มูลนิธิ ดุลภาทร
Providing educational opportunities for disadvantaged young people in
Northern Thailand
March - 2012
Work is nearly finished on the computer room provided by the local government offices for our "Chonlada" project. The number of children to be enrolled in this new undertaking has increased significantly and more space, more computers are needed. Also needed are more people to be trained to work as "coaches" together with Amedeo to help guide the children as they learn personal skills through computer manipulation.
The school-based, community-led village development project in the mountains is off to a good start. Several training sessions for the field team have been held in Chiang Mai, and village meetings (similar to focus groups) have been conducted in the mountains to start the process of community identification of their development goals and of ways to approach the realization of these goals. These sessions have been expertly guided by Khun Sirinate Piyajitpirat, the project manager, and have resulted in increased understanding and confidence on the part of our field team, led by Nimo Kano, and in enthusiasm on the part of the villagers.
We have had several international volunteers working with our programmes, and are expecting more. We ask for a minimum time commitment, ideally 3 months, from prospective volunteers. Courtney Cooper, a recent graduate of Georgetown University, helped a great deal in the improvement of this website, and we are grateful for her help.
We have begun a cross-project music programme with expert assistance from Professor Solot Kuptarat (Ajarn Oak) from Payap University in Chiang Mai. Children and young people with musical talent, or inclinations, from the Sansai Luang support group, the Kla Son university scholars, Baan Phonsawan home and other projects meet weekly to study and practice their instruments. The Dulabhatorn campus is an ideal setting for these sessions. We hope soon to have a "Dulabhatorn Band."