Climate Change and Conflict
It has been a very busy two weeks! Late last week the GIST team gathered together again to do our Mid GIST Rendezvous/check in and, leaving tradition, we arranged to do a group project during the mid point. Putting our own specific research on hold, we banded together to try and give back; pooling our talents to help build something that will last.
After our night in Bangkok going over our activities we had done up until then and getting a feel for where all of our projects stood in their completion timing we got up Friday and made the trek to Chiangmai to work with a small rural primary school in the mountains north of Chiangmai. The team spent 5 days in the area working to help the new Director - a firestorm of a woman that inspires everyone who interacts with her to want to change lives for the better - to establish a new "Sustainability Guesthouse and immersive experience" for foreign guests. The money raised will go to help the school become self-sufficient and raise funds to increase the quality of education for the K-6 grade students that attend. Currently almost 50% of the 6th grade students are illiterate and lack access to basic quality eduction. The new director is driven to bring the literacy rate up to 100% during her tenure and the new "Guest House and Volunteer" project hopes to draw the international Eco-tourists already in the area to come stay at the school and interact with the children, help work to expand the schools organic garden and inspire this small community to better themselves. It is a noble vision and one we as a team were lucky to be part of. In our four days at the school site the team interviewed the Director, the faculty and staff and the surrounding village community to get a better idea of the vision of the project and the needs in the area. We then drafted a plan to start the guest house and created a Facebook site and a webpage that will allow people to follow the progress of the program and even book a stay at the initiative. Take a look and "LIKE" the Facebook page. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maewangschoolstay Website: TBD For my own purposes for my GIST research, I was able to talk with the Director and the Thai Team about the environmental issues faced in the rural mountain areas and learned more about the Self-Sufficient programs being pushed by the Thai King. After the project we returned to Bangkok and debriefed. Now we go our separate ways and I am off to the Philippines to continue with my research till the end of the Month.
1 Comment
HT
3/11/2015 04:28:16 am
An inspiring project and a great recap so we can follow along. Please share the website address once it is up and running. Best of luck on the next leg of GIST!
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