Project number: DaLaa 1301MLTV
Volunteers type: Medium and Long Term (two months minimum)
Max Number of Volunteers: 3-4
Available application period: all year round
Gardening and DaLaa members activities
SHORT DESCRIPTION
Lung Jaeng is the kind host of our association office and Voluntary Service Community. He is a great life activist who also welcomes volunteers since 2013 through DaLaa to support his social and non-chemical garden 3 km away from the office. Volunteers will mainly join agricultural work and daily life with Lung Jaeng. They have the possibility to join our member activities.
HISTORY and REASONS OF THE PROJECT
Mr. Suthep Suwankrajang known as Lung Jaeng, the host of the project has a strong social network and he is involved in voluntary work, social activism and forest conservation for many years. Since 2013, he has been starting a big garden, 3km from his home with DaLaa volunteers and friends and build there a new house. He grows non chemical vegetables and fruits. It’s like a social garden which is also used for tea meetings, universities camps or just having a meal together with friends. Everyone is welcome at this learning space to grow healthy food and to exchange ideas.
Since 2015, DaLaa office was built on his home land and nowadays we became a community sharing everyday life. We called this place Voluntary Service Community (VSC) and we organize quite some activities like introduction and gathering for our middle and long term volunteers, mini workcamps with our members. family and children camps.
AIMS of the PROJECT
1- Start a new kind of community based on love, responsibility, harmony and freedom.
2- Our members grow in wisdom and our garden produces healthy food.
3- We can gather members and children more and more around meaningful volunteer activities.
WORK AND ACTIVITIES
Regular work involves nurturing vegetables plants and fruit trees, take care or chicken, compost making, collecting vegetables for our own consumption, growing seeds or nursing young plants, lots of weeding and watering too. The work may be physically hard or repetitive but there is no pressure and you will have a lot of time to relax.
You will be proposed to join our VSC members’ activities on regular basis. The activities may be very various from construction to kids’ activities around DaLaa office or to our partners places.
The daily tasks like cleaning and cooking are shared by everyone. It takes some time and energy to have an healthy food and environment. When done with free will and dedication for the community, we can learn a lot from this too.
Volunteers should feel responsible for the community. It means they will become the hosts when visitors are coming, take part in new volunteer introduction and other activities organized through the Voluntary Service Community. We organize mini workcamps where Kok Riang volunteers are included.
FOOD and ACCOMODATION
Volunteers will live with Lung Jaeng and at the garden. Small huts are provided for volunteers. there is the new house of Lung Jaeng and woof fire kitchen. Regards to the hut for volunteers, there is a thin mattress and mosquito net provided. You may need to bring your own soft mattress if you’re prone to backache or wouldn’t be able to sleep on hard surface. The bathroom and toilet are separated . For shower, there’s no hot water and the restroom is local squatting style. The living condition will be very simple and you may find it completely different from your own country. Local people eat rice (or noodles) 3 times a day with side dishes like curries, omelets, local leaves and vegetables. We get some food from the garden and shop other at the local markets
OTHER PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Kok Riang is a village 20 km from Hatyai city but it is really country side. The atmosphere is quite relax. The garden area is 2 km from the closest shop.
The most rain season is usually from October to December. There are quite some mosquitoes especially after the rain.
There are a lot of chicken around to wake you up early morning 🙂
Laundry: expect to hand-wash your clothes
Water supply and electricity: Well with pump and solar pannel
Internet/phone access: You can buy a Thai SIM card at the garden. There is WIFI at VSC/DaLaa office)
Hat Yai, the main city of South Thailand is 30 minutes by car from Kok Riang.
REQUIREMENTS
The volunteers should be ready to stay in a community and to take responsibilities and initiatives to adapt to the local conditions with basic facilities and non English speaking people. 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.
**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.