If you are visiting a GC read through the 

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) 

Mission: We stand together with the poor 

We work to help the children and communities of the many slums of Bangkok. Together with our neighbors in the slums we create simple-but-progressive solutions that touch the lives of thousands of the poor every day. We build and operate schools, improve family health and welfare, protect street children’s rights, combat the AIDS crisis, respond to daily emergencies, and offer shelter to orphans, to street children, and to children and adults with AIDS – always together, hand in hand and heart to heart with the people we serve.

Why is this Service needed?

What did you learn from investigating the issue and the NGO addressing it? 

1. Interview GC student and teacher facilitators

2.Research using the  NGO/VWO website 

3.Contact NGO/VWO to find out more about the work they do and how you can your group can support them with their skill set. 

Mercy Center also referred as The Human Development Foundation (HDF) is a non-profit and non-denominational organization in Bangkok, Thailand. Mercy Center support both children and adults providing “a shelter for street kids, five orphanages, a hospice, a home for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS, a 400-pupil kindergarten, a community meeting place, and a serene haven in the slums with small gardens and playgrounds.” It has since expanded into a network of over 30 schools all over Bangkok, which have graduated an estimated 35,000 children. They are continuing to expand services to orphans, street children, and children with HIV/AIDS to improve the quality of life for these children. 

The HDF was established by Roman Catholic Redemptorist priest Father Joe Maier with Sister Maria Chantavaradom in 1975. It began as a single one-baht-a-day preschool for every child in the SlaughterHouse, including children of all religions and circumstances. The Mercy Center cares deeply about inclusivity and equality. Children who are economically and socially disadvantaged are treated differently from others, such as children living with HIV. Father Joe Maier says, “We here at the Mercy Centre continue to fight but our fight is not just about the virus. Ignorance, discrimination and isolation limits opportunities to fully participate, preventing them from living full and happy lives.” By investigating the NGO, we were able to understand that we need to make sure they feel included and teach them skills that can help them have more opportunities in their future, just like other children. 

SMART Goal/s for visit 

Use the conversations with the NGO/ VWO to inform your groups SMART Goal/s 

We do understand that four days of visit is not enough for us to bring huge impact on the children there. Thus, rather than teaching something that is totally new to them, we will focus on raising the awareness of the importance of acquiring essential 21 century skills that are necessary for them to be able to play a prominent role in the society when they grow up. We think having group members that speak three different mother tongue languages(Chinese, Japanese, Korean) is our group’s strength. What we want to achieve from teaching 4 different languages is also raising awareness about the importance of not only having good communication and collaboration skills but also being fluent in foreign languages. We are aware that four days are not enough to make children be fluent in all those languages. However, our group members all have experience of having learnt new languages and having to speak them as fluently as we do when speaking in our first languages. It was hard for us to do so but our ability to speak English fluently has helped us a lot in so many different ways and given us so many opportunities. We believe that an ability to communicate with people from many different countries without language barrier is so important and will enable them to grab so many great opportunities that will help them escape the poverty cycle. We believe  this project will be a good chance for us to introduce many different languages in an interesting way so that they could continue to learn a language they are really interested in. We would also like to give some tips on memorising vocabulary or improving writing/speaking/reading skills. 

Chinese Activities

• Teach them simple questions and answers and greetings, such as “good morning” and “hello”
• On the basis of skillful use of greeting, teach them to simply write some Chinese characters
• Rob stool–Active classroom atmosphere, refreshing

Prepare the chairs with 1 less students than the actual number of students and place them in a circle. When the music started, all the members began to dance impromptu in a circle, rotating their chairs as they danced to the music. When we stop the music and say “stop”, all members must find a chair as soon as possible and sit down. Then another chair was removed and the music continued… And so on, to see who makes it to the end.

Japanese Activities

• Quizzes that would be fun, but also using flashcards that they can keep and do it with their friends after we’ve left
• Letting them think about what is good about learning Japanese (another language) for them

Singing and dancing activities

• Children can be in a circle and try to copy one of us in the circle
• Freeze dance – children have to freeze when the music stops
• Teach them simple English songs and warm-up games like “head, shoulders, knees and toes”, which include dance moves and songs

Team Building Activities

• Cup stacking activities
  • Group competitions – which team can build the tallest pyramid in 2 minutes
  • Relay Speed Stacking – stack three 3 stacks then downstack them 
  • Building one big tower with everyone

• The human knot
• Puzzle – Cut a picture you have selected into six or eight equal squares. Cut the image in such a way that when you join the pieces, the entire picture is in place. 

Art Activities

• Drawing what they want to become in the future
• Trace their hands on a paper and decorate it

(surveys, interviews, video, photographs etc..) 

• Photographs and videos of us interacting with people in the Mercy Center
• Interview the staff and/or children to get thoughts and feedback on their experience
• Daily record of what we did, and what has changed

            (specific activities/project plans that you will undertake, where and how it will be done, timeline, etc.)

Cards to hold up

We also think we should be very cautious about our communication that we have with the staff and the children, especially because we cannot speak Thai. We are thinking of double checking and saying clearly what we have said.

How will you share with the UWCSEA community what you have learned? 

Including

– Relationships built 

– Partnerships strengthened 

– Impact measured 

(Service Blog, UWCSEA Perspectives, Dunia, Assemblies, Community Events e.g Family Festival)

(For GC’s Only)

How has funding from UWCSEA been used. Please include photographs as evidence for funding remittances.  Please note that UWCSEA does not send funds for administrative costs such as staff salaries and office rental. 

(For GC’s Only)

GC’s will use the information you have gathered above to report back to the UWCSEA  community at the AGM