Help 500 Thai children get an education

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!