Doing the part for charity

The day of social services arrived in the office yesterday where we, as a company, had dedicated the entire day to do charity work for the community. It was a company's global effort, so every offices from around the world was activated on this mission.

Our day started as early as 7 am and we had to travel about 2 hours upcountry to Srinawa Community School, Nakorn Nayok. The school has up to 130 students and 8 teachers. There is only one class for each grade with 18-20 students per class. However, the conditions of the classrooms are under-developed. The library is bare with the most updated publication being that of celebrities' magazines. The playground is filled with broken pieces, no longer usable. most unfortunate is that their annual lunch budget of 25,000 baht (~SGD 1,050) usually provided by the government, is being delayed due to the unstable political situation. All of the lunch is currently supported by people within the community.

The agenda for the entire company really was to surprise the kids by taking them out to Siam Ocean World, while at the same time, revive the condition of the premises. That means, we were split into teams to clean and paint 6 classrooms, nursing room, library, canteen and playground. Necessary children’s items were also donated to the school along with some cash.

No one from my company was spared on this day and I was assigned as part of the team to clean and paint one of the classrooms. It was a really hot day and not the most sanitary of conditions. Bless you if you had diarrhoea (which I did, but luckily wasn't a bad one). But we pulled through and boy! it was a lot of hard work. By the time the kids came back from their outing, we were all pooped. I'm aching all over now from the constant bending and painting the walls. We only arrived in Bangkok at 8-ish pm. So that's more than 12 hours travelling and purely physical labour!

It does feel quite rewarding to be a part of it, though. Only, I felt that the kids are probably too young to understand the significance of it and were more excited by the physical gifts we brought them. Here are some pictures.

On the way, poster in the classroom, starting the clean-up

Almost there, resting (and the only girl wearing heels!), a startled-looking me

Job done, the actual classroom tables and desks

In and around the school

Giant speakers, antique stencil (?) and typewriter, the library, another classroom

No flush latrine, Parade Ground, Playground, Canteen

Kids coming back from outing, message on the board

And finally, a really exhausted looking me!