Bangkok Patana Magazine
“As a supervisor and teacher of these wonderful young people, I found great satisfaction watching our Roots & Shoots kids integrate into this very different and wonderful culture and watching the smiles on the faces of everyone involved.” – Coke Smith, ESS Leader “Our hard work over the past two years on this project paid off in the moment when we huddled around the bamboo tables in the hut for lunch and the lights were turned on.” – Tina, Year 10
Together with a generous donation from our sponsor Energreen Solar, we managed to secure funding for twenty solar kits, a truly remarkable achievement for the SEC and the Patana community! When we first arrived at Pang Wua, we were rather worried about not ‘fitting in’ with the Lahu culture, which is completely different to the urban Chiang Mai or Bangkok culture we were used to. However, we soon found that the villagers to be friendly and extremely helpful. The installation process was fairly straightforward to learn, and many homeowners helped us to install the solar kits. Several villagers expressed their thanks for our visit with many team members delighted by the looks of joy on the family’s faces when the lights lit up. One villager even shook Mr Smith’s hand and said in rough Thai, “This was the best thing that ever happened to our village.” At the end of the
“My favourite part of the trip was the fact that all our hard work actually had a positive impact on someone’s life.” – Lucia, Year 10
the solar panels. It felt like we had really accomplished something.” – Tavisha, Year 10
“My favourite moment was when we ate the food the villagers prepared.” – Nan, Year 10
“We loved the trip because we got to help people.” – Prim, Year 10 and Lauren, Year 9
“The best part of the trip was seeing the villagers smile when we installed the solar panels and turned the lights on.” – Fai, Year 11
“The best moment of the trip was when the light turned on!” – Candy, Year 10 “I am beyond happy to be given the opportunity to be able to provide the villagers of Pang Wua solar panels, to provide them with lights.” – Tam, Year 11
“I really enjoyed going on the trip, it was an amazing experience that really helped us develop various skills. We had a fun time visiting the village and it felt really good to install
installation process, the villagers showed their thanks by cooking a delicious meal that many of us enjoyed while sitting in their homes under their new lights! When we left, over 10 houses had functioning lighting systems. The Roots & Shoots students felt that the learning experience of spending time with the villagers paralleled the service component of this experience and will be remembered for a lifetime. In the future, we hope to support Pang Wua by fundraising for even more solar sets, enough to electrify all the homes in the village, as well as providing their local school with teaching resources. If possible, we also hope to sponsor one or two local students for higher education in the area of Solar Engineering. Unfortunately, we also noticed whilst visiting that there was litter throughout the village. Even for such remote villages, the problem of plastic pollution remains large.
With this in mind, we hope to work with the village to integrate awareness of plastic pollution into their local curriculum. If you would like to contribute to this incredible project, please contact us by emailing Coke Smith (cosm@patana.ac.th) to become a donor. Below are the categories for our “Sponsor a Brick” program for our new Earthen Building in the Outdoor Classroom. All donations will go directly to help in our effort to provide solar power to Pang Wua Village.
Gold sponsor – 5,000 baht Silver sponsor – 2,500 baht Bronze sponsor – 1,000 baht Regular donation – 500 baht Naming Rights to the Outdoor Classroom Earthen Building – Open to bids TERM 2 – 2018/19
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