Seeds of Change

December, 2017

Two years ago, during a Grade 5 field trip to Chang Mai, we learned from a local school, that a Thai child's education costs approximately 4.500 Baht per year, which is only $140 USD. One of my students then questioned why International Teachers did not pay for one Thai child’s education each year, and despite that question never leaving my heart, I have never taken action to achieve this.

This student planted a seed into my head, but thousands of excuses have stopped me from taking action. The main one was how to act, and find a trustworthy NGO that fosters sustainable development.

Appropriate utilisation of EDF's Funds

Although I can not personally guarantee the appropriate utilisation of EDF's funds, after extensive research, I can say that EDF is very transparent with all of their accountability measures and information, and provides annual financial reports; and a wide range of sustainable development programs that develop the capacity of not only disadvantaged children, but their families and communities.

EDF is a non-profit Foundation registered with the Thai Ministry of Interior, and has been operating for more than 30 years.

I recommend that you do your own research on ‘The Education for Development Foundation (EDF)', and I hope you will be as impressed as I am with their long term vision and current record of empowering disadvantaged children, youth and communities towards a sustainably future.

I support them personally and I hope this journey brings me closer to developing initiatives within schools and organisations to support this organisation through a payroll system, knowing that your contribution will make a positive difference in helping to break the cycle of poverty to disadvantaged children in Thailand.

How to make our world a better place starting with Thailand

'Education for Development Foundation (EDF), is an NGO based in Bangkok that is a strong agent of change. Established in 1987, EDF provides educational scholarships and a range of projects that focus on sustainable development that is devoted to providing educational opportunities to less fortunate children and youth in remote areas of Thailand.

Education transforms lives

We all have a special power to be of service to others and our world, and there is no better place to do this, than in Thailand.

Why should you support EDF?

Why does Thailand need our help?

Despite Thailand providing 15 years compulsory education, there are still considerable challenges that Thailand faces. UNESCO (2017) asserts that in Thailand:

• 15% are not completing their lower secondary education, and 62% of these drop outs are girls.
• 50% of students are not taught in the language spoken at home.
• Despite completing lower secondary education, 50% do not have minimum proficiency level in reading
• 55% of schools do not have basic sanitation facilities –with 40% not having access to clean drinking water
• 3.9 million adults are unable to read a simple sentence

Sourced from: http://bangkok.unesco.org/content/20172018-global-education-monitoring-report-thailand-highlights

We also need to improve the quality of education in Thailand

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) test in 2016 found that Thai students performed near bottom of other Asian students. Thailand needs our help to not only provide education to all children, but to ensure that it is a quality education.

Become part of the solution

EDF provides not only education scholarships to disadvantaged children, but they also foster change within the rural communities by developing their capacity to provide quality education.

If everyone made a small change, we could create a peaceful, sustainable and just world. A Thai child's education costs approximately 4.500 Baht per year, which is only $140 USD. Become part of the solution now and click on this link to find out how you can help transform the lives of disadvantaged children, and give them an education to provide opportunities to break out of the poverty cycle.