Short-term (2 to 4 weeks) "educational/teaching" projects in Thailand

Sam Nag Kam is a small sub-district of Sadao, Songkhla province, where the Thai-Malaysian border is 2 kilometers away from the campsite. The teaching project is situated in a normal and bi-lingual public school called Wat Sri Witedsangkaram, providing kindergarten to secondary. Students ages are between 3-15 years old. Most students come from different provinces through Thailand. They move to this school because of their parents work. The knowledge of English is half poor half fair, comparing with other bi-lingual schools in the city. Volunteers will have a challenge to teach in a bi-lingual part, about 100 students. It sounds like a rich school but it is actually not. Bi-lingual section students only pay low school fees for this curriculum. It is one of the government educational policies to give an opportunity to students who are fond of studying the language. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. With our teaching project, school provides some hours out of the Thai/Filipino teachers teaching English in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

All volunteers will stay in a school classroom together.

Sam Nag Kam sub-district, Sadao, SongKhla province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro) to be paid on arrival to DaLaa.

Tan Yong La Nai is a name of a small Muslim fishermen village where only a hundred families live in. The village is located in a far-away island connected by bridges. The dimensions of the island are only one square kilometer. It is no doubt that every single family regards the fishery industry as their main, permanent career. Also, there is a very small kindergarten and primary school in the village where there are only 60 students and 5 teachers. You will find no answer how those kids are good at English; they only know some basic words and the alphabet. It is worth a reward if you bring some sort of teaching creativity with fun games or songs with you. That is for the first week of the project. The second week will be all about environmental activities such as planting young seedlings in the mangrove forests, sharing hands with the locals to come up with the idea of useful activities for the village and making shelters for sea animals. As it is obvious that on both sides of the long, narrow road to the village, everywhere is green!

All volunteers will stay in a school classroom together.

Tan Yong La Nai village, La Ngoo, Satun province (south of Thailand)

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro) to be paid on arrival to DaLaa.

Chalung is a small Buddhist village of Hat Yai district, Songkhla province. The teaching project is situated in a junior-high school called Hatyai Jarernratpittaya, which is surrounded by a rubber plantation. Students are aged between 13-18 years old. There are about 461 students and 31 teachers. The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with other schools in the city. Most Thai Schools want foreigners to teach English at their school. For Thai children, English language is really difficult, the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. Some of the reasons most Thai children living far away from the so called civilisation have no chance to learn English by themselves - lack of home Internet access, a cause of poverty or a remote area. It is something they regret when they get older. With our teaching project, the school provides some extra hours outside the regular English teaching in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

All volunteers will stay in the teachers residence in the school area.

Chalung village, Hat Yai, Songkhla province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro), to be paid to DaLaa upon arrival.

Yang Ngam is a small Buddhist village of Bangklam district, Songkhla province. The teaching project is situated in a kindergarten and primary school called Baan Yang Ngam. Students are aged between 3-12 years old. There are about 150 students and 10 teachers.
The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with other schools in the city. Most Thai Schools want foreigners to teach English at their school. For Thai children, English language is really difficult, the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. Some of the reasons most Thai children living far away from the so called civilisation have no chance to learn English by themselves - lack of home Internet access, a cause of poverty or a remote area. It is something they regret when they get older. With our teaching project, the school provides some extra hours outside the regular English teaching in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

All volunteers will stay in the school classroom together.

Yang Ngam village, Bangklam, Songkhla province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro), to be paid to DaLaa upon arrival.

Baan Had Yao is a name of a small Muslim fishermen’s village where 600 people live in. The village is surrounded by the Andaman Sea; there is no doubt that most of the villagers regards the fishery industry as a main, permanent career, but a few families have their own business in tourism which provides them a good living.

There is a very small kindergarten and primary school in the village where there are only 75 students and 8 teachers. The English knowledge of the local children is very basic, they only know a few words and the alphabet. It is worth if you bring some sort of teaching creativity with fun games or songs with you. Teaching is mentioned as the first week job of the project.

The second week will be all about environmental activities such as planting young seedlings in the mangrove forests or sharing hands with the locals and their school to come up with the idea of useful activities for the village such as holding a day of beach clean-up or restoring the conditions of the mangrove forests.

All volunteers will stay in the teachers residence together.

Baan Had Yao village, Kan Tang, Trang province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro) to be paid to DaLaa upon arrival.

Eight years ago a Thai-French family with 3 children (12-year old girl is the oldest) started their dream of a new life experience in close harmony with nature. They bought a piece of land in a small valley far from the crowded cities and decided to build a small, spiritual and self-sufficient eco-village. They chose to lead a life "back to basics" without harming the precious nature in any way. It's like a model and an alternative way to escape from THE straight-to-the-wall civilization we are living in. Until now, they've planted over 300 species of fruits and edible vegetables for their family and invited people. Some friends came to join Jean-Luc and his family, stayed shortly or for longer periods and helped to make this dream come true. But last year when we (DaLaa) met them, there were only 6 people left, the family and one friend. Other friends had to go back to their countries. It's difficult to make a community with only one family.

By cooperating with DaLaa, they hope volunteers will come to participate in their community, sharing with them their eco-way of living. Since 2008 DaLaa has promoted OASIS for Medium and Long Term volunteering. Here is the first time OASIS would like to host a short term workcamp. All international/national volunteers applying for OASIS project through DaLaa are warmly welcome to be their guests as long as they respect the nature they live in!

Oasis is close to a small village where there is a primary school (3km). Like most of the schools, they are happy with help for English teaching as the teachers themselves are usually not very good in this language. It's a good opportunity for kids to have contacts with foreigners and they can understand the utility of English as they will want to communicate with you (English is the second language in Thailand and is very useful to find a good job, tourism…). It's also a good opportunity for volunteers to get more relationships with local people.

To be part of OASIS.
To support the nearby small primary school by giving non-formal English classes.

All volunteers will stay in the houses located on the waterfall stream's banks.

OASIS community, Vipawadi district, Surat Thani province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro), to be paid on arrival to DaLaa.

Baan Hua Kuan is a small Buddhist village of Hat Yai district, Songkhla province. It is about 15 kilometres away from Hatyai city. There are about 1,000 people living in it. Actually, the location connects to the other nearby villages. Most of the villagers work on the rubber plantation and some work for factories around the village. Quite a few inhabitants emigrated from the northeastern parts of Thailand. They are low-income workers whose children lack of educational opportunities. The teaching project is situated in a rural school, providing kindergarten to secondary sections, called Klong Nok Gra Tung. The school looks fairly spacious; nearly all school buildings are made of wood and separately scattered all around the school area. Sports pitches are available. There are about 318 students and 21 teachers. Students’ ages are between 3-15 years old. The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with other schools in the city. Most Thai Schools want foreigners to teach English. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and the pronounciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. These are some of the reasons most Thai children living far away from the so called civilization have no chance to learn English by themselves: lack of home Internet access, a cause of poverty or a remote area.

With our teaching project, school provides some hours extra of the Thai teachers teaching English in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (with games and songs) in a relaxing way.

To improve and enhance children’s English language ability.
To let children be familiar with volunteers and learn in an international/multi-cultural atmosphere.
To support Klong Nok Gra Tung school.
To build a good relationship between volunteers and local people.

All volunteers will stay in the school classrooms together.

Baan Hua Kuan village, Bangklam, Songkhla province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro), to be paid on arrival to DaLaa.

Klong Dan stands for “A Borderline Canal”. It is a small, compact Buddhist community situated on the boundary of Nakorn Sritamarat and Songkhla provinces and separated by an ancient waterway which is called Klong Dan. In the past, Klong Dan used to be a significant port and people used this canal as a gateway to travel from place to place. Gold and jewelry shops sprang up when Chinese traders and settlers moved in. Lifestyle of ancient people was flourishingly lively at that time, but after the development of road construction in the community, this famous waterway transportation lost its importance and by the time, most of the people left the place.
Nowadays, the group of people still living in Khlong Dan is forming a strong community and they aim to revitalize this place and attract more people to live there. There’s a temple where an abbot does not only play a role as an ordinary monk. He is the most important and respectful person in the community who can center the motivation of villagers in order to keep up with good and right morals that Buddhist people follow according to the teachings of Buddha. All Klong Dan monks and villagers have the same attention and goal to set up their community into a Paths-to-Buddhism Community by the concept for which people can help each other, lead lives with self-sufficiency and bear no racial and religious prejudices. Klong Dan community is expecting that DaLaa volunteers can help to make their place more attractive, develop more links with young people around the area, and invite them to be a part of the community. This project will be the first cooperation between DaLaa and Klong Dan. We hope we can develop stronger links in the future by sending long term volunteers there.

Volunteers will give non-formal English classes to the local public primary schools in the community. Ages of students are from 3-12 years old. The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with schools in the city. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and pronounciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. With our teaching project, school provides some hours extra of the Thai teachers teaching English as to get students motivated and interested in learning it. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (with games and songs) in a relaxing way.

- learning Buddhist paths (meditation, for example).
- joining in community groups. The villagers have other ways to make a living apart from being farmers and temporary workers. They form their own groups of craftsmen and skilled people making clay work/cement sculpture, cooking typically native food, teaching Nora, a traditional southern dance to interested people, processing seafood, manipulating decorative bushes/trees, providing homestay and making sweetened deserts, etc.

To improve and enhance children’s English language ability.
To support the local schools.
To build a good relationship between volunteers and local people.
To be part of Klong Dan community.
To let children be familiar with volunteers and learn in an international/multi-cultural atmosphere.

Volunteers will stay in a provided resident house in the community.

Klong Dan village, Nakorn Sritammarat province (south of Thailand).

7,000 Baht (about 150 Euro), to be paid on arrival.