There was an urgent appeal, which came via Noy of the YWCA, to provide water filters to a school just outside Pattaya, and as usual, The Growling Swan was there to help solve the problem.
Not many of those living in the area are aware that there are 90 plus schools in and around Pattaya; big, small and medium schools with the number of pupils starting at 140 rising to 2,500 in the city centre, but the majority are tucked away off the beaten track in a small village unseen by most of us. Many of these schools do not have access to clean drinking water and this has to be purchased by the student’s families or the school. If there are 2 or 3 children in the family this could amount to many hundreds of baht per month and in one case, the school provided water for the students at a cost of 2,000 baht per week. These are funds that could, otherwise, be used for essential items around the home or school but there is nothing more important for the basis of a healthy body than access to drinking water and this is what we were doing at Ban Banglamung School.
Peter Grey and his members of The Growling Swan provided the funds to have commercial water filters, with UV technology, installed for which Apinporn and her staff were delighted. An additional feature of drinking water in a small village is that families can bring along a large bottle when collecting their children and fill the bottle thereby saving much needed funds for the family.
Pupils start at this school at the age of three until twelve years when they leave to attend senior school. All the boys from the age of 5 learn Thai boxing techniques, a demonstration of which was performed by many of the children.
The guests were invited to a delicious lunch with the children and staff which rounded off a very enjoyable and rewarding morning.
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