Ban Kaat Hostel - For Ethnic Minority Students
Near Chiang Mai Thailand.
David Townsend SJ
Recently I went with Fr Vinai to see how the new hostel building was coming along. You may remember the story, in the Summer 2006 issue of Jesuit and Friends, of the problems encountered by the ethnic minority students living in the remote villages in the mountains. And here it is, growing before our eyes, the reality of what was once a dream - now a dream come true - for the present students and those who will benefit after them, for Khun Marychai, the hostel supervisor, and for Fr Vinai, who started this enterprise several years back when training to be a priest.
All of these students are the first ever in their families to have had any secondary school education. In some cases they are the first in their families to have completed their primary school education. We have great hopes that some, perhaps many, will in the future be enabled to continue their education at university level. Indeed the Seven Fountains Education Sponsorship is currently aiding a few students at university.
A sincere and profound ‘thank you’ for your generosity, readers of Jesuits and Friends, in making possible this extension, allowing us to provide the opportunity for secondary education to a few more ethnic minority hill-tribe students who would otherwise miss out completely.
