RAWCS Project 13-2005-06, Children of the Golden Triangle,Thailand (RAOAF) – Piers Booth
For two weeks in July 2005 Brian Goldstraw, his son Geoffrey, Bill Pearson, Roger Powell (all from the Rotary Club of Hall) and Trevor Phillis (Rotary Club of Kiama) embarked on a RAWCS Project in Northern Thailand to teach Youths, at a hostel for young children, how to build bunk beds, so hundreds of kids no longer had to sleep on the floor. It was a very successful capacity building project in which the Children of the Golden Triangle Training Centre were very thankful of the support this RAWCS sponsored initiative delivered to the wellbeing of so many very young, disadvantaged kids. For the Rotarians, it was an experience of a lifetime where they were emersed in a culture of gratitude.
The Children of the Golden Triangle Centre was established to stop children being abused. Girls were being trafficked into the sex industry and boys were being used as slave labour from the Hill Tribes in the Golden Triangle where the parents of these children were invariably drug affected from the opium trading in the area and very concerned for their children’s welfare.
The aim of the Centre was to provide accommodation & schooling for the Hill Tribes’ children from the local villages in the ‘Golden Triangle’ so they would have a better chance in life than their parents.
At the Centre, all the children were sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The purpose of the RAWCS’ team, during the two weeks in location, was to train a group of 8 to 10 boys in metal fabrication skills, a very practical trade for the boys, firstly to build the many bunk beds needed and secondly, to find employment after leaving school and avoiding being coerced into slavery.
The first week for the team was dedicated to designing the bunk beds and the jigs to ensure the steel tubing was cut to the correct length and the welding of the joints were square and to prepare an instruction manual, including instructions in Thai, through the aid of an interpreter. During the second week, the team taught the boys the skills for the preparation, welding and finishing the bunk beds.
Whilst the team only built a small number of beds before departing, the boys were taught the skills required to complete many more beds, without supervision. This resulted in an enduring legacy from a wonderful RAWCS development project, again making a huge difference to people in need, who were able to master the knowledge and skills to help themselves.
Of course, like with all RAWCS projects, there were significant side benefits. It was a great team exercise which brought together:
- Rotarians from two Clubs,
- One Club member’s 16-year-old son (Geoffrey Goldstraw) who had just learned welding at school and was the “expert” in the welding bay, was able to pull his weight as part of the team, and to build his self-confidence emersed in a foreign culture,
- Geoff’s friend (Matt Chaplin) who was a Youth Exchange Student to Southern Thailand, and fluent in the Thai language, was able to help the team with his translation ability.