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Op initiatief van onze voorzitter, Marc Dumur, heeft FERC steun toegezegd van 50,000 Baht aan het Khun Ta schoolproject in de noordelijke provincie Chiang Rai.

Bijzonder is, dat studenten van de Rajamangala Universiteit (Chiang Rai) het bouwwerk zullen doen. Zij ondersteunen daarmee de lokale arme bevolking in ruil voor onderwijs!

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The school operates withinthe confines of an indigenous village called Khun Ta of Hmong people native tothis area of Thailandnear the Laotian boarder. The village isaccessible by a 7 kilometer dirt road with 4×4 vehicle only during the dryseason. It is almost completelyinaccessible during the rainy season by anything other than mule or horse. The school was opened in 1993 and the villagedid not get electricity until 1996. Although the Thai government does provideteachers for the school, there is very little additional support given. Thevillage has a population of 437 people of whom 131 are children (most of whomattend the village school). The village school provides 2 yrs of kindergartenand primary education 1^st to 6^th grades.. A future project might be to see what can be done to support thosechildren that want to continue their education beyond the 6^th gradesince they would need financial support to live outside the village.

Presently there are 3school buildings in the village: 1) one very old building with 3 classroomswhich we would like to replace 2) one new building with 2 classrooms built bythe engineering students in 2007, and3) a building for 20 kindergarten students operated by the local Thaigovernment. The old building is in serious disrepair with many leaks in theroof and because it does not have a proper foundation with good drainage thechildren are often walking around in a couple of inches of water in the rainyseason. THE PARTNERS WOULD LIKE TO BUILD A NEW 3 ROOM SCHOOL BUILDING TOREPLACE THE ONE IN SERIOUS DISREPAIR IN OCTOBER 09. October is the month that the universitystudents get their semester break and have to work on these projects. Marc Dumer on his last visit to the villagepointed out to the other partners that there are only 4 toilets for over 100children attending school here. If we have enough money left beyond what weneed to build the new 3 room school building we would also like to provide theschool with 2 more toilet cabins.

Marc Dumur

Armin Schoch

Nathan Russo