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.
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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.
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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.
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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.”
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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.”
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