Category Archives: SEEDS News

Pendar Pagi Foundation – Integrated Farming Skills Training

SEEDS partner, Indonesian non-profit foundation Pendar Pagi, shares SEEDS’ commitment to help alleviate poverty in Southeast Asia through journeying with and equipping local people in the Riau province of Indonesia with applicable life skills.  One opportunity that is currently being developed is to come alongside poorer families in one of the province’s regencies and developing their potential and capacity for raising fish and aquaponic vegetables. 

Read more »

Football is back!

Due to Covid-19 outbreaks in Thailand and up to 12 months of online learning, the football projects in south Thailand were not able to run for much of 2021 and early 2022. However, during the month of March 2022 (start of the summer holidays in Thailand) SEEDS workers were able to run a football camp for children and youth just outside of Hat Yai, in Songkhla province.

Read more »

Parenting in the Community

The community development charity team were so glad to be back face-to-face in our focus urban poor community earlier this year.
We ran our six-week parenting course in both kindergartens between February and March. The team had great conversations with mums about the realities of bedtime routines when living in one room with a lot of noise and activity continuing through to late at night, about the impossibility of controlling snack intake in an extended family context, and about the importance of family meetings when conflict arises.

Read more »

GARBAGE, GARBAGE EVERYWHERE

Anyone who has visited Indonesia will know that the country is plagued by a garbage problem. It is thrown into rivers, blocking drains and causing flooding. Single use plastic is burnt in neighbourhoods, filling the air with acrid smoke. Thousands of tons of kitchen waste, rotten fruit from wet markets and coconut husks are thrown into garbage containers where they are rapidly filling up the city dump.

Read more »

English Conversation class for village children in South Thailand

English Conversation class

Five years ago I started to teach an English Conversation class for children in a village in South Thailand during their summer holidays. A local friend invited me to teach her children and their friends from the community in her house. The children enjoyed coming as they didn’t have much else to do except playing with their friends. I used objects and pictures to teach them English words in an informal, playful way.

Read more »

Football kicks off again!

While a large percentage of the world’s youth have returned to school and social activities, schools in Thailand have remained online for the past two years.  There are signs that change may be coming, however.  Youth in underprivileged sections of the capital city are eagerly anticipating the opportunity to play football again soon.  After two years of quiet and empty football fields, signs of life are starting to appear.  

Read more »

Sustainable and Adapted Development: Watching its Progress from a Distance

months have passed since one of our SEEDS worker had to abruptly leave South Sulawesi (Indonesia) where one of SEEDS’ partners, Hasanuddin University, is located. On his flight back to Indonesia at the beginning of December 2021, our SEEDS worker wondered how the project of developing a curriculum in Digital and Embedded System Design based on FPGA technology has evolved in his absence.

Read more »

Yayasan Tunas Aksara Train 37 teachers in Kupang, Indonesia

SEEDS partner Yayasan Tunas Aksara (YTA) has equipped 37 teachers from 20 schools in Timor, Eastern Indonesia, to teach reading effectively using its Saya Suka Membaca [I Love Reading] curriculum.
This partnership with the Indonesian Ministry of Education’s Program Organisasi Penggerak will see almost 1,000 children taught the foundations of literacy in a fun and engaging way.

Read more »

Sustainability is the Key

One of the big challenges that SEEDS faces is to make a sustainable contribution. International development projects may seem fruitful and effective, but the real acid test is when the outside resources, both funding and personnel, stop flowing. At this point it becomes clear whether there has been genuine empowerment and lasting transformation, or not. Ensuring that development partners are self-funding is an important part of the development process. This is why a new café in West Sumatra is such an exciting venture.

Read more »

Thailand sports

The quiet and empty football fields across the capital city are a constant reminder of the pandemic’s ongoing impact on young people. 
The government’s pandemic restrictions over the past months have closed all schools nationwide and canceled all youth sports activities.  
It has been difficult for many people to see beyond obstacles to opportunities.

Read more »