Thailand
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Thailand
Thailand

"The whole visit was wonderful— the children's assembly, the performance they put on, and their acting as guides to individual visitors to show them the various parts of the school and their vocational activities."

Lilly Otto—Albuquerque, New Mexico

Baan Boonyapark Early Childhood Center
Baan Don Chum Primary School
Baan Pu Ong Ka School
Baan Mae Yang Rong School
Don Chum Agricultural Cooperative
Machachulalongkorn Buddhist University
Mahamakut Buddhist University

Partner since: 2000
Total donated: $193,743

Primary Schools:

Altogether, Grand Circle Foundation supports four schools in Thailand. Our grants have constructed and renovated classrooms, a library, and a kitchen; installed toilets and a water filtration system; purchased traditional costumes and musical instruments for the children; acquired office equipment and computers; created athletic fields and installed athletic equipment; provided bicycles so that children don't have to walk to school; improved the road leading to the school—and even provided a barber shop, an organic farm, and a fish pond. The Ban Pu Ong Ka School has also been able to hire an English teacher with Foundation support. 

School in session:

Mid-May through early March; closed for vacation during the full month of October

Gifts to bring if you're visiting:
  • Illustrated English dictionaries
  • Picture books
  • Socks for students (plain white for girls and plain brown for boys)

Please do not bring pens, pencils, or notebooks, as schools are currently sufficiently supplied with these items.

Don Chum Agricultural Cooperative:

As part of our Invest in a Village initiative, Grand Circle Foundation is partnering with Don Chum Village, a community of more than 600 people in the province of Phrae. Currently, Don Chum is entirely dependent on the city of Phrae for its food and farming supplies. With no public transport available, the 25-mile trip is expensive and sometimes impossible for the poorest villagers, who cannot afford a truck or motorbike. This poses challenges not only for the farmers and for residents trying to feed themselves, but for Baan Dom Chum School, which is required to provide lunch for its students.

When complete, the cooperative will change lives in Don Chum by creating jobs, providing nutrition, and generating income through the sale of produce and other agricultural products (such as eggs, fish, and seeds for farmers). Learn more >>

Buddhist Universities:

While primary school education in Thailand is both compulsory and free, education beyond the basics can be quite expensive. Foundation funding has helped provide higher education in Thailand through our support for two universities: Mahamakut Buddhist University in Chiang Mai, which provides free higher education for youth from Thailand's rural north and where we have provided much-needed renovations and new furnishings for the university's meditation room, and Mahachulalongkorn Buddhist University in Bangkok, where we have helped to purchase and maintain computer lab equipment, construct and furnish a meditation room, and make other improvements to the facility.