St Andrews Year 1 students treated to turtle trip and fundraising event
All the
turtle cookies were sold in 20 minutes!
Busy making cookies for the fund-raising event.
Catching the boat to Koh Mannai to see the turtles.
Cailin Terhaar, Year 1
teacher at St Andrews International School
The Year 1 students at St. Andrews International School
were able to be a part of a wonderful turtle sanctuary trip and fundraising
event. In April, the students went to visit the Queen’s Sea Turtle
Conservation Project (also know as the Eastern Marine and Coastal Resources
Research Centre) on Koh Mannai. The island has been running since 1979, and
has been fundamental in sustaining Thailand’s sea turtle population and
halting its rapid decline. We visited the island through a tour company
called, “Undiscovered Thailand.”
The children saw firsthand how the conservatory provides
a safe place for reproduction and rehabilitation. A highlight for the
students was to see the baby turtles. There were many baby turtles on the
island in different stages of growth. They learned about how they are cared
for and why they are kept on the island after being born. The students also
learned about their release into the wild after they are one year old.
After the trip, the students were inspired to learn more
about the sea turtles and other ocean animals. We spent several weeks in
school learning about sea animals, the ocean habitat and how to care for the
ocean. It was during this last part that we began discussing the things that
can harm the sea turtles such as trash in the ocean, oil spills and being
hunted for their shells. We decided as a class that we wanted to help the
turtles.
Students visit the Queen’s sea turtle conservation
project.
The students were excited to put on a bake sale to help the turtles. All
of the children pitched in to bake turtle-shaped cookies, make posters
advertising our cause and work the booth during our sale. I am happy to say
it was a big success! There was a large line of students waiting to buy the
cookies, and we sold out in the first 20 minutes! We were able to make about
2,000 baht, which our guide from ‘Undiscovered Thailand’ will be donating on
our behalf. I am very proud of the children for their dedication to the
fundraiser and their desire to give back to the community.
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GIS makes school history
at Primary FOBISSEA Games
Garden International School students participate
in the annual FOBISSEA Games.
Robert Edwards, Head of
Physical Education/Sport
Students from Garden International School, Rayong
returned from the Primary FOBISSEA Games hosted this year by the Regents
School, Bangkok with a new medal tally. The FOBISSEA Games is an annual
event for international schools from all over South East Asia.
The competition consisted of three days of sporting
events. The first day started with swimming, the second day was track and
field, and the third day T-ball and football competition.
On the first day of competition the venue for swimming
was the new Chulalongkorn University Aquatic centre. The swimmers gave 100%
effort throughout the day and finished with a total of 35 medals. Gold 22,
Silver 9 and Bronze 4.
On the second day momentum continued at the athletic
stadium with all athletes again rising to the occasion under the stadium
floodlights as the competition went into the evening, with a further 27
medals. Gold 12, Silver 8 and Bronze 7.
With T-ball and football on the last day the students
were tired from the first two days; however, all raised their game again and
delivered the final push to win the Year 6 T-ball competition with a 16-15
score in the final over the Uplands School from Penang, Malaysia. In the
football competition the Year 6 girls played the Kota Kinabula School from
Malaysia in a thrilling final with a 2-1 win securing the gold medal. The
Year 5 girl’s football competition finished with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss
which gave them the runners up position and the silver medal.
With a total of 65 medals Garden International School
with only 14 students was a fantastic result. Well done to all of you.
I would like to thank Ms. Patsy Smith for her assistance over the 5 days
and for her coaching of the swim team. Also I would like to thank the
Physical Education staff at Garden for their help preparing the students for
the games.
Fourteen students bring honour to Garden International
School. Standing from left to right: Seren, Katrina, GG, Almond, Jakki, Anna
and Tan. Sitting, from left to right: Dream, Sabrina, Oliver, Sang, Hyun,
Jezabel and Lily.
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Pratamnak Lions donate 30 scholarships to poor Pattaya students
Rungthip Suksrikarn, president of the Lions
Club of Pattaya-Pratamnak, distributes scholarships to deserving
children.
Phasakorn Channgam
The Lions Club of Pattaya-Pratamnak gave 30 poor area
children a chance at a better education with donation of scholarships in
cooperation with Siang Singto magazine.
Rattanachai Sutidechanai, chairman of the Pattaya
City Council’s Tourism and Sports Committee, and Lions chapter
president, Rungthip Suksrikarn led the May 30 ceremony at the Sunbeam
Hotel in central Pattaya.
Rungthip noted that the Pratamnak Lions Club has been
donating scholarships for a decade to impoverished kids with good
academic records. This year it received funding for 18 scholarships from
the magazine.
He said scholarships went to students from three Pattaya schools No.
1, No. 2 and No. 4, with 10 students taken from each. Each scholarship
was worth 2,000 baht.
Mercy children given free holiday to Koh Chang
Twenty “at risk”, abandoned and orphaned children cared for by Mercy
Center, Pattaya, enjoyed an all expenses paid holiday on the island of
Koh Chang, thanks to the generous hearts of Pattaya residents Eddie &
Kaow Somers and co-owners of the beachside“15 Palms” and “Paddy’s Palms”
hotel, resort and hostelry.
Mercy children on
White Sand Beach, Koh Chang.
Fun and feasting; swimming and playing; the Mercy
children’s laughter and glee was infectious. From the youngest (2 years)
to the most grown up (11 years) they were thrilled to be at the
beautiful, Palms Beach Resort.
Everything was efficiently and lovingly organized,
starting with a warm welcome from Eddie and Kaow who escorted the Mercy
children and carers all the way from Pattaya to White Sand Beach, Koh
Chang. Tony, co-owner, and the international management and staff of
both 15 Palms and Paddy’s Palms, took it upon themselves to ensure that
everyone made the most of their holiday.
One of the big treats of the trip was having an
opportunity to feed a baby elephant in the jungle; another, the
exclusive use of the Palms’ hotel spacious swimming pool … exclusive
that is except for the Somers’ own children. The twins, Paddy and Daisy,
aged ‘three and three-quarters’, were delighted to have so many new
friends to play with. Palms Hotel guests , too, joined the Pattaya folks
for a farewell lunch and pool party on the last day.
Mercy Center currently provides a home and loving
care for twenty high risk children with a new facility for a further
thirty almost completed. The Mercy/Pattaya Street Kids scholarship
initiative provides funding to enable over 220 students to attend school
and the slum support project provides basic foodstuffs and essentials
for seventy families in Pattaya’s poorest areas.
Please contact: Dianne on 038 422 678 to find out how
you can help support Mercy Center projects . Email:
[email protected] & visit: www.mercypattaya .com You’ll be glad you
did!
For more information about 15 Palms and Paddy’s Palms
in Koh Chang, please email: [email protected] and/or visit
paddyspalmspub.com
Beach Bar and Restaurant “15 Palms” was established 12 years ago and
is the only falang owned establishment on White Sand Beach, Koh Chang.
Paddy’s Palms pub and resort, opened seven years later and is the first
Irish pub on the island. Eddie & Tony are planning to build a “15 Palms”
hotel next year, and pledge their help to bring hope to more needy Mercy
children.
Eddie’s reward for this
third year of hospitality for Mercy Center is a memento created by the
children and presented by one of its directors, Dianne Doell.
Mercy Center boys
“line up” in the Palms Resort swimming pool.
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Grace proves to have the write stuff
Beatrice, Grace,
Anita and Champagne
The winner of the Regent’s School journalism
competition was announced on Friday 10th June 2011. Grace’s well written
article on women’s empowerment was judged to be the best entry out of
the dozens of entries that were received by Dan Dorothy, executive
editor of Pattaya Mail Media Group. The Regent’s School students
teamed up with Pattaya Mail to run the competition and received
useful advice from the experts. Dan commented that, “All the shortlisted
articles were insightful, had impact, covered all 5 Ws (who, what, when,
where, why) and H (how) and were a delight to read.”
Grace Arber (right) receives her winning
certificate from project coordinator and maths teacher, Mr. Andrew
Chambers.
The shortlisted finalists were Beatrice (year 9),
Grace (year 9), Anita (year 9) and Champagne (year 9), who all wrote
about the role of women’s empowerment in reducing poverty, along with
Fiona (year 8), who wrote about the Japanese earthquake, and Rubi (year
7), who wrote a piece on human rights in Burma (Myanmar).
Mr. David McCabe, English teacher for top set year 9
said, “All of the students on the shortlist have produced excellent work
this year. I was disappointed there were no boys on the shortlist
[however] our choice of topic was perhaps more engaging for the girls
than the boys.”
The Head of English, Mr. Adam Pickles, was also
delighted with the results. He commented, “It’s really encouraging for
me to see that our students have taken onboard ideas from lessons on
journalism and used them so effectively in their competition entries.
All of the entries were of a very high quality and the entrants should
be proud of themselves. I feel that Grace and the other finalists have
really set a benchmark for future submissions in this competition”
The project coordinator, and maths teacher, Mr.
Andrew Chambers handed over the certificate to Grace in a short prize
ceremony. On receiving the news of her winning entry, Grace remarked
that she was “surprised” and commented, “I liked the topic because it’s
an important issue and I found it engaging.”
As well as having her article published, Grace will
receive free smoothies for a week from the coffee shop on campus. We
have definitely seen some of the future stars of journalism -
congratulations to Grace Arber and all the other entrants for their
great work. You can read Grace’s article below.
Empowering Woman
Grace Arber
You live in a world where we are not all equal; a
world where one gender is regarded as being superior to the other. As
women are seen by many as the inferior gender, they are forced to
withstand a constant struggle against the gender norms of our society.
These gender norms deny woman the chance to reach their full potential
and limit their resources and opportunities for change. If these gender
norms could be broken and women could be empowered, the necessary social
and economic changes could happen that are essential to end poverty.
According to CARE, a leading humanitarian organization, “Women’s
empowerment is a tremendous resource for social change and a
prerequisite in the broader fight against global poverty.”
Bella Abzug once said, “The test for whether or not
you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.”
Unfortunately, it seems that few in the world agree, as women earn only
10% of the world’s income. Women are capable of earning far more than
this, but cannot, because they are restricted to the set of low-paying,
low-status jobs that have been deemed suitable for them. Although 90% of
the world’s income is earned by men, men only work one-third of the
world’s working hours. This leaves women to work two-thirds of the
world’s working hours, which they spend doing the jobs that sustain life
(growing food, fetching water, cooking, looking after the house, caring
for the elderly, raising children etc.) It doesn’t seem fair that women
do 66% of the work and yet only receive 10% of the credit, does it?
If we rid the world of the social stigmas that
currently prevent women from working in high-status positions, we could
get a wider range of opinions from the people that make up our
population. Currently, 81% of the world’s parliamentary seats are held
by men. Currently, 1.3 billion people are living in absolute poverty.
Clearly, there’s a problem! It appears to me, that if we broke this
gender norm and equaled the gender imbalance amongst the voices behind
the nations of our world, we could solve many of these problems. The
unheard insight of women would be very valuable and would finally voice
the opinions and ideas of the other gender making up our population.
“Women’s empowerment is intertwined with respect for human rights,”
- Mahnaz Afkhami. It seems I am not only the one who believes the
empowerment of women is important; gender equity (women’s empowerment)
is Goal 3 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals made by the United
Nations. These goals are considered as the targets we must achieve in
order to end poverty. Essentially, without gender equity and the
empowerment of women we will not be able to make any progress towards
ending poverty. As Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said,
“Achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only a goal in
itself, it is also a condition for building healthier, better educated,
more peaceful and prosperous societies.”
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