Day 15 / Warm Heart
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Today we (and by we I mean only a few people in our group) got up early and drove to Phrao on our day off to see our professor's NGO, The Warm Heart Foundation. I cannot say how impressed I was by the scale of their operation for an NGO that is only 11 months old.
Incredible! They have four big projects going on: Micro-financing, A biomass plant, children's home, and an HIV / AIDS project. The most interesting (to me) was the children's home. The Children's home is two houses that have been built for Children living in villages up on the mountains who don't have access to school. Without these homes the two options facing these children would be either to go to an orphanage so that they could attend school or to simply not attend school. Warm Heart offers housing for children within the village of Phrao. Right now only 5 students are living there because the project literally just kicked off this past month but they have space for 20+. The complex has a fish pond (fully stocked with 1000 fish), an orchard for fresh fruits, a chicken coop, and a soccer field -- all of which was built within the last year. The place is simply mind blowing.
I hope I can describe it better in the future... but man, was I impressed. If you have a vision, you can do amazing things!
Everything about this place was cool -- from the mountains encasing the village to the lushness of it all. We were also shown a good time by our hosts -- they various members of the NGO and were given a great lunch at the children's home. We were also taken to Village #2 (that's literally its name, I think) by the District's President who is very excited that Engineers Without Borders is coming to fix their drinking water supply. Apparently they have a lot of manganese in the water and it builds up on the pipes. The President actually took apart a pipe to show us. It was pretty disgusting.
At the children's home I was simply overwhelmed by how well-thought out everything was and how perfectly put together everything appeared to be despite only having been in operation for one month. The kids, of course, were at school. Apparently, however, it has become the local hangout and all the village kids come to Warm Heart to do their home work and receive extra English lessons.
Another cool part is the silk worm thing they have going on. They have a ton of silk warms (thousands) and make their own silk and then use it to make various products which are sold in the USA to help support the NGO. I got to hold a worm (glorified Caterpillar) which felt weird. The feet marched across you like little suction cups, tickling your skin. They were this strange green-yellow color and simply chowed through leaves.
Again, I noticed the huge number of stray dogs and, at one point, this little white mutt of some kind came up to me and started whining. I can't explain how you know a dog is friendly and wants something but I cautiously offered out my hand and ended up spending about twenty minutes de-ticking the poor thing. I felt pretty bad for him. Thai people don't worry about ticks, however, because I guess they don't have Lyme disease here. Still, they are so gross! Especially when they get big and fat.
Sorry this is ramble-y and more chaotic than usual. I was going to stop about four paragraphs ago but then found I had more to say. Well I'm off to bed.
read more at www.warmheartworldwide.org
<3
Incredible! They have four big projects going on: Micro-financing, A biomass plant, children's home, and an HIV / AIDS project. The most interesting (to me) was the children's home. The Children's home is two houses that have been built for Children living in villages up on the mountains who don't have access to school. Without these homes the two options facing these children would be either to go to an orphanage so that they could attend school or to simply not attend school. Warm Heart offers housing for children within the village of Phrao. Right now only 5 students are living there because the project literally just kicked off this past month but they have space for 20+. The complex has a fish pond (fully stocked with 1000 fish), an orchard for fresh fruits, a chicken coop, and a soccer field -- all of which was built within the last year. The place is simply mind blowing.
I hope I can describe it better in the future... but man, was I impressed. If you have a vision, you can do amazing things!
Everything about this place was cool -- from the mountains encasing the village to the lushness of it all. We were also shown a good time by our hosts -- they various members of the NGO and were given a great lunch at the children's home. We were also taken to Village #2 (that's literally its name, I think) by the District's President who is very excited that Engineers Without Borders is coming to fix their drinking water supply. Apparently they have a lot of manganese in the water and it builds up on the pipes. The President actually took apart a pipe to show us. It was pretty disgusting.
At the children's home I was simply overwhelmed by how well-thought out everything was and how perfectly put together everything appeared to be despite only having been in operation for one month. The kids, of course, were at school. Apparently, however, it has become the local hangout and all the village kids come to Warm Heart to do their home work and receive extra English lessons.
Another cool part is the silk worm thing they have going on. They have a ton of silk warms (thousands) and make their own silk and then use it to make various products which are sold in the USA to help support the NGO. I got to hold a worm (glorified Caterpillar) which felt weird. The feet marched across you like little suction cups, tickling your skin. They were this strange green-yellow color and simply chowed through leaves.
Again, I noticed the huge number of stray dogs and, at one point, this little white mutt of some kind came up to me and started whining. I can't explain how you know a dog is friendly and wants something but I cautiously offered out my hand and ended up spending about twenty minutes de-ticking the poor thing. I felt pretty bad for him. Thai people don't worry about ticks, however, because I guess they don't have Lyme disease here. Still, they are so gross! Especially when they get big and fat.
Sorry this is ramble-y and more chaotic than usual. I was going to stop about four paragraphs ago but then found I had more to say. Well I'm off to bed.
read more at www.warmheartworldwide.org
<3
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