Baan Don Sai is a small agricultural local village consisting of about 230 homes with a population of 800 people that it is located 15 minutes from small towns of Julaporn and Ronphibun in Nakorn Sri Tammarat province, Southern Thailand. Villagers are mostly Buddhist and their main occupation is various in agriculture owning rubber plantation, palm oil farm, rice fields and vegetable gardens. Relationship of villagers living in the community there is quite strong with many of the families have lived in this village for over 100 years.

Regarding organizing this work camp, it will be our first collaboration with the responsible teachers of Baan Don Sai School and active villagers. This local government school has been founded already for over 50 years. Since obstacle and hardship of cut support of the government in the past, this school would have not existed if the villagers had turned a blind eye for their children’s future in education. It happened in the past 10 years ago that loss of interest of outside government-paid teachers for their transfer to base in this school caused a big problem resulting in an official shutdown to the school operations. In addition, parents’ intention to send their kids to other schools in nearby towns was one cause that made number of kids in this school decreased. Sadly, in the end the Thai government proclaimed to close down the school in 2007.

Of course, arguments and discussion were continued to occur. Villagers gathered to find a solution hard, and in the end they decided to invite a local just-graduated young teacher (Teacher Surin) to join this school. They could find also another teacher based in a nearby school (P. Nouai), he’s invited to be a principal of the new school. Then a year later, the school came back to officially open again. In the beginning, number of kids (only 20) was not sufficient to get a sure support from the government. The new team (teachers) looked for other way to call for support from villagers and public donations. 5 years later, number of kids increased to 61 of average providing curriculum from kindergarten to Grade 6, aged from 4 to 12 years old. 4 teachers are paid by the government while 3 others are supported by donated fund from both villagers and outside donators. There are also 3 other staff as well. A library and a kindergarten section were built in the school compound. Villagers take turns to cook lunch for children and voluntarily donated rice fields (they plant rice and vegetables together with kids) to provide non-buying food for the school. The principal and the teacher team are very active and are always looking for outside support. It doesn’t always count on financial support but it’d rather be extra-curriculum activities like teaching about environment, local values and wisdom and language with very natural methods.

In general, Baan Don Sai School has the particularity of being well-supported by the villagers around and acts as the community gathering place. Local people are motivated to take responsibility in education of their kids and the outcome is very beneficial. Since 2008, with help of a fresh team of the teachers and the great principal (P. Nouai), they manage to give a good dynamic to the school and to the community in general. They wish to continue their efforts toward solidarity and harmony in the village and welcome visitors and volunteers who can contribute to this beautiful action.

- To support Baan Don Sai School. The school is the center of life in Baan Don Sai Village.
- Improvement for better education for both locals and international volunteers.
- Locals be able to communicate in English.
- Experience and ideas shared towards preserving/improving the social life of Baan Don Sai community.
- Long-lasting learning exchange between villagers, their children and international volunteers.
- Acknowledging importance of sustainable agriculture.
- Understanding the importance of the village community life.

As discussed with the responsible teachers and the active villagers, possible activities agreed will be...

- Giving non-formal, creative classes regarding education to kids/organizing activities with kids using English tool.
- Agriculture/creating vegetable gardens around school compound for lunch support project.
- Joining with villagers in local activities (sports, cooking group, artificial flower-making group, visiting the village temple, etc).

Volunteers will stay in one of the school buildings. It is one big room that everyone shares the space together.

Julaporn district, Nakorn Sri Tammarat province, Southern Thailand.

7,500 Baht (approx. 190 Euro) to be paid upon arrival.

Thamphasantitham Temple is a place for practicing meditation and building strong relationships with local people. The temple is in the center of the community, where everyone can come to learn and share, do Buddhism activities inside the public place. In the past, the temple is the center of the community, after free from their own work of villager, they will go to the temple to do sociality and voluntary work also for of Buddhism. But now people are far from temple, the monk and temple is now mostly the Buddhist image. People go to the temple only on Buddhism days.

Thamphasantitham Temple is still the center of the village’s soul, the center of learning sharing and meeting. The relationship between temple, school, and home is very important.This place well known for meditation, and there are many activities organized, such as mediation camp, learning Buddhism camp and they also welcome international volunteers to teach children English in the temple.

1. Learning and exchanging Buddhism way of living and Thai traditional community living. Volunteers will wake up early morning and follow the monk to the village, this is a routine activity of the monk to receive food from villagers every early morning (around 5:00 a.m.). Volunteers will be a part of Buddhism activity in the temple and in the community.Meditation practicing.
2. Planting trees
3. Trekking to learn environment conservation.
4. Ban huay taad School exchanging (Japanese – Thai exchanging) Thamphasantitham Temple Ban Huay Tad, Muang, Loei

Thamphasantitham Temple Na dok kham sub-distric, Naduang district, Loei

Volunteers stay in the temple together in one big room, with a separate area for males and females. It is a open air dormitory. Volunteers take turns to cook Thai food. You are encouraged to bring your ingredients from own country to help create cultural exchange between volunteers.

Loei Bus Terminal
Loei Airport

Chiangkan city
Phaya Cave

8,000 Bath to be paid on arrival

The camp work takes place in the temple. Shorts, and shirts that show shoulders are not allowed. Legs and upper arms must be covered at all times.

There is a saying that learning process has no ending, as learning is an essential process for everyone. The basic philosophy of the 4-element Agricultural Learning Center is when everybody keeps learning and shares what they know to other people, without wanting to compete with one another, the societies may be peaceful and everyone can live in harmony.
The 4-element agriculture is a natural practice that everyone can simply use in their daily life. As the basic elements of earth, water, air and fire are crucial for the existence of all living beings on earth. Misuse of the elements or inability to put it into practice, it would cause to lose the full value.

Definition of the 4-element agriculture

All the living beings; humans, animals, plants has at least one of these four elements; earth, water, air and fire varying in uncertain proposition. To work with this type of agriculture, we must have knowledge of the 4 elements and be able to classify the main element of each plant and how to grow them in the same pit, while we also have to live our life according to religious principles.

Philosophy of the 4-element agriculture

We grow our own food in a sufficient amount which will be enough for family consumption. There should be happiness also during the process and do it slowly. There is no rush in this agriculture; however, the work should be progressing as time passes. And more importantly, there is no need to think about the investment, fertilizer, or hiring extra labors as we have to make sure that it suits our lifestyle and financial capacity. We don’t need to think about money as long as we are happy with it.

Basic classification of plants’ elements

There are many ways to identify the plants’ element. And a few simple ways are to observe its taste, and where each of the plant grows and its characteristic, for instance.

The 4-Element Agricultural Learning Center or known in Thai as Kraset Tad Si is located in Khao Phra sub-district, Rattapoom district in Songkhla province, Southern Thailand. This small Muslim community has been living there and relying on natural resources from the watershed area of Khao Phra Mountain. For the community, villagers have created their own principles and commitment between humans and nature that every villager has equal right to share and use what exists in the forest in order to support their families, and in the meantime, they must maintain the richness of the natural resources.

Regards to this learning center, right now, there are about 45 team members involved in the center’s activities. Their roles are various from local wisdom teachers to activist assistants. The local folk wisdom has been created since many generations ago. It has been sustained and adapted based on relations between community and nature or among humans. The methods of doing this kind of harmonious agriculture, nature-friendly preservation, taking benefits from the natural resources in a non-harmful way , or even establishing a group of villagers for natural resources management have been the results from their long-term relations with the nature. The community members realized the importance of the nature and that it should be well-preserved and taken care of, in order to maintain the community’s survival.

First collaboration with Kraset Tad Si Learning Center

In 2013, with hospitality of the team members in the 4-Element Agricultural Learning Center, we had the opportunity to hold a seminar for our long-term volunteers at their place. We got a deeper understanding of their aims and activities as well as how the center functions. We exchanged our aims and ideas of how we could support each other. As a result, a decision was made that we agreed to collaborate in order to support their community and their aims to preserve and educate on precious local folk wisdom. In turns, international volunteers who have interest in self-reliant agriculture and nature preservation can also learn a lot during their participation.

Aims of Kraset Tad Si Learning Center

To learn and support the inheritance of the 4-element agriculture methods and other local folk wisdom from this community
To support this place to be a learning space for the community members and outsiders
To acknowledge the community youths about various existing local folk wisdom and knowledge in their own community

As formerly discussed with the learning center’s responsible people, there are these activities volunteers can contribute to this Learning Center as follows:
Construction/renovation work, to build a residence for future DaLaa long-term volunteers and help repair other buildings at the Learning Center.

Learning by doing, to learn methods of the 4-element agriculture as well as assist to take care of all flora grown in the Learning Center.

Non-formal Educational activities, to give knowledge in all various aspects where volunteers can contribute with the community kids and youths. For example, volunteer can organize activities relating to educational support such as mind enhancement, nature protection topics and non-formal English language classes at the community school and/or in the evenings at the Learning Center.

Volunteers will stay in the Center’s Thai-style residences.

7,500 Baht (approx. 190 Euro) to be paid upon arrival.

Rattopoom district, Songkhla province, Southern Thailand.

Thursday 14th of August, 2014 at 10 o'clock in the morning at Hat Yai train station.