Eco/Cultural/Nature tourism is a difficult niche to define or fit in to. Many operators who call themselves “ecotourism” companies don’t even come close to the idea behind it. We at Siam Safari wish to work with the local community placing ourselves in that niche. This is the reason for us undertaking our Rural Schools Help Project.

Many rural schools in Thailand suffer from a lack of resources, since funds and teachers are often drawn to the cities, with better living conditions and wages. Imagine going to school and having to eat lunch sitting on the ground, or having to share one computer between nine pupils, or learning from books that are out of date and water damaged. The aspirations of these rural children are exactly the same as those in the cities , they dream of becoming doctors, sports men and women, entrepreneurs and many other careers useful to Thai society and the economy. The reality for these children is a career in tourism, rubber or retail. We need to break the cycle of poor education leading to low paid jobs.

Siam Safari has been using its 18 years experience in the nature tourism industry to raise public awareness and generate much needed funds for three schools in the Khao Sok area. The company is well aware of the limitations of simply donating funds, choosing to engage the children in educational and skills development activities. Projects to date have included story writing, t-shirt design and gardening competitions, with the winners receiving sponsorships, or fun activity days for the entire class. All proceeds from sales, plus any money collected in donation boxes is filtered back into the schools project. On each Children’s Day (13th Jan) Siam Safari donates 10000 baht to each of the three local schools, which is used to help support the education of the poorest students with clothes, books and writing materials. The company has also facilitated the donation of 8 personal computers in the last 18 months.

The children have been equally busy by making some beautiful paintings of wildlife and the environment out of recycled paper and they are also using seeds to make key rings and broaches. They are very popular items with Siam Safari’s nature tourists giving the tourist a sense of satisfaction that they are helping the local community. All proceeds of which go back into funding the schools project. A teacher from England commented, “I am so pleased to have had the chance to help the local schools by purchasing a picture which I will hang in my classroom, and tell all my pupils of the positive work being done to support rural schools in Khao Sok, maybe it will make them appreciate the quality of their own education.”

This is just the beginning, the hope is to continue engaging the children in further educational and skills development activities. On a larger scale, the company is actively seeking corporate or private sponsorships to broaden the scope of their projects. Children are our future, education is the only way to give them the freedom to make their own choices.

Click here to see our school photo album

Activities to date:

• Every year on children’s day (13th January) Siam Safari donates 10,000 baht to each of 3 schools in the area to help fund the student’s activities. The schools divide this money between the poorest students to help provide them with clothes, books and pens.
  
  
• A project known to us as “The Trees Can Talk” was also produced. This stimulated the children of the schools to think about what the jungle surrounding their towns would think of them if it could talk. The winner of which received a sponsorship from the company.
  
• Children’s day January 2006 – Siam Safari and Travel Indochina donated 2 computers to Wat Tam Wararam School in the Khao Sok Area.

• November 2006 – Siam Safari and Kim Carlson (a previous guest of ours) donated 4 more computers, 2 to both Baang Bpru and Yhaa Ploong Schools.

• Donation Boxes in each location where guests can donate to the project, with information about our project.
  
  
• July 2007 – Siam Safari and My Travel (Travel Agent) donated 2 computers to Wat Tam Wararam School .

• June – September 2007. Competition “Keep Khao Sok Green”, children from the schools designed a picture to be featured on t-shirts for Siam Safaris Nature Guests to purchase.  The t-shirts are now on sale in our camps.
  
  
• November – March 2008.  The children planted vegetable gardens with the tools and seeds they were given by Siam Safari, they were very successful providing lots of vegetables for their school canteen. 
  
  
• March 2008.  Dan Broderick and family donated beanie babies, toys and art materials to each of the schools all the way from America.  We thank Dan and his family for all the effort they put in.
  
• April 2008.  The money raised by the sale of the pictures from Baang Bpru School has been used to make a new school sign.

Current activities:

• The children that participated in the vegetable project will be rewarded with an activity day from Siam Safari, a day canoeing and elephant trekking.

• With the money from the sale of the t-shirts and public donations we hope to build playgrounds for each of the schools, at the moment these facilities do not exist.

• We are currently looking for volunteers to teach in the schools in Khao Sok for periods of 8-12 weeks.  For more information please follow the Volunteers link.

Children’s Project in the North of Thailand

In the Mae Hong Song Province life is very different the South of Thailand.  There is no rubber or oil palm plantations and not so many tourists visit, it is a much harder existence.  Temperatures in the North can reach????

We are looking for people who have old baby clothes to bring them with

www.unicef.org/thailand/
www.worldvision.or.th
www.amnesty.or.th
www.pda.or.th