Raya
AID WORK PHASE 7
AID WORK PHASE 7 (July 2005):
When we where last at the Watkommaneeyakhet school in Khuk Kuk district Khao Lak on the 9th of June I asked the school to get the measurements of all the children so we could buy them new school uniforms.
There were 389 children there in the main school and with the kindergarten another 65 or so children, making it 450 plus uniforms in total to buy,
Garry’s wife Mint (Somwang Niamkumnerd) went to Bangkok on the 20th of June to buy all the uniforms, the list was very confusing as you could imagine with each class and each grade or level having different style of uniforms as well as many different colours, Mint spent a full day trying to find all the uniforms and could not manage the task by herself so Garry went to help her and it took one more whole day and evening of traveling around the city to all the different shops and markets that stocked school uniforms, they ended up with more than 750 full sets of school uniforms nearly enough for 2 sets for each pupil at the school. Most of the sizes were correct though a few sizes had to be the nearest closest size possible.
They also had a list of text books that the principle of the school said was needed for the students though the money left over was not enough, We did have enough money over from the uniforms to buy extra school supplies that would help the students in the Watkommaneeyakhet school and some of the many other schools and nurseries in the Khao Lak area, so with the remaining money we purchased over 3 thousand text books, thousands of pencils, 1,000 colour pencils sets, 1,000 paint sets as well as thousands of rubbers and measuring rulers,
The total spent was 216,932 Thai baht or approximately 4,300 euros.
We now had a big job to get all the things we brought back to Phuket, we managed to get a large amount on to the plane, and we had to get the rest delivered by truck. We used Ban Raya resorts store room in Phuket town to store all the goods until the truck came from Bangkok.
Garry and Mint left Phuket at 8.00am to drive to Khao Lak, Garry’s car was fully loaded just with the books and pencils, so the Ban Raya resort kindly donated there pick up truck and fuel to put all the school uniforms in and two staff to help us at the schools, they were Wachiraporn Polprasit or Maam as we call her and the driver Mr. Wirapong Keanmuang.
We arrived at 10.00am at the Watkommaneeyakhet school and the teachers arranged each class to come out in turn and receive a set of pencils, books as well as a uniform set, I asked the teachers if they could give the second set of uniforms out themselves to the children most in need as it was very difficult for us to make that decision, the children were really exited and it made us all feel very proud to do this, after all the logistic nightmares of getting all the things here it was really worth it when you saw all the smiling and happy children, I asked the principle and the teachers what they needed most, other than the text books they had told me about before, they said they badly needed a copy machine as they needed to make many copies of papers in the school, asking at the other schools they also needed copy machines and text books so we have a good plan for our next trip now.
We next went to the Bang Muang school and gave the kids there pencils, books and paints etc,
They have no idea of the exact number of children in the school or how many books etc we handed out, the children there were also very happy to receive these gifts, Garry made a speech to the school telling the children the money for these gifts came from the people of Finland.
The sight of the children clapping and cheering is something you can not write down in words.
Note: Garry will be also going to Khao Lak on around the 25th of November with Dr. Sakari Alhopuro and his daughter Saara who have collected over 600,000 baht in Finland to give to the orphans of Khao Lak.