Giving Back to Your Community in Thailand

There is poverty in Thailand, there are people struggling to eat, there are homeless people, there are unwashed, unkempt poor people without access to sanitation or toilet facilities.

While living in Thailand, you will undoubtedly see varying levels of socioeconomic disenfranchisement and it will stun you. 

As foreigners, as people lucky enough to travel and privileged enough to become teachers, it is a moral imperative that we give back as much and as often as we can. 

Here is a great list of Thai charities you can donate to or volunteer for:

Image from: Foundation for the Better Life of Children

http://bk.asia-city.com/city-living/article/get-involved

Practicing gratitude is a great way to rejuvinate your sense of purpose when the trials of teaching in a foreign country get you down. At the end of the day, despite minor annoyances such as students forgetting their homework, missing tests, the heat, the rain, feeling exhausted or being dissappointed in yourself, try to focus on the positives: making a difference to your students, getting a laugh in the classroom, bringing happiness to a young person's day by giving your classes a special treat like snacks or stickers, experiencing another culture, being enchanted by novel landscapes and architecture, or even just getting a paycheck. Despite whatever difficulties I encounter here, I have to remind myself that I am so fortunate to be here! If I can pass along some of my good fortune to others, that's something I must do!

Some other ways to give back to your new Thai community include:

• Buying bingo prizes for your students, such as Doraemon pencils or Disney notepads, minions or Star Wars stickers, candy, fruit cups, yoghurt, cookies, etc. Putting together a prize bag makes for an exciting class that you and your students are sure to enjoy! Don't just play with your "favuorite" class though; students with behavioural problems or low test scores also need encouragement! Sometimes, even just a smiling at and making eye contact for a few seconds with your late, unprepared and unengaged students, can make all the difference. If a smile can make a difference, imagine what a bag full of candy can do!
• Offer food to your students, especially at lunch. Make conversation. Ask students if they've eaten. Ask what they ate and whether or not it was good. This is a good routine for engaging with your students and giving them the opportunity to speak English. Don't be nosy or pushy, but if a student trusts you (and speaks English well enough), they will tell you when they didn't get enough or anything to eat. Many Thai students live with their grandparents because their parents went to find work in Bangkok or other cities. Without close supervision, some kids will spend the 5 or 10 baht they were given for lunch on topping up their mobile data or buying a delicious but not filling snack like ice cream. This happens more often than people know, even in countries like Canada and the United States. When I was in high school, I would often skip lunch and hoard my lunch money in the hopes of buying a new shirt or earrings after a few weeks of saving. Furthermore, some students may not have been given enough or *any* money to buy lunch that day. Although they would never dream of asking you or even a Thai teacher for food or money, they are likely to accept food if you offer it to them without being asked. Don't wait for your students to come to you. Go to them! Bring a few spare bananas or lychee and casually offer them to students you might see sitting by themselves, not eating. Expect that some students will turn down the offer (they may even tell you they don't like that particular type of food), but also know that you could make a small, but important difference by genuinely caring about the wellbeing of your students.
• Put in some time and effort cleaning and decorating your classroom. You can ask the students to help you as well. Tasks such as sweeping, mopping, cleaning the windows, wiping down the desks, cleaning the cobwebs from the ceilings, cleaning up the whiteboard, emptying the garbage, organizing markers, pencil crayons, scissors and other supplies, can all be delegated to students during the first or last 5 minutes of class. Just don't have your students doing all the cleaning while you sit at your desk like some feudal lord! If the students see you cleaning as well, it will send a message of equality and fairness as well as bringing home the idea that the classroom is a shared resource, to be taken care of by everyone, for everyone.
• Clean up around the school. I bought some rubber gloves and went to town picking up all the garbage around the outside of my classroom and in some other areas of the school. It felt really good to see such a noticeable difference in the area! The grass and flowerbeds and walkways looked so much nicer without old drink cups, food wrappers, straws and other debris. Some of the Thai teachers even stopped to praise my efforts and many students joined in when they saw me and my co-worker, Kenneth picking up trash around the school. The students helped a lot and I was really proud of them.
• If you're like me and you end up staying a while in Thailand, you can accumulate a lot of clothes. Any clothes that shrink in the wash, or just don't fit or you've grown bored with can be given to the students. I've bought a few things impulsively in Sakon Nakhon that ended up being too small or unflattering. As long as it's still in good condition and undamaged, ask one of your students if they'd like it. I've given away a few dresses, shirts, etc. Explain that hand-me-downs are common in your country too and if you have a story to share, such as always giving your old clothes to your younger sibling or vice versa, the students are always interested to learn about you and your culture!
• In the event of a natural disaster, ask your school what you can do to help. After a massive flood that inundated the Sakon Nakhon region, I and my fellow English teacher asked the school what we could do to help. Unfortunately, we were a bit late to ask. I myself had been caught in one of the flooded areas, unable to return to my home. Eventually I drove my motorbike alone through roads that had turned to rivers. I crossed a cracked and broken bridge with the help of some locals. One man bravely rolled my motorbike over a makeshift crossing composed of a 2x4 wooden plank spanning a distance of about two feet. The board connected the two halves of the broken bridge, above the flooded river. The waters were moving faster than usual, it seemed, although at that point much of the water had receded, so that the actual bridhe was no longer submerged, just damaged. The next day, we were able to join the efforts taking place at the school to organize food packages for the surrounding peoples living in the affected countryside. It was encouraging to see students and teachers coming together to help. I wished I had asked sooner though because we only caught the last two hours of what had been a day-long marathon! So, if disaster strikes, make sure you offer your services right away!

If anyone else has any favourite charities or tips for giving back to the community, please share them in the comments! Tell us about your experiences teaching, living and giving back in Thailand!