The popularity and success of the Santikiri School, English Fun Day sessions in Chiang Rai province has led SA founders Daniel Fraser and Scott Coates to start a new version of the program at a school in suburban Bangkok. The 700 mostly Muslim students from Grades 1-6, at Surowa Huamark Noi School in Bangkok’s eastern suburbs enjoyed their first free session of English instruction in June 2003.

“We’ve had so much interest from foreigners wanting to teach while on holiday in Thailand we simply had to start a second program,” explains Fraser. “This is a great chance for suitable candidates to volunteer anywhere from three days to several weeks at a time and be part of a great program for the community.”

As is the case at most public Thai schools, the students at Surowa Huamark Noi regularly learn English from a Thai teacher. Prior to the launch of this program, there had never been a native English speaker teaching at the school.

This new teaching project, financially supported by the Rotary Club of Bangkok South has the objective, “To deliver a low-cost high-impact cultural learning experience to underprivileged children who ordinarily would never have an opportunity to interact with the Western world; and to inspire the children to broaden their understanding of the world by exposing them to westerners who can deliver English language instruction in a fun and engaging manner.”

With recent world developments this seems like the perfect opportunity to create a bridge of understanding between the area’s Muslim students and westerner visitors. An opportunity to spend time together will hopefully erode any fears or incorrect ideas about each other’s cultures and values.

We aim to conduct this program five times per school year. If you’re interested in participating as a volunteer teacher, please fill out our Bio Questionnaire. If you have questions after reading this information, please contact us at community@smilingalbino.com.

• The Questionnaire (text document - paste this into an e-mail)
• Scott Coates' story about the launch