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GIS IB 2 and Year 9 students visit Shanty Town in Ban Chang

Trisha in year 9 gives rice to smiling grandma.

Brinda Balasubramanian

Creativity, Action, Service is at the core of our IB studies at Garden International School. As a way of engaging with our local community, the IB2 students decided to plan a day that would involve helping some underprivileged people in Ban Chang and be an educational experience for some younger students at school.

Before visiting the shanty town with the students we made sure that we sent a representative to speak to the people in the shanty town to ensure that they did not mind us coming. We also wanted to know exactly what we could do to help them rather than simply imposing ourselves. At first the people were a little cautious, but when they realised that we just wanted to help became more relaxed and animated about projects they thought we could become involved with.

People are grateful to receive donations of rice, milk,
 clothes and other daily necessities from the students.

Our day started with us, the IB2 students who are the eldest students at the school visiting the local shanty town along with Year 9 students. We had spent the previous two weeks asking for and collecting donations of clothes, rice, milk, and daily necessities that we could bring with us. With the help of the people there we then showed the Year 9 students around the place to make them aware of the surroundings, where the bathrooms had no proper doors and stagnant water lay collecting mosquitoes.

Although it was a shanty town, the local people had used materials like old tyres to grow bright red flowers, which were admired by all. The people living there obviously took a great pride in their homes. We arranged to hand out the donations fairly to all the people in the town - making sure that we gave equal rice and milk to each family. We left the shanty town smiling for having a chance to help out and in turn bring smiles to the people who lived there.

IB 2 and Year 9 students are happy to help out the underprivileged people in the community.

After we reached school the Year 9s were split into two groups and were asked to build their own shanty town house using materials which were provided from the Maintenance Department at GIS. This activity provided all the students with an opportunity to work together and communicate as a group in order to accomplish the given task as well as understand how difficult it must have been for the people they had just met to build their own houses.

Both groups did fantastically well using clever methods to ensure that the roofing was at an angle to allow water to roll off, and that supports for the walls were reinforced.

After a short break the students were bought to the classroom to recall the limitations and success stories for building the shanty town house, as well as to reflect on their earlier visit to the shanty town. Then they were given a Decision Making Exercise in which they assumed the role of government advisor’s. We gave the students some monopoly money to spend and asked them to decide how they should spend it to improve their own shanty town. They had to decide what their priorities were for development in the first year and then again in the second year.

It was a pleasure working with them, and we learnt a great deal about ourselves and about our community on that day. We, and the Year 9 students have come away from this day more aware of our local community and the world around us. A world that we see every day, but that we will now see with our eyes more open.

(From left): Jun (Jang Hyeon Jun), TK (Yeon Tak Kwan), Haiko (Pansri Sakda), Ellen Neel (top), Brinda Balasubramanian and Anushree Guha enjoy staying under their own newly-built shanty house.


Year 7 students visit the St Andrews stables

Alex Kittle and So-Young Kim - Year 7 students at St Andrews

Recently the Year 7 English class went to the St. Andrews School stables and learnt about horses to understand more about them as we are studying a book called ‘War Horse’. Ms Meryl introduced herself and gave us information about horses. We had a sheet of paper to write notes on. We also asked some questions about horses when we were there, such as, how long a horse can live, what protection they need and the different breeds of horses and their uses.

We found out that:

Students take notes for their English project.

* Horses are expected to live for 25 years but some horses live longer.

* Horses wear horseshoes on their hooves to protect their hooves from rocks and hard ground.

* Blacksmiths put the horseshoes on the horse’s hooves with nails, which come up through the hoof and are clenched, then cut off so that they don’t hurt the horse.

* In Thailand there are many flies and dust, so the horses wear a fly mask to protect their eyes. There is another mask called a blinker; this helps horses not to panic when looking at cars and unusual things around them. Some people say that horses are colour blind and some people say they’re not.

It’s interesting to watch the blacksmith in action.

* There are lots of breeds of horses such as the Shire and the Friesian. The Shire horse is the strongest and biggest horse and is used for ploughing because of its strength. The Friesian was bred to be a war horse because of its speed, strength and stamina. In peace times, this horse makes a good hunter.

* Horses like to live in groups because they think it’s safer to be in a group.

We really enjoyed visiting the stable. It was nice to meet Ms Meryl and we found her talk very interesting. We think the visit has given us a great understanding of horses and the book we are reading. It was surprising to see the different breeds of horses and the sizes of the horses. It was good that we had a horse stable in our school and had Ms Meryl to give us lots of information. We hope we will go again soon.

Learning facts about horses from Meryl.


Regent’s make second flood relief mission to Suphanburi Province

Minsue Kim hands out aid in Suphanburi Province.

Paul Crouch - Director of the Round Square Programme

As part of our schools commitment to work with the community and to respond to natural disasters through leadership and service, a second group of students, staff and parents made the long journey to Suphanburi to deliver more than 700 large packages of food aid on Friday 19th November.

After the successful first mission made at the beginning of November to Ayutthaya the Regent’s Student Guild soon realized the need to make a second effort to support the communities affected by the floods. Suphanburi was the chosen area due to connections with our amazing Thai support staff and the challenge was set to collect and produce 1,000 packs of food aid in the week before Loy Krathong for the identified families, schools and temples located there.

The Regent’s community responded with their usual enthusiasm and tremendous support bringing large quantities of rice, Mama noodles, tinned fish, UHT milk, drinking water, cooking oil and bread to the collection area under the clock tower.

By the Thursday evening six pick-up trucks were loaded to capacity with just over 700 packs of food aid. The IB Geography students and three IGCSE students helped to promote this project as part of their Geography studies and attended the relief mission to understand more about the cause of the floods, how they have affected the communities and what the short and long term solutions are to this problem.

The following are three short reports written by students that took part in this project.

Lisa Rudram (Year 11 student)

Last week, I had an amazing opportunity to observe and help provide food aid to those who are affected by the floods. With several other peers we had travelled to a province near Bangkok called Suphanburi where countless families are badly affected by the rising floods.

During this trip, everyone had taken part by handing out bags of food which consisted of rice, oil, noodles, and milk; basically preserved foods. We had travelled to three different areas where numerous families and farmers had gathered to receive food aid.

But for some, transportation had been incredibly difficult due to the floods and so we had to travel by a boat to meet and give them essential food products to keep their family alive and healthy.

However, even though we were working through harsh conditions and in the sun, it was all worth it and very rewarding at the end of the day. This had impacted me personally for it gave me the motivation to help the unfortunate in times of disaster, as well as a whole new perspective on the people; they were still happy and very hopeful even in bad situations, like now.

Kayzang Chimmi (Year 11 student)

On the 19th of November 2010, we went to Suphanburi, the north west of Thailand, where the floods had had a huge impact. The floods had affected the farmers and their families that lived there. We visited some of the houses there and stagnant water could still be seen in many farmlands and households.

The Regents School community had provided lots of food for us to take to the flood relief area. It had all been divided equally. We went to 3 different places in Suphanburi where the farmers and their families lined up for one bag of food that we distributed fairly. The families were very grateful for the food that we provided.

This was a great experience for me because I learned about how floods can damage people’s lives and their property, and to have almost nothing to feed their families. It was good because helping them made me realize how much we could do for them and I learnt a lot at the same time. Overall it was a very good experience.

Cindy Monley (Year 11 student)

On Friday the 19th of November, around 25 people (students, gap staff, staff and parents) visited the flood relief area in Suphanburi. There were hundreds of bags filled with rice, canned fish, water bottles and noodles. We left the school at 5 a.m. and arrived there at 9 a.m.

Our first task was to hand out bags of food for those most in need. Many flood victims lined up to collect their aid provided for them and their families; this was organized by the head of each village.

Later on throughout the day we went to a different location where several people assembled, waiting to pick up their food. They each lined up, about ten at a time, horizontally facing each one of us, as we handed them their aid. Gratefully, they thanked us and walked back to their homes.

Once we made sure everyone in that particular area had been given food, we all went on a small boat and explored the flooded area as we also took food aid packages to isolated families and communities.

We noticed several houses surrounded by filthy water. This made me realize how hard it really was for these people to maintain their daily routines when they are unable to drive from their homes or grow any crops.

My main purpose of going on this trip was to be able to come back with a lot more experience and knowledge than I had beforehand, and I know for sure that I have learnt a lot more and I am much more aware of just how disastrous these situations can be.


Regents St George boarding house hosts Mercy Center children

The Mercy Centre Children after their swim.

James Harris

On Sunday September 26th the boys from St George’s Boarding House at Regent’s School, led by James Sarginson, hosted a group of children from the Mercy Center. As part of the Regents boarding team’s ongoing commitment to our community partners, James, Link, Jake, David, Edvinas and Chokchai invited the children, whose ages ranged from 2-12, to spend the afternoon on campus and under their guidance learn to swim or to improve their swimming.

James said, “All the children enjoyed themselves and learnt very well. We had a lot of fun with them and hope they will visit us again soon. We split the children into groups of 5. This way it was much easier to run the activities we had set out for them. The children were put in groups based on their ability - those who were unable to swim were encouraged to build their confidence in the water through differing activities whilst the stronger swimmers were taught swim stroke technique.”


Regents musicians bring Christmas spirit to BHP

Lisa Durant, Valerie DeSaegher and Francis Calalang sing some Christmas classics with the Regent’s School soul band.

Andrew Chambers

Students from Regents School brought a bit of festive cheer to Pattaya with their Christmas performance at the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya last Saturday. They were taking part in the hospital’s annual Christmas bazaar which had a number of stalls from various local community projects. Pattaya Orphanage, the Father Ray Foundation and Rayong Bakery were amongst those involved in the day - the stalls were staffed by volunteers who were helping to raise money and raise the profile of their good causes.

Valerie DeSaeghe, one of the vocalists with the band explained how the group has only been together about six months, “We practice once a week. It’s worth it because we get to improve our musical skills and play music we really enjoy.”

The soul band performed a number of Christmas classics, including Santa Claus is Coming to Town, We Wish you a Merry Christmas and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday. Mr Rolfe, Head of Secondary at Regents School was full of praise, “The band certainly livened up the day and added to the festive atmosphere in the hospital. I felt like Christmas had arrived early. The students, as usual, were a superb advertisement for the school.”

The Music department at Regents School is presently involved in raising money for the Father Ray’s Children Village to develop a sport field and communal play area. Lisa Durant, another vocalist with the soul band said, “We would love to support the music department with this cause and are planning to play some concerts around Pattaya for a small donation towards this service project. So if anyone’s interested in booking us please contact the school.”


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

GIS IB 2 and Year 9 students visit Shanty Town in Ban Chang

Year 7 students visit the St Andrews stables

Regent’s make second flood relief mission to Suphanburi Province

Regents St George boarding house hosts Mercy Center children

Regents musicians bring Christmas spirit to BHP

 

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