A HOSTEL IN THAILAND
The students with Fr Vinai (in the white cap)
Vinai Boonlue SJ opened a hostel for hill people whilst he was studying for the priesthood. It’s expanding and he needs your help.
Education is one of the most important ways of empowering the weak in our world. It can open the eyes of those living on the margins of society to a wider world. It can give them options for a better life. It can offer them the tools for effective freedom of choice.
There are many ethnic minority (hill-tribe) people living in very difficult situations in the north of Thailand. Their land has been declared as National Park Reserves in order to conserve much of the north of the country as a ‘green zone’, but this has meant that they cannot expand their areas of cultivation. They cannot even cut bamboo or trees to repair their modest homes, or to build new ones. These villages are also under constant threat of being moved by the authorities. This ‘village removal’ has happened several times in recent years, with disastrous results for the displaced people who lack the necessary skills to establish a meaningful life in this modern world. Their main hope for the future is the education of their children.
Ban Kaat Hostel is located in the Mae Wang district, 35 kilometres (22 miles) from Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a compound of three small buildings, housing hill-tribe teenagers, so that they can attend high school. There are no high schools near the 25 villages that send their students to the hostel. We had a waiting list for the present school year, which started in May.
Ten years ago, Chiang Mai Catholic Social Action Centre bought a small piece of land, about 3 rai (approx. 1 acre), near Ban Kaat High School, hoping in time to build accommodation for hill-tribe students. After a hill-tribe girl was almost raped, near the house where she was renting a room so she could attend school, a group of villagers from the area came together to discuss the possibility of obtaining a safe house, which their children could use as a boarding house whilst at High School. Fr Vinai Boonlue, then a Jesuit scholastic and an ethnic Karen, who had grown up in the mountains, volunteered to try and raise the necessary money to erect the first buildings on the Ban Kaat land. Begging letters were sent to a variety of individuals and to religious congregations and after a year-long campaign 600,000 baht (about £9,000) was raised.
The parents of the students willingly gave of their time to help with the construction of three dormitories and a small house for the supervisor. Most of the students who stay at the hostel are not Christian. This is because most of the Catholic or Protestant children are usually sent to mission schools or private Christian hostels. However, the non-Christian hill-tribe students, particularly the girls, have nowhere to live in this area. Occasionally, a family can afford to send a girl to board in the city, but this is often not a safe option. It also doesn’t provide a culturally supportive community for these young people who are living away from the mountains for the first time.
Currently, the Seven Fountains Fund for the Poor pays the monthly electricity and water bills. It also sponsors 21 of the students’ annual school fees, which are 3,000 baht (£43) for each person and pays the monthly salary (£61) of the supervisor. Khun Narychai, the supervisor, was previously a candidate for the Thai Jesuits, but decided to pursue another way of life. He now offers support and supervision for his Ban Kaat boarders. The parents pay for books, food and personal items, They also volunteer their services to help repair and maintain the buildings. Seven Fountains is the Thai Jesuits’ spirituality centre in Chiang Mai. Ban Kaat is one of their many outreach programmes.
In the six years that the hostel has been in operation, all the senior boarders have completed their courses and all have graduated. During a recent visit by a Seven Fountains group, practically all the current Ban Kaat boarders expressed a wish to progress to teacher training college, in order to return to their mountain communities as teachers.
Last year, the hostel was running at full capacity, with 23 boarders. This year, as there were so many applicants, it was decided to double the capacity by equipping the current building with bunk beds and to raise money to build a new two-storey dormitory. Our aim is to start work in August, provided we can raise the necessary funds. The villagers work in the fields during June and July, so work cannot begin until after the crops are harvested. Once the building is finished, it will need equipping with lockers and beds, leaving no room for study. As the present hostel is so crowded, we are building an open-sided structure, from donated materials, to be used as a study hall until we can complete the new block.
The whole project will cost 400,000 baht, which sounds a lot until you realise that this is only £6,000. Any help you can give will be gratefully received and you will be remembered in our prayers.
Vinai Boonlue SJ
Some of the students