According
to the report from a meeting titled “ Bridging the Gap: Thailand’s Path to
Inclusive Prosperity” by NESDC and the World Bank (2023), many of the provinces
in South Thailand face “persistent poverty”. Our foundation is
located in the poorest area in Thailand, and we also find that the common
problems in our province are lack of opportunities and activities for students,
early marriage and drug problems, low education level, and low family income.
Hence, we have developed a community centre for the university students and
kids and women in our area.

 

The community centre is located near the
university, student dormitories, and poor villages. With the high cost of
coffee shops and a lack of affordable gathering spaces, students struggle to
find a welcoming place to unwind, connect with others, and engage in meaningful
activities. Therefore, the community centre’s objective is to provide a
transformative space for connection, co-learning and empowerment for the
community by offering programs that positively impact lives and
create opportunities holistically, such as Culture Exchange Corner ( language
class, cooking class), Relaxation Corner (board games, movie night),
Restoration Corner (art class, reading program, women group).

In the last two months, we
have volunteers help us to have ‘ABC’ workshop for high school students, which
is Art, Baking and Coffee workshop in English. The
students told their teacher that if their English lessons were as good as here,
they would love to go to school every day. Another weekend, we invited 10 kids
from a village where we usually teach English, to our centre for a baking
class.18 children and 2 adults came together, and they didn’t want to go back
home and were asking ‘when can they come again?’. We hope that this community
centre will be a warm and happy space for the community.