Help 500 Thai children get an education

As the world shuts down due to COVID 19, the economic impact is being felt by everyone. But for those who are already living in extreme poverty, the loss of work is most devastating. Education Matters provides aid to poor families so that their children will be encouraged to finish school and thereby break the cycle of poverty. In order to help the children, we also must help the entire family. Recently, two of our staff, Dave and Jason, saw that one of the poorest communities we work with was in great need. The families living in this village work primarily as day laborers making just enough to live day by day. With everything closing down in Thailand, these families are now without work. No work means no food. We only support a couple of children in this village, but it is hard to help one family and not all of them. So, Dave and Jason used their own money (not Education Matters funds) to buy a bag of rice for every family in the village - 33 families in all! We are so thankful for the heart and sacrifice these guys made and it shows the heart of the Education Matters program. The only way we can help children succeed is by helping families succeed! 

We are seeing similar needs in all the communities we work in. We will continue to work hard to meet real human needs in the midst of the COVID 19 outbreak! Thank you so much for being part of the solution! And a huge thanks to Dave and Jason for coming alongside those in need!

Educating Children and Changing Communities

Have you ever worked yourself out of a job? Done something so well, you were no longer needed? In many ways this is the mark of true success. One of the first places we started helping children stay in school was in a poor slum community in Chiang Mai. None of the children in this community were making it past 8th grade and many were dropping out or were forced to quit long before that. Imagine an entire neighborhood where there was not one single High School graduate! The lack of education was only adding to the poverty in the community. Without an education the youth could not get good jobs. Many of the girls ended up working in bars and were often trafficked into prostitution. Most of the young children were being raised by grandparents or other relatives because their parents had died of AIDS or had abandoned them to go find work in other cities.

We felt that helping these children stay in school and get a good education was of vital importance, both for the children but also if there was any hope for long term change in the community. We sponsored over 20 children in that community over the period of about 12 years. All of the children we sponsored either completed High School or finished some kind of trade school Of those who graduated from High School, 100% went on to get a college education. For the first time since any one could remember, this neighborhood could boast not only a number of High School graduates, but even College graduates! These kids went off and got good jobs and are living very different lives as a result of the help they received!

But what is even more remarkable is the change that took place in the community. After the first group of students graduated from High School the number of new students applying for help actually decreased. Less families were asking for help. Was this because there weren't any children wanting to go to school? No! In fact it was quite the opposite. More children wanted to stay in school and go on to college. The difference? Now, the families saw that it was possible, and more and more families were doing whatever it took to make sure their children stayed in school. Before, dropping out was the norm, but now that was becoming the exception. Within a few years we were no longer helping any students in that community. We had been so successful we worked ourselves out of a job there! Helping the first group of students gave hope to the entire community and now all the families are committed to seeing their children get an education. Girls are no longer going to work in the bars and boys are no longer being sold into sex-trafficking.

So, helping a child stay in school, doesn't only impact the life of that individual student. It has far reaching impact on families and even on entire communities!