In the afternoon of 16th June 2007 President Niels Colov of the Rotary Club of Pattaya welcomed 3 Rotarians from the Rotary Club of Cheungpyung, Korea to the office of Pattaya People Media Group and then went off together to the Liberty Computer Company on Pattaya Second Road.
The Korean Rotarians were taken to see the progress of the 30 computers that will be presented to two small schools outside Pattaya and a womens prison. The Wat Sawang Arom School and the Barn Santikarm School and the Chonburi Women's Prison are the places where people will benefit from this great joint project.
This is a joint project of a total amount of half a million baht between the Rotary Club of Pattaya, the Rotary Club of Cheungpyung and a matching grant from the Rotary Foundation.
The Liberty Group are providing the computers at net price and have also installed software into the computers.
The representatives of the Rotary Club of Cheong Pyueng presented an additional notebook computer to President Niels to be given to one of the schools.
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Members of the Rotary Club of Cheungpyung in Korea, headed by Club President Mr. Won, arrived in Pattaya on 12 March 2007 as they have agreed to enter into a joint educational project with the Rotary Club of Pattaya which will provide computers to two small rural schools and the Chonburi Women’s prison whilst here they also signed a Sister Club agreement.
The day started with a planning meeting taking place at the Pattaya People TV and Newspaper Office in Soi Day-Night on at 2 pm. Here the Rotarians from Korea were warmly welcomed by the President of the Rotary Club of Pattaya, Mr. Niels Colov and other members of the Rotary Club of Pattaya. All details of the Matching Grant project were discussed and agreed on, and then representatives of the two Rotary Clubs went to visit the two small schools.
The Rotary Club of Pattaya have already visited these schools earlier in February 2007 and suggested them to the Cheungpyung Rotary Club from Korea as being suitable recipients of the computer project.
The first school was Ban Santikham School which has 143 students, 3 teachers and 10 old computers. Everyone was welcomed by Principal Thanachai Wongsaroj and students. The members from the Rotary Club of Cheungpyung felt sorry for the children when they saw how they were dressed at school. Many were wearing poor clothing, like torn and old uniforms, with holes in their socks. With that feeling, the guests made an impromptu donation of 5,000 Baht to the Principal so that he could divide it and give out to the children to buy new clothing to wear to school.
The second school visited was Wat Sawang Arom Temple School in Nongplalai District. This school has 6 teachers, 150 students and 6 old computers. Principal Adul Sukcharoen warmly welcomed all and took everyone on a tour of the school. The guests were welcomed with coconut juice and Thai candy, specially made by the students. Being impressed with what they were offered, the Rotarians also gave 5,000 Baht to this school.
After inspecting the schools, everyone agreed that both schools were in great need of assistance. It was decided that 10 new computers should be donated to each school together with specialist help and instruction on computers to enable others to instruct and give knowledge to all. The installations will be made on their next visit.
After their visit to the schools, the group went to the Peace Monument up on Pratamnak Hill, Pattaya. This was built by the Rotary Club of Pattaya in 2006 with the assistance of City Hall. The view from the monument is fantastic. The members then wrote peace messages on folded paper birds and hung them on the surrounding trees.
In the evening, everyone attended the weekly Rotary meeting at the Town in Town Hotel, to have dinner together. At this meeting, the two Clubs signed a Sister Club agreement to join together with educational projects, donations and charity events in the future.
Presents were then exchanged between the two Clubs. President Won gave President Colov a golden bell, which is a souvenir from Korea as well as various other gifts to the club and members. The two Rotary Clubs also exchanged Club flags as souvenirs to each party.
At the moment there are 55 members in the Rotary Club of Pattaya, District 3340. There are many activities and projects in this Club that help charities and society in general.
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UPDATE Feb 2007
The Rotary Club of Pattaya in conjunction with The Rotary Club of Korea, are preparing to make a joint donation of computers and computer software to two needy schools just outside the Pattaya city boundary.
It was decided to do it this way as most city schools are more often supported than those outside the city limits. After some research, the two schools selected are Sawang A-rom Temple School which has 145 students in both Kindergarden and Primary. Second is the Baan Santikam Primary & Infants School which has around 154 students.
Several members of the Rotary Club of Pattaya, including the Club President Khun Niels Colov, visited the two schools to meet the Principal Teachers and their staff last week. While there they met many of the students who were curios and extremely well mannered and happy to greet the Farang visitors.
There will now be a follow-up liaison with the Korean Rotary club, followed by the presentations at some point in the immediate future.
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SMALL COMPUTER CLASSES
The Rotary Club of Pattaya recognizes the need for Thai children to be able to move into the IT age. Many small schools do not have a budget to purchase computers and establish computer classes. We feel that establishing small computer classes with 12 computers, a printer, other hardware and educational software will make a big difference in the lives of young Thai students especially from rural areas. We also intend to organize foreign volunteers to help as support teachers in both computer use and English language classes, ensuring the students get better access to the wealth of information on the internet.
Each small computer class project has a budget of 10,000 US $.
We ask individuals, clubs or districts to help us change the quality of life for these children by donating funds for one or more projects. A Matching Grant project for one or more Small Computer Classes might also be an option.
For further information or a pledge to support this project, please contact our club president Niels Colov on email: president@rotary-pattaya.com
