Schools in Thailand are closed until the end of June. Fortunately, the number of people inflicted by COVID is relatively small compared to other countries in the region, thanks to our excellent public health system. At this time, some provinces have restricted entry to non-residents.The Bamboo School has been closed since March and being a boarding school 20 students including 3 Vietnamese and 3 Cambodians are able to stay at the school as travel to their countries has been restricted. As for the Thai students, their parents believe that the school is a safer environment than their home districts. All teachers continue to reside at the school to take care of the students.
The students and teachers spend much of their time growing vegetables, making masks and cooking food to be distributed to the elderly citizens and those grandchildren in their care. In the past, their income has been generated from money sent from family members working in towns and cities in the hospitality, retail and factory sectors. The coronavirus outbreak has put a break to this. In the meantime, most of these families work in basic subsistence agriculture.
Apart from taking care of the vegetable farm at the bamboo school, students have spent 3 days a week providing food and drinking water for underprivileged villagers in 16 communities surrounding the school. We concentrate on providing help to elderly citizens and the grandchildren in their care. We are pleased to see that while all other students in Thailand are staying at home, our Bamboo school students are happily working to ensure that no one in the villages are left behind. Most of the day students spend time caring for the vast school vegetable farm, cooking, making masks and make regular visits to local district hospitals and COVID-19 checkpoints to offer food, bottled water and encouragement to medical staff and policemen.
Empathy has always been the focus of our school culture and an important part of our curriculum and we believe that the most effective approach to instill empathy in students is experiential learning. That explains why we are keen on not charging any tuition fees, which are instead contributed by students and parents sharing responsibility in planting 800 trees and performing 800 hours of community services
per year.
We strongly believe that through these activities, students are cultivated with the seed of empathy and a sense of sharing – the quality that will be nurtured and stay with them for the rest of their lives. This crisis and their willing participation in community service will strengthen their belief in generosity and kindness at an important time in their lives.
