Who we are

You could make a huge difference in a young Thai student's life by supporting the Bangkok Post Foundation (BF).

Established in 1982, this Foundation has so far sponsored the education of eight needy rural Thai students and has helped to rebuild a school that was completely destroyed when Typhoon Gay devastated southern Thailand in late 1988.

The Bangkok Post Foundation's mission

To promote education and the educational activities of needy school children

To promote education and research work for the press.

To cooperate with other charities for the public interest.

Since the beginning of 1998, the Foundation has been concentrating its efforts on carrying out, as best it can, its first objective. In line with this, the BF is funding the education of eight school children, two in the North and six in the South this year. You can click on their pictures below to learn more about them. Additional funds are needed to continue this work.

Funding

The Foundation's initial funding, prompted by stories the Bangkok Post ran on the devastating Typhoon Gay in late 1988, came to 500,000 baht (approx. US$12,000.00). Since then, more donations have been made increasing the fund to approximately 1.8 million baht (approx. US$42,000.00).

Eligibility

The criteria for allocating assistance is that the children must be:

poor and have a strong desire to study

A strong academic result is not the main criteria for choosing students to sponsor.

Funds given to these students are derived purely from interest earned from donations.

Before allocating funds to individual students, staff members from Post Publishing Plc visit the children's homes and speak to their teachers, parents or guardians in order to determine whether they genuinely need assistance.

Scholarship opportunities

The Foundation is always looking for needy students to sponsor. We are already sponsoring students from the northern and southern regions of Thailand and, as with our fund growing, we are now able to include students from the northeast as well. Our ultimate goal, of course, is to be able to sponsor students from all regions of the country as our fund increases. If you know of anyone who may be eligible for sponsorship, please contact us at the address below.

Present work

At this point in time, the Foundation is in the process of embarking on a fundraising campaign to increase interest earnings in 1999 which would enable the Foundation to expand its assistance to more students throughout Thailand. We are committed to this drive despite the current economic crisis gripping the region. There are far too many rural Thai students facing severe hardship for us to give up this worthy cause.

BF Projects

The Bangkok Post Foundation rebuilt a school for the children of Ban Sapli in the South after it was destroyed in a typhoon in 1988. Now the economic crisis and a drought is devasting the area and the children need support if they are to continue their studies. You can help.

Starting over

In November 1988, a devastating typhoon blew through the south of Thailand. It destroyed vast areas. One of the worst hit was the little village of Ban Sapli.

Typhoon Gay, as it was called, destroyed coral reefs, felled thousands of trees, killed over 500 people and destroyed many of the houses in the area as it roared through. Among the buildings razed to the ground was the little Ban Sapli School which was reduced to rubble.

The news shocked readers who wanted to help the people of Patiew. They sent money to the Bangkok Post. Cash donations came to over a million baht and the Bangkok Post decided to use the money to rebuild the Ban Sapli School.

The first building had eight classrooms for pupils in kindergarten through to Pathom levels. The cost was about 1.4 million baht. The school was renamed Ban Sapli (Bangkok Post Suksa) School.

Since it was built, the school has expanded steadily. It now has 10 classrooms and a meeting hall for the 298 pupils enrolled in classes up to Mathayom 3. In three years' time, children will be able to study up to Mathayom 6.

A school of this size should have 18 teachers, but the government only has a budget to hire 12. This is not enough and headmaster Amorn Unthong has asked a monk from a nearby temple to provide funds to hire one extra teacher. This has raised the total number of teachers to 13, which is an improvement, but still far from satisfactory.

The school is now also too small for the number of students and teachers and there are not enough classrooms. One of the classrooms had to be converted into a sound laboratory, another into a science laboratory in accordance with political decisions emanating from Bangkok.

Another room may soon be needed for education via satellite. This means that the library and meeting hall now have to double as classrooms. A new building is urgently needed.

Headmaster Amorn sought help from the temple, from a nearby rock grinding mill and from some of the parents. He received about 170,000 baht but still needed another 200,000 baht.

He again asked the Bangkok Post if it could help and in 1997 two representatives from the newspaper went to Ban Sapli School with a cheque for 135,000 baht which was left over from the original donations.

The newspaper also promised to give the remaining 65,000 baht so the new building could be completed. It will include an auditorium, a classroom, a library and a small cooperative. Progress has been made: the roof is almost complete, the floor has been poured for the auditorium, but not yet for the library. The money will allow work to continue.

But then natural disaster struck again, this time in the form of the El Nino phenomenon which has caused a severe drought in the area. The drought is so serious that construction work at the school has had to stop for lack of water. A hand pump which draws underground water has also broken down.

The drought has also had a crippling effect on the families of the students, most of whom are farmers. Already poor, many of the students now find themselves even worse off, often not being able to afford three meals a day.

There is now very real pressure for the local families to take their young children out of school to help work and earn money.

Teachers are concerned with the trend and have done what they can to persuade parents to let their children continue their studies. In desperation, they have turned to the Bangkok Post Foundation for help.

The teachers have asked for financial support for six of their pupils who meet the Foundation's criteria that the children must be poor and must want to continue studying. It was felt that a strong academic result should not be the main criteria since the wealthier students would then be at an advantage. It was more important to help the impoverished youngsters who had a genuine desire to learn.