantly, the participants collected sponsor money totalling more
than 10,000 baht, which was donated to World Vision Thailand to support the
lives of less fortunate children in Thailand.
Overall, a big thank you belongs to all the participants including the
people involved in organising and running the event, but especially to The
Regent’s School and its Round Square spirit which encourages students to
take the initiative and develop their personal skills at all times.
* Don’t forget Regent’s International Day 2009 - Saturday 14th February, 10
a.m. to 4 p.m. - All welcome!
Mr. Thomas did his traditional
‘wake-up’ and we all saluted the sun.
Participants release red
balloons to begin the 24 hour famine.
Camp promotes family strength
Families have fun at the
Happy Family Camp in Sattahip.
Patcharapol Panrak
Strengthening the family unit was the main subject of the second
Happy Family Camp convened by the Women and Family Association at Nong
Nooch Tropical Gardens on January 22.
Supparak Hongpakdee, director of the Women and Family Association,
presided over the opening of the Happy Family Camp, organized together
with the Social Development Association of Nonthaburi, in the Nanta
building at the botanical garden and resort.
Two speakers, 9 officials, some 86 families of teachers from Nontaburi
and 270 guests attended the camp opening.
Parinya Nijthavorn, director of the Women and Family Association’s
Support and Development Network, gave a warm welcome and outlined the
objectives of the seminar.
He said that times had changed to bring about economic crises, rapid
social changes, technological advances and the rise of materialism.
Many parents are too busy trying to make money to support their families
and may not have enough time for their children to keep the youngsters
from going astray.
Problems that continue to occur are premature sexual relations, drug
abuse, violence and lack of discipline and social manners.
Supparak said the seminar aims to encourage the public to see and
maintain the importance of strong and happy family life. And to teach
youths today to become good parents in the future.
Jesters Journal 2009: First Edition
 Lewis
Underwood
Happy New Year! The planning for the Jesters Care for Kids Charity Drive
2009 is well underway. This will be our 12th year of raising money for
children in need of shelter, education and/or special learning
requirements. This past year, thanks to your support, we were able to
raise over 8.2 million baht for children’s charities on the Eastern
Seaboard and for the tsunami orphans in southern Thailand.
Final tally in for Jesters Care for Kids 2008
Towards the end of our Party Night at Jameson’s in September
last year, we declared a rough estimate of 7.63 million baht raised.
Now, we are delighted to announce that the actual total raised in both
cash and kind is 8.29 million baht! This latest figure, collaborated
with the accountants from the Fountain of Life Center and MBMG Group,
was also the result of a late surge in new donations after our events.
Once again, we, and all the kids you are helping to have better lives,
thank you immensely for your generosity.
New brochure telling where your money went due soon
As done in the past, we are currently working on our annual
brochure which fine points where your donations have gone in 2008. The
main purpose of this publication is for transparency and use as a PR
tool for this year’s efforts.
At this point, 94% of your cash donations have already been distributed
to our beneficiaries. As usual, nearly half of the proceeds have gone to
our target charity, the Fountain of Life Center, which provides care,
documentation, education, medical and nutrition for slum kids.
Additional recipients largely benefited last year were Banklong Bangpai
School (constructed new classrooms), Camillian Social Center (sponsored
HIV-infected children), Ban Jing Jai (covered monthly food costs for 54
orphans), Nong Prue School (built and furnished new canteen), Pattaya
Redemptorist School for the Blind (provision of new water system and
protein supplement) and PILC Chonburi Handicapped Project (constructed
housing requirements for disabled children).
Jesters Care for Kids 2009 campaign is already
rolling!
Our first committee meeting for the New Year was held last
week to devise a game plan to keep the momentum going forward to help
the kids. The first letter seeking donations for this year is currently
being distributed and is also available on our website.
We are very pleased that sponsors are already coming on board:
Platinum sponsors (100,000 baht donors) committed so far include Club
Nevada, Jameson’s, MBMG Group, Nirvana Resorts, Pattaya Bay Resort,
Pattaya Mail, Sinto and one to be made by Peter and Keith in memory of
Steve Donovan.
Just recently Captain John on the occasion of his 60th birthday, and
Reine, both friends of the Pizzeria La Gondola in Jomtien raised 64,000
baht. Already we have earmarked their donation for covering the next two
months of the food costs at the orphanage of Ban Jing Jai.
If you too would like to help us continue to help needy kids, please
visit our website, www.care4kids.info. We cannot do it without you!
Please mark these dates for our main events in 2009:
Jesters Children’s Fair on Sunday, September 13th at Diana Garden Resort
and Driving Range in North Pattaya.
Jesters Party Night on Friday, September 20th at Jameson’s Irish Pub in
Central Pattaya.
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