Last summer holiday, we organized a Chinese cultural exchange program between a group of students from Taiwan University and those from a university in southern Thailand, studying Chinese.

The Taiwanese students prepared various activities to showcase Taiwan and its rich culture. These included games to familiarize everyone with Taiwan’s provinces and cuisine, writing spring couplets, and sampling Taiwanese snacks.

Despite meeting for the first time and hailing from different countries, within a few hours, they formed bonds of friendship. The local students even extended invitations to explore the vibrant student life in southern Thailand together, further enriching their exchange experience.

Let’s see the feedback from the Taiwanese students :

Student one :-  In fact, we are the ones being received. The Thai students care for us in all aspects of life, and we experience the most authentic acceptance and relationship building.

Student two :-  After contacting students from southern Thailand, I realized that we are actually not very different. We like similar things and have very similar living habits. I even think they are more beautiful than people from my own country-Easy to get along with. Being in the south really opened my eyes. After returning to Taiwan, I am more willing to communicate with people from different countries and cultures.

Student three : – can feel that they are happy to introduce us to things they like or are famous in the local area. They will also receive us warmly and want to give us the best things. We are really happy and feel loved. Through this cultural exchange, I saw that they have a lot of rich imagination and creativity in a limited environment. There are many ideas that I have never imagined. I am very grateful for this exchange trip, which allowed me to expand my horizons.:- After contacting students from southern Thailand, I realized that we are actually not very different. We like similar things and have very similar living habits. I even think they are more beautiful than people from my own country-Easy to get along with. Being in the south really opened my eyes. After returning to Taiwan, I am more willing to communicate with people from different countries and cultures.

Sports play a pivotal role in the development of youth, fostering physical, mental, and social growth. Engaging in sports activities not only promotes a healthy lifestyle but also instills discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. Through sports, adolescents learn to set and strive for goals, enhancing their self-confidence and resilience in the face of challenges. It teaches valuable lessons in sportsmanship, respect, and fair play, laying a foundation for responsible citizenship. Overall, sports provide a holistic platform for holistic development during this critical stage of adolescence.

SEEDs members in Thailand continue to invest in local leaders and local initiatives which will develop youth through futsal.  Futsal is a form of soccer (football) which is played on a short, hard-surface field.   Although the heart of sports training happens between coaches and players during practice, the wider network of teams is an important place for training in larger groups, for strengthening inter-neighborhood relationships, and for building excitement among teams. 

Recently, the local futsal network that SEEDS organized several years ago came together to host its eighth annual futsal league.  Eight neighborhoods contributed their assets of people, places, relationships, and skills to make the league possible.  Drawing on several years of experience, the SEEDS volunteers and local coaches worked together to create an ID card system to ensure that only registered players were allowed on the field.  This innovative solution helped boost trust between referees, coaches, and players.

During the one month futsal league, each team played five matches in a round-robin format to ensure that everyone, regardless of experience, had the opportunity to play the same number of times.  This league is not a team’s only opportunity to engage in competition during the year, but the youth have repeatedly commented that the league is their favorite competition of the year!

SEEDS partner, Pendar Pagi, runs an English club called English Zone to provide university students with the opportunity to improve their conversational English. English Zone currently offers weekly discussions led by native speakers. It is located less than four kilometers from University Riau, however, members have joined from a number of the local universities.

A survey of English Zone activities was conducted by our program’s coordinators late last year. Feedback from the members showed that the opportunities to interact with and learn from native speakers is highly valued. Recently, guests from Australia attended the weekly discussion. One of the guests, a Chinese Indonesian woman, has lived in Australia for the last ten years. Our guest was able to share with the members how she secured visas for the duration of her time in Australia, and how her English language progressed after moving to Australia. The club is currently liaising with recent high school graduates, from America and Singapore, that are in Pekanbaru on a gap-year program. For a long time, it has been tradition to hang the flag of the discussion facilitators in the meeting area. We currently have flags from Australia, USA, Philippines, South Africa, England, Guyana, Japan and Germany. We hope that more and more flags will be added to the collection.

In addition to guest speakers, SEEDS consultants also volunteer with English Zone by facilitating discussions. Discussion topics vary significantly from cultural celebrations, to ethics, personality traits and lifestyle. This allows members the opportunity to practice using language required for a variety of contexts and covering a broad range of topics. In addition to preparing discussion questions, consultants incorporate interactive activities including quizzes and games. This has helped members with more limited English to participate in the program. English Zone continues to evaluate its activities and adapt them to suit the preferences and needs of its members.

Dedicated SEEDS’ consultants have been working for many years with key partners in Southeast
Asia in the field of socio-economic development and education. But its number of consultants are
still small and so much more could be done as we desire to engage in effective partnerships in this
global world.

How can we then overcome the limitation in the area of available human resources? One of our
SEEDS educational consultants working in partnership with Hasanuddin University in Makassar
(Indonesia) has already had experience in hosting students from other countries as voluntary interns.
The purpose of these internships- as explained in the article “Investing into a New Generation of
Movers”-is to provide a cross-cultural exchange of thoughts and expertise.

The idea came to widen this internship program to graduates who already have made experience in
their respective field of work. Last year the SEEDS educational consultant mentioned above was on
a summer-long home leave. He used this time as an opportunity to share with his network of
professionals whether they would be willing to give 4-8 weeks to join in SEEDS’ efforts of
knowledge transfer from industry to universities.

The response was unexpectedly high. However, there was the remaining question as to whether the
employers of those interested would approve a longer leave. But why not ask? This is what one of
the professionals did and to his surprise his employer agreed. He will be on his way in May 2024 to
join our SEEDS educational consultant and help with projects at Hasanuddin University in the area
of security standards of autonomous systems.

SEEDS is excited about seeing this new way of working in effective partnerships through
professionals who are willing to give limited time to SEEDS’ various projects.

In a quiet and secluded place in South Thailand, surrounded by locally grown lemons, cashew nuts, and paddy fields, stood a farmhouse owned by the head of the village. It was a haven for children seeking adventure and fun.

Four of us volunteers from the Foundation, conducted a 2-day English Summer Camp for around fourteen children, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years old in April 2023. A local friend cooked and organised the meals for the whole duration of the camp. The group of excited children arrived at the site with smiles on their faces and a sense of anticipation. They quickly settled their belongings into the rooms they liked, giggling as they talked with one another. The head of the village was happy to see the children enjoying themselves and brought his daughters to join the camp.

The first day kicked off with learning the summer camp song, listening to stories, playing puzzle games, and engaging in a treasure hunt. Laughter echoed in this quiet place as each group searched for and hunted the puzzle pieces they needed to form. Some climbed up trees to look for them, happily competing and teasing each other. They loved singing the camp song, humming its tune afterward. As the sun began to dip below the horizon, we all prepared for our barbecue time with them. Some children helped put the hotdogs on sticks, while others lit the charcoal. The head of the village and some adults joined as well. Everyone sat around the grilling area to enjoy our dinner.

The following day, the children woke up with brimming energy. One of us taught them a simple menu for cooking, and they enjoyed it so much that their stomachs were full after they had eaten what they had cooked. Arts and crafts followed, along with another round of storytelling, singing, and an English lesson on selling and buying fruits and vegetables at the market. At noon, everyone sat on mats to eat  lunch.

During this two-day English Summer Camp, the children engaged in an array of activities designed to spark joy, laughter, and motivation to love learning English. It all ended well, and we saw them with smiles as they went home.

The library is reaching into new communities as people from other neighborhoods visit and tell their friends about it. Last month a woman and her five daughters started coming to the library regularly and now they bring their friends with them. They play games and take books home to read.

Frequently there are requests for new books and many have been added in recent months. Also added to the library are games that challenge and enhance memory skills and these have been quite popular.

In a partnership with a local foundation, there is a Story & Play Group on Saturdays. People from the foundation along with volunteers from universities come to the library for a time of story reading, games, and a craft using pre-used items such as plastic bottles, styrofoam cups, and folded paper. The goals of this program include increased literacy and environmental awareness.

On English Conversation days, a mix of high school and university students, are fine-tuning their grammar and pronunciation while having discussions on various topics. They also enjoy learning through games.

Untreated tuberculosis kills nearly half of its victims in five years. The other half is left to suffer disabling symptoms, spreading the disease to as many as fifteen more people every year. Loved ones in the family are often the first to be infected.

Mrs. Yakeen lay on the floor of her village house last August, coughing day and night. She was too weak to walk, after tuberculosis spent five years consuming her body. In 2018, SEEDS health workers had helped Mrs. Yakeen obtain and start daily tuberculosis medication. If she had taken it for a certain number of months, she could have recovered. Sadly, Mrs. Yakeen complained of an upset stomach, and consulted a local sorcerer. He gave her a potion that made her throw up, declared her free of tuberculosis, and told her to stop the medication.

Without further treatment, Mrs. Yakeen grew sicker and thinner each year. Finally, she could not breathe. A sorcerer came to the house, but could not help. Her husband, in desperation, took her to an emergency room in the city. There, Mrs. Yakeen finally decided to resume the tuberculosis treatment that she had discontinued five years before.

SEEDS has helped to establish a tuberculosis bridge program designed for patients like Mrs. Yakeen. The program, called Jembatan TBC Kampar, now provides Mrs. Yakeen with transportation to healthcare facilities; training from an advisor she can trust; encouragement and accountability to maintain her course of treatment; and tracking of the illness to find and treat hidden cases in her community.

Jembatan TBC Kampar is currently screening Mrs. Yakeen’s family and neighbors for symptoms of tuberculosis. Eight-year-old Neeyat, her grandson, is unusually thin; he has coughed for months, and grew up in her home. Program workers transported him to government health facilities for testing and x-rays, and he was diagnosed. He has tuberculosis.

SEEDS and Jembatan TBC Kampar continue to bridge obstacles to overcoming tuberculosis in five areas: transportation, treatment, tracking, training, and trust. Meanwhile, Neeyat and his grandmother take their daily medicine to cure in a few months a disease that would claim their lives in only a few years.

A local Malay friend in South Thailand told me about her social project for the following Saturday. She likes helping people in need, even though she’s also not wealthy. Her plan was to visit 11 needy families in a district about 50 km away from town. She said compared to families in her own community, they are more needy. Then a thought came to my mind. We still had lots of donated second-hand-clothes at the foundation office. We wanted to give out most of them to needy families in a village near the office. But we could also give some of the clothes to these families. So the office staff sorted und packed all the clothes in smaller plastic bags. To make our visit worthwhile, the local Malay friend and I bought basic food items for these families, which we packed into food packages.

On Saturday, 3 SEEDS volunteers drove together with 6 local friends of another group to this village, 50 km away from our town. The lady in the first house had a dessert prepared for us, so we stayed there for a while to chat. Then a local villager took us to a few other houses, where we gave each family a food package and a bag of second-hand-clothes.

Finally, the local villager invited us to go to his house and have a meal there. We couldn’t drive there by car, so we all got on motorbikes and carried the rest of the food packages and clothes’ bags. It was a quite adventurous, narrow path which led us through the forest and rubber plantations.

We all enjoyed a rice meal with fish and other dishes. We had good conversations with the host family and were surprised how quickly time passed. Then on the motorbikes and back through the forest to the car. We were thankful that it only started raining heavily later. It was a good bonding time and meaningful experience to not just go on an outing together, but help needy people and bring them some joy and encouragement.

Cerdas Literasi or Smart Literacy (formerly known as I Love Reading) is one of the programs of a SEEDS’ partner, Pendar Pagi Foundation (YPP). Smart Literacy aims to assist communities, elementary schools and kindergartens to cultivate a culture of reading in children. This program equips teaching staff with child-friendly and effective training methods and teaching materials, like colourful picture books. Teachers are then able to present the process of learning to read and write in stages, making it fun for the children through active involvement. The teaching curriculum used is called “I Like Reading” (known in Bahasa Indonesia as Saya Suka Membaca  or SSM), and comes with a guidebook for teachers, visual aids and culturally-relevant picture story books.

First, the Smart Literacy staff determined which nearby schools or kindergartens could be invited to become Smart Literacy partners. Initial investigation took place in the rural and semi-urban areas surrounding the city of Pekanbaru; these communities have limited access to new facilities or methods that support education. Compounding the challenge to teach literacy skills is that many village children speak local dialects in their homes, whilst at school the language of instruction is the national language of Bahasa Indonesia. The kindergarten currently partnering with YPP is Az-Zahra Kindergarten in Tanjung Kudu Village, Tambang District. Implementation of the Smart Literacy Program at Az-Zahra Kindergarten began by providing levelled training to teachers beginning in July 2023.

When the new school year started in August 2023, the Az-Zahra teachers began using the SSM teaching materials with their kindergarten students. Smart Literacy staff members conduct regular visits to monitor the implementation of SSM materials. It is clear to the staff members that the teachers and students are already benefiting from the use of the SSM materials being used in the daily instruction. Teachers are increasingly mastering the teaching techniques and materials, and enjoy the teaching and learning process. The children are enthusiastic about their literacy lessons, and actively engaging to learn letter shapes and sounds.

In Thailand, the hot season and school summer holidays are traditionally from mid-March to mid-May.
This year’s hot season was one of the hottest every experienced throughout Thailand, including the southern region. Children from families with middle to high income families often have the chance to travel or attend tuition classes during the summer holiday, whereas children from low-income families often are left at home to their own devices as parents and families need to work.

SEEDS consultants run summer football camps for children and youth from such families, with the main aim to provide fun sport activities during the summer holidays. The one-month camp was made available for free due to our partnership with a local stadium owner who wanted to help the children and youth in his community. During the camp we were able to implement value-based coaching for the children and youth we worked with. Most of the children and youth that joined in the camp were from low-income families and although challenging at times, it was a privilege to invest in the lives of these kids during the camp. One highlight was how positively the children and parents responded to the camp as they continued to ask us “this was so fun, when will it run again?”