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The St Luke's Connection
- Jakarin Chaowattananon after hearing good news
By David Clark
It was most satisfying to see Jakarin's grin in January 2002. I had just told him that I would arrange for his university fees and accommodation to be paid.
Jakarin and his family live close to subsistence level in an isolated hilltribe village in the north of Thailand. There is no easily accessible secondary schooling. In 1999 the Pakpingjai Home Development Project invited Jakarin, then aged fifteen, to live in the Project and attend high school. Three years later he passed university entrance examinations. His family could not afford university costs, but St Luke's could. In January 2003 he proudly showed me around his campus. He has since completed the first year of a computer science degree.
Jakarin is one of three tertiary students St Luke's supports. Another has just completed a journalism degree. The other attends teachers' college where she specialises in Thai dance and music. Our support of these three comes from a parishioner's response to emails I sent while visiting the project in 1999. Knowing she was dying, she re-wrote her will to enable such assistance.
The project, in Phayao province far off the tourist circuit, supports 180 male and female primary and secondary students. Students come from hilltribe villages and from poor rural Thai families or families affected by HIV/Aids.
Established by local churches in 1997 in response to the Aids crisis in northern Thailand, the project's organisers saw a need to particularly assist children from Aids-affected families. They continue to provide Aids-related help and education, contributing to a decrease in HIV infections. However, the primary thrust is now paying the schooling of children from needy families, and free hostel accommodation for some of them. "Pakpingjai" means "home for the heart".
- The project guest house
The St Luke's connection began after I met project organiser Samarn Marksuk at a Christian Conference of Asia consultation on the churches and Aids. St Luke's donated money to assist with the first buildings in the project. We make an annual gift from our parish budget, and individuals contribute to specific needs.
St Luke's also donates my time and skills. I spent seven weeks in the project in 1999 focused on planning, publicity and fund-raising. We raised enough money internationally to build a hostel accommodating fifty students. My visits continue to focus on planning, fund-raising and publicity.
Paying for schooling relieves struggling families of a financial anxiety. Where families can ill-afford education, sons often become monks and receive a basic education in a temple school. The area is notorious for daughters being sent to Bangkok to earn money through prostitution. The project’s child and family-focused work keeps families together, offering girls and boys a level of education and a future they might not otherwise have had.
Students also learn practical selfsufficiency through raising chickens, pigs and geese, fish farming, and through planting vegetable and rice crops on Project land.
It is so easy to make a difference! Compared to New Zealand, costs in Thailand are low. Our money goes a long way. It affects not just the students, but also their families.
Visits from St Luke’s people opens the Thai kids to a wider world. A visit this July by St Luke’s youth and adults will strengthen the bonds, and be of practical value through an intensive english-language camp at the high school. Our involvement enables us, as privileged people in a privileged country, to make a difference.
For me, the greatest reward is seeing young Thai people’s grins as what we do helps give them undreamed-of opportunities.
Contact: Rev David Clark, 09 520 0678; david(at)stlukes.org.nz