Creative English teaching and activities with kids)
DaLaa MLTV project – code: 1702

Periods available: All year round (except March, April and October)
at least 2 months

Expected number of volunteers: 2 to 4

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Volunteers will join a small Muslim community of South Thailand on the banks of Songkhla Lake. They will organize activities for children of the local school and share the life of the villagers.

HISTORY and REASONS OF THE PROJECT

Ko Nang Kham is a small village situated in Pattalung province, close to the middle part of Songkhla Lake which is Thailand’s biggest lake. The community area is a small island inside the lake so the main career of the villagers is fisheries. Some work on rubber and palm plantation, fruit orchards or shrimp farm. During free time, some villagers gain some extra income from making and selling local desserts and fruit preservation, for instance. You may find more information about Songkhla lake on this following website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songkhla_Lake. The villagers of Koh Nang Kham are Muslim.

The School

Ban Ko Nang Kham School was founded in 1928. It’s a local governmental, educational opportunity-expanded school offering classes from kindergarten to grade 9. There are around 189 pupils and 16 teachers. In the village, there’s a mosque where it is centred to bring all Muslims in the community to join in religious activities such as Friday prayer. The long-lasting folk wisdom passing on from one generation to another still gives them a career in the fishery industry and food process. Around the Songkhla Lake, the overwhelming ecosystem of natural resources, aquatic animals, fruits of the palm trees and many other things that people there can make use of, they are still greatly abundant in the present day. This teeming treasure behind this richness still gives them every day’s earnings and it has laid great benefit in preservation from generation to generation.

Mr. Somhit Chobngam (Crue Chem), the project initiator, positioned currently in Ban Ko Nang Kham Nuea School together with his co-mate, Miss Aree Leesom positioned presently in Ban Ko Nang Kham School. Both schools are in the same neighbourhood. Crue Chem contacted DaLaa first in 2015 to discuss the possibility of hosting international volunteers as he saw the importance of improving learning methods for the students. He hopes that children can learn about language and cultures naturally by doing activities with volunteers.

In 2015, we organized the first short-term work camp in Ban Ko Nang Kham Nuea School. Other work camps held yearly after that and we had the first team of middle-term volunteers in 2017 for 2 months. The results were very positive and it drew a lot of intention for kids and their families.

In small communities in Thailand, local people hardly have contacts with foreigners, while students are getting pressured from the current educational system to study English but they never have a chance to meet any foreigners. Therefore, this will give them the chance to gain motivation to learn and explore cultural diversity by doing creative activities with international volunteers.

Having international volunteers to learn about local fisherman’s lifestyle, it will help the fishermen to feel more motivated to preserve their local knowledge and wisdom. Apart from that, volunteers can also become the link between children and villagers to take part in this community learning activities.

                            

AIMS of the PROJECT

•           To support in all school’s activities

•           Children and adults can learn English with volunteers

•            2-way learning process between local children/ villagers and volunteers

•            Better understanding of local culture

•            To build a good relationship between volunteers and local people

WORK AND ACTIVITIES

Volunteers will be arranging creative activities with students. They will be supervised by the teachers. Depending on the volunteers’ skills, they will be proposed to organize activities with each class from Grade 1 to Grade 9 twice a week (1-hour session). The idea is that 1 session is more about the English language while the other one is free to decide.  Outside the school, a few villagers are willing to invite volunteers to learn about the local fisherman lifestyle on Songkhla Lake and organize other common activities.

REQUIREMENTS

• Volunteers who apply for this project should be over 20 years of age and/or have a Bachelor’s Degree. This is specifically required by the school.

• Volunteers should be ready to stay in a remote area, to adapt to the local conditions with basic facilities and with very few people able to speak in English.

• Volunteers should be able to handle the spontaneous working environment and constant changes in the plans. The mentality and way of thinking are very different from the western world.  There will have often activities with the children.

• To have creativity in providing learning activities for kids and join in activities related to school’s matters

• Be open-minded, be positive-thinking and be ready to get involved in community’s matters

• Last but not least, love being around with kids J

FOOD and ACCOMMODATION

Volunteers will stay in a local house situated in the village center. There are a kitchen and bathroom in the house. Volunteers can go on foot to the project school which is not far. There will be a simple mat, pillow and mosquito net. You may need to bring your own sleeping bag and other sleeping gear for your comfort. Lunch will be offered at school. There are some small grocery shops in the village and a lot of fish from the fishermen.  Local people eat rice (or noodles) 3 times a day with side dishes like curries, omelettes, local leaves and vegetables. Remember there are no pork products provided in the village. Be reminded of not bringing non-halal food or alcohol drink to your house or school. This may sound serious when you first hear it. It is not as that strict as you may imagine. Just the food (pork products and alcohol) that it is not appreciated in the Muslim community.

(School English teaching- Linking a spiritual project with the local community)
DaLaa MTV project – code: 1902

Available application period: May to August 2020 and November 2020 to February 2021

Expected number of volunteers: 2-3

SHORT DESCRIPTION

We are a family of 3, working on alternative education, coaching for self awareness, women empowerment, and conflict resolution for over 15 years. We moved to live in a garden for the last 6 years and started to plant trees and build houses for ourselves, volunteers and visitors we often welcome. We started to teach English at the local school a few times and see the needs for community development. We would like to promote alternative education, self-reliance and working with Thai and foreign volunteers to improve the life of the community and society.

AIMS of the PROJECT

– To support local kids and young people to become able to communicate with foreigners and to learn from cultural exchange

– To improve the self-awareness of kids and young people and provide a creative space to express themselves.

– To create an open space for organic farming, towards a self-reliant an ecological community

WORK

– Volunteers will organize English and Art lessons and games to primary school children (7 to 12 years old) both at the community schools (2-3 days a week) and at the Garden of Tranquility.

– Volunteers will work on an artistic clay building. We finished building 2 clay houses and 1 library. We are now building a big meditation hall and family house, plus another volunteer house, all from clay.

– Volunteers will grow vegetables and plant trees, water them, make compost and collect fruits like bananas and mangoes.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

– We will discuss and practice exercises for self-awareness.

– You will have chance to discover the community and the area around the Garden of Tranquility.

– Daily tasks, including going to the market, cooking and cleaning around

– Other creative activities or discussions proposed by volunteers

REQUIREMENTS

– Volunteers should be interested in education for children, ready to lead a small group of kids on a chosen activity: English teaching, art or other.

– Volunteers should be ready to adapt to the Thai, local way of life, and willing to create relationships with volunteers’ friends, hosts and local people. Some difficult points could be mosquitoes and insects, eating rice at every meal, language and culture barrier, missing feedback, changing plans often.

– Volunteers should be able to stay in a remote environment, without public transport, not expecting to go to town or city often.

– Volunteers should be ready to put their hands in the dirt both for gardening and clay building.

– Volunteers should be able to take responsibility for themselves and the team by taking care of their health and security and be fully involved in the daily tasks and discussions.

**As we have a kid, we do not want our kid to see volunteers drinking and smoking in public area at the garden. We provide a specific space for this.

** Clothes worn in the village- schools and temple: skirts or shorts long enough to cover your knees also when you are sitting. Women should wear tops that cover their shoulders, no low neckline. Bikinis are not appropriate to swim if you go on holidays. Please wear long shorts and a top instead.

FOOD and ACCOMODATION

– We will take turn to cook 3 meals a day, suitable for vegetarians.

– Volunteers will live in a small clay house.

– Mosquito nets, pillows, blankets and mattresses are provided.

– Good quality shared bathrooms and kitchen.

Local culture and agriculture

in Palian district, Trang province, Southern Thailand

Project number: DaLaa 1402MLTV
Volunteers type: Medium Term (two months minimum)
Max Number of Volunteers: 4
Available application period:  All year around

SHORT DESCRIPTION

Volunteers join a family daily life of the rural island of Andaman coast in South Thailand. In this Muslim community, the main occupation is fishing but many also plant rice and watermelon, raise buffaloes and some have rubber plantation. Volunteers will help their host family to grow the vegetable garden around the house, collect the palm leaves to make roofs, and plant and collect rice and watermelon with other families in the community. There may be some activities with local kids too.

HISTORY and REASONS OF THE PROJECT

Sukorn Island (Koh Sukorn) is situated in Palian district, Trang province. For this project, we will be conducting activities with communities in Baan Laem and Baan Toong village (2 on the 4 villages of the island). In these 2 villages, there is population of 1,189 or 337 families, 95% of them are Muslims. On this island there are also official offices and institutions of which are government-run namely one pre-school, two primary schools (grade 1 to grade 6), one healthcare center and one police station. General income of villagers is from fishing industry regarded as main occupation, secondly is rubber plantation and agriculture; growing rice, watermelons, corns and other seasonal vegetables as well as keeping livestock. KohSukorn watermelon is widely well-known for its best product because of its sweet juicy taste. The island landscape is geologically plain, partly with small hills. Also, around the shore line, it is lined up with scattered mangrove trees.

In general the villagers are very generous and they still remain the culture of supporting and sharing with each other. Furthermore, they also believe that paddy and agriculture is the main food stability of the village.

Already some years, a group of local researchers have been working with the 2 communities mentioned above. In one community, the village members are still remaining their traditional way of living, while in another, people started to drop their old values and turning to development from the cities. Less and less people are working on paddy fields, or growing their own food supply as it is easier to buy. Therefore, these researchers aim to bring awareness to the locals to keep their life style and revive the tradition of growing paddy, other traditional agriculture, as well as developing local rice species, and forming farmer’s co-op group. They invite us to organize volunteers’ activities there in 2013. Few years after, the researcher group is not very active anymore but we have successfully continued activities (mainly agriculture and activities with kids) with villagers and develop good relationships through short term workcamps and middle term volunteers. The period is now (since 2016) fixed from August to March as the raining season from April to July has less possible activities for volunteers. It is also important the host family have some time for themselves.

AIMS of the PROJECT

1- Preserving the local agriculture traditions and wisdom

2- Acknowledging importance of sustainable agriculture

3- Understanding the importance of the village community life

4- Long-lasting learning exchange between villagers, their children and international volunteers

WORK AND ACTIVITIES

Volunteers will be staying together with a host family and share the daily life with them. They will mostly join agriculture activities but may be organizing activities with the local kids. Their place in the daily life of the host family is essential. They shouldn’t be a burden but a support which can easily be spread to the community around. Since 2016, all the middle term volunteers were staying at JaTak and Bang Meng family and their experience has been really great. Ja Tak would take time every day to explain them what they can help or do. Both hosts are going every morning from dawn to beginning afternoon for fishing but they still have enough energy to do more activities with volunteers after this. There is another family, Ja Yao who is also ready to welcome volunteers.

YEARLY SCHEDULED ACTIVITIES OF RICE GROWING TRADITION OF THE ISLAND

August and September	September is the starting month of rice planting season. Traditionally, villagers will prepare their best-selected paddy. The second step is to sow the fertilized paddy into nursery fields. Thirdly, plough the soil for transplanting the rice.
October	·         Transplant the seedlings from the nursery into the well-prepared rice fields   ·         Plant watermelon seeds on the rice field ridges ·         Take care of the rice field
November	·         Pick up ready-to-eat watermelons   ·         Take care of the rice field
December	Rice harvesting!   **Every year at the end of December, a special annual event will be organized at the island. People know it as “Bergfah Andaman Festival”. This festival is held widely in famous places located in the Andaman Sea. The aim is to promote products made by locals. There will be booths set up in which villagers sell food and sweets, and friendship activities like boat racing, football matches against village teams as well as performances on stage will be also held.
January –   March	·         Sun-dry paddy for next planting   ·         Plant watermelon after the harvesting season ·         Make compost from rice straw
April –   july	·         Raining season   ·         Gardening around the house

FOOD and ACCOMMODATION

The volunteers either share one hut either sleep inside the house. There will be simple mattress, pillow and mosquito net. You will need to bring sleeping bag. Volunteer will be part of the family who will take care of them for everything including food, security and transport. You will join daily tasks for collecting food and cooking. Local people eat rice (or noodles) 2 or 3 times a day with side dishes like curries, omelets, local leaves and vegetables and many fishes and sea food. Because the family is Muslim, there will be no pork or alcohol.

OTHER PRACTICAL INFORMATION

Laundry: expect to hand-wash your clothes

Water supply and electricity: available

Internet/phone access: You can use Internet mobile phone sim card..

Hat Yai, the main city of South Thailand (close to DaLaa office) is about 4 hours by public transport from Koh Sukorn.

Clothes worn in the village: You will be living in an area with elderly people and children around so it is appropriate that you dress modestly

REQUIREMENTS

The volunteers should be ready to stay in a remote area, to adapt to the local conditions with only basic facilities and with few people able to speak in English. Volunteers should be able to handle spontaneous working environment and constant changes in the plans. The mentality and way of thinking is very different from the western world.  There may have activities with the children. To have responsibility for yourself, the kids and full involvement in community matters is a must.

**For ones who plan to travel in Thailand/Asia besides this voluntary work, having it done before or after the project would be advisable. We hope that volunteers will fully spend their stay in the project without asking for a long holiday break amid the project period. This would cause uncertainty in running activities.