|
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]
|
|
|
