Make PattayaMail.com your Homepage | Bookmark              SERVING THE EASTERN SEABOARD OF THAILAND             Pattaya Blatt | Chiang Mai Mail | Pattaya Mail TV
 
Pattaya Mail Web
 
Our Children
 


Children from St Andrews School visit beautiful Nong Nooch

The children research new facts for their plant projects in the inspiring environment of Nong Nooch.

Gary Foster, Year 2 teacher at St Andrews International School

On a scorching hot day in May, to complement our learning about plants, we took a hugely enjoyable Year 2 field trip to Nong Nooch Tropical Gardens. The botanical garden there is largely considered to be the biggest and most beautiful botanical garden in South-East Asia. It has the world’s largest palm collection, the largest variety of orchids in Thailand and other tropical flora and fauna.

It wasn’t all work for the children - they also had time to play on the giant ants.

On arrival, we took a bus tour of the site and took in the views of the gardens. At Nong Nooch, there are a variety of gardens inspired by places all over the world including: Traditional Asian tropical gardens and the incredible Cactus Garden, as well as the French and Roman gardens. After that, we took a walk along the ‘skywalk’ and made our way over to the Pottery Garden. This proved to be one of our favourites and we had lots of fun taking pictures there.

At the same time, we tried to spot the plants that we had chosen for our projects. Later in the morning, we walked around the Cactus Garden and we were careful not to touch the sharp needles on the hundreds of different cacti we saw there. They came in many sizes, many shapes and even many, different colours.

In the afternoon, after a tasty lunch of chicken and rice, we enjoyed walking around more of the attractions at Nong Nooch. We finished off the day with a well deserved ice-cream, which was just what we needed on such a hot and humid day.

Visiting Nong Nooch and seeing all the wonderful gardens proved really useful to us, helping us to learn more about a wide variety of plants and inspiring our students to learn more about their environment.

The children from St Andrews learn all about cacti.

The views are stunning across the botanical gardens.


Good Karma Camillian at Regent’s School

The Regent’s School Pattaya and the Camillian Social Center Rayong at the beach.

James Harris

On the 22nd May, children from the Camillian Social Centre in Rayong and from The Regent’s School, Pattaya had a fun-packed day at Nam-Rin Beach. The event comprising nearly 100 people was organised by The Regent’s School, Pattaya, as part of their commitment to interact with the local communities. The Camillian Centre is a partner of The Regent’s School.

Operated by the St. Camillus Foundation of Thailand, the Camillian Social Centre supports and manages seven projects in South-East Thailand, such as a medical care unit, networking for people living with HIV/AIDS and a scholarship program for orphaned children. The projects work together for solving social issues resulting from HIV/AIDS.

This warm Sunday afternoon was fun-packed for everyone. The games started with a massive tug-of-war, before the enormous number of kids split into doing different activities. There was something for everyone to have a good time, as the activities ranged from football to making sandcastles, to simply playing around in the water.

After a couple of hours at the beach, the many staff and children powered down at a local restaurant, where they enjoyed gallons of soft drinks to cool them in the blazing sun and feasted on a banquet lunch.

“This has been such a great day, I’m so glad I decided to come here today,” said Kerone, an exchange student currently at The Regent’s School.

After the meal, representatives from The Regent’s handed over a donation of 35,000 baht to the Camillian Centre, enough for the monthly scholarship of 70 Camillian students.

Reinvigorated, the people returned to the beach for some swimming and final games of baseball.

At the end of the day, all the happy faces sent a clear message that it had been a good day, which will hopefully be the first of many such Sundays.

To help support the St. Camillus Foundation of Thailand, contact The Regent’s School at 038-418-777, or the Camillian Social Centre in Rayong at 038-685-480.

Mike Thomas, Head of Drama at The Regent’s School digs deep to win the tug of war.

Girls from the Camillian Social Center Centre showing their acrobatic talents.


IB graduates celebrate with gala dinner

Garden’s IB students celebrate the end of their studies with
a graduation dinner at the Holiday Inn in Pattaya.

Mark Beales

IB2 students from Garden International School in Rayong had a special graduation dinner to mark the end of their IB Diploma studies.

The dinner was held on Saturday, May 28, at the Holiday Inn in Pattaya and was attended by IB students, parents and teachers.

The food was great, the speeches were even better and a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all.

Congratulations to our graduating students Anushree, Brinda, TK, Jun, Ellen and Heiko.

We wish them all the best in their future studies and hope that they keep in touch with GIS wherever they are in the world!

Congratulations!


Sheraton Pattaya Resort shares love for students in Soi Kophai

The young students dutifully line up to eat and enjoy the delicious snacks provided by the Human Resources team from Sheraton Pattaya Resort.

The Kophai community, located off South Pattaya Road Soi 1, is one of the largest housing areas of very low income people in Pattaya with over 400 residents. The families live in small rented single rooms with the family often headed by a female. If employed they normally work in small enterprise, like food carts or low paying manual work. There is, as you would expect, a high level of crime, alcohol and drugs in the area.

Many of the people, particularly the children, do not have paper documentation to access basic government services like health care and school. The children, particularly the young pre-school ones, are mostly left during the day with very limited supervision in this harsh environment.

Happiness is all around when Ms. Malinee Turaharn (1st left, back row), the director of human resources for Sheraton Pattaya Resort, along with her team members and Pim from the Seaton Foundation went to the Child Care Center at Soi Khopai on Wednesday May 25.

The Seaton Foundation has been running a small school in the Kophai area for the past 6 years. A program was also developed to obtain proper documentation for children to attend public school. For pre-school children, the concept was to build an early learning center which would give the children a safe and secure environment to learn and have controlled activities. It would have the added benefit of allowing the parent(s) to work.

Ms. Malinee Turaharn (1st left, back row), the director of human resources for Sheraton Pattaya Resort, along with her team members and Pim from the Seaton Foundation went to the Child Care Center at Soi Khopai on Wednesday May 25, to share a moment of happiness with the children by bringing them soft drinks and snacks. The happiness is all around when shared.

Sheraton Pattaya Resort; tel. 038-259888, email: [email protected], address: 437 Phra Tamnak Road, Pattaya, Chonburi 20150. Website: www.sheraton.com/pattaya.

Guests from the Sheraton Pattaya Resort prepare snacks for the youngsters.


“In the swim” with Pattaya Sports Club

Children from the Blind School and Day Care Centre.

It started in December 2009 when a 5 year old boy from the Father Ray Day Centre fell into a canal and died from drowning. Following this event the Father Ray Foundation made the decision to provide swimming lessons for the children of the Day Care Centre and Blind School to make every effort to avoid this happening again. I am sure we are all very sad when we read of a young child drowning off the beaches of Pattaya and Jomtien and wish we could do something to stop this happening. The Father Ray Foundation and Pattaya Sports Club did just that with the help of all its members.

Once the first tentative steps have been taken, being in a pool is fun for most children, splashing your friends or perhaps an adult who happens to venture a little too near the edge, but it does have a serious side.

Having confidence in water is essential for the safety of everyone both young and old. Many of the children when they return to their home play near ponds or rivers and confidence when in water, whether by accident or intent, might just save some child’s life. After a short time the children are no longer fearful of water and look forward to spending time in the pool. Add to that, swimming is regarded by most people as being a healthy pastime so the children benefit in every way.

But it does not take too much imagination to realise that equipment and the upkeep of a pool is expensive and is a drain on any purse. Pattaya Sports Club was asked and the decision quickly made, that we would help with the finances. PSC had a well supported Charity Golf Day and contributed 130,000 baht towards the cost of professional swimming coaches, care and maintenance of the pool, the water supply, costumes, caps and goggles for the students.

Already a number of former students have represented Thailand in international competition and we look forward to the day that a student from Pattaya will bring home a Gold Medal following a swimming victory.

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh, Ms. Aurora, who devotes her life to helping the children of the Blind School, members of the PSC committee and Derek Franklin from the Father Ray Foundation were there to see, first hand, how the children enjoy themselves.

Deputy Mayor Ronakit Ekasingh discusses the benefits of swimming.


A new wheelchair for polio sufferers

Sister Pavinee, director of the Vocational School, welcomes Derek Philips.

Derek Franklin

The Polio Eradication Campaign started in Thailand in 1990, and the last polio case was reported in April 1997. However, although polio is now eradicated from the Kingdom there are many students currently attending the Redemptorist Vocational School for People with Disabilities who are living with the affects of contracting the viral disease as young children.

Father Michael presents a gift to Derek after trying out the new wheelchair.

Polio is a disease that attacks the nervous system, leaving victims paralyzed, many are unable to walk and destined for a life in a wheelchair.

Post polio syndrome is a condition that affects polio victims years after the initial acute attack of the poliomyelitis virus. Post polio syndrome symptoms include muscle weakness and a decrease in the size of the muscle, often leaving the sufferer with less strength and less mobility.

Several students at the Redemptorist Vocational School for People with Disabilities suffer with post polio syndrome and they have found that they are no longer able to walk using crutches or use a manual wheelchair; they just do not have the strength.

The only option for many who wish to continue mobilizing is an electric wheelchair, but these cost a lot of money, more money than most students can afford.

Thanks to Derek Philips, owner of ARC Windows & Doors Co. on Thappraya Road, the students now have the use of a brand new electric wheelchair. Along with his workers, Philips visited the school and presented the new chair to Sister Pavinee, director of the Vocational School, and Father Michael Picharn, vice president of the Father Ray Foundation, who was given the honour of being the first person to drive the wheelchair.

More information can be found at www.fr-ray.org or [email protected]


HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]

Children from St Andrews School visit beautiful Nong Nooch

Good Karma Camillian at Regent’s School

IB graduates celebrate with gala dinner

Sheraton Pattaya Resort shares love for students in Soi Kophai

“In the swim” with Pattaya Sports Club

A new wheelchair for polio sufferers
 

Advertisement

  Property for Rent
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas

  Property for Sele
  Condos & Apartments
  Bungalows - Houses - Villas
  Articles for Sale/Rent
  Boats
  Business Opportunities
  Computers & Communications
  Pets
  Services Provided
  Staff Wanted
  Vehicles for Sale / Rent: Trucks & Cars
 

 



News
 Local News
  Features
  Business
  Travel & Tourism
  Our Community
  Our Children
  Sports
Blogs
 Auto Mania
  Dining Out
  Book Review
  Daily Horoscope
Archives
PM Mike Franklin
Classic Charity Golf
Tournament
PM Peter Cummins
Classic International
Regetta
Information
Current Movies
in Pattaya's Cinemas

 Sophon TV-Guide
 Clubs in Pattaya
News Access
Subscribe to Newspaper
About Us
Shopping
Skal
Had Yao News
Partners
Pattaya Mail TV
 Pattaya Blatt
 Chiang Mail Mail

E-mail: [email protected]
Pattaya Mail Publishing Co.Ltd.
370/7-8 Pattaya Second Road, Pattaya City, Chonburi 20150 Thailand 
Tel.66-38 411 240-1, 413 240-1, Fax:66-38 427 596
Copyright © 2004 Pattaya Mail. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.