Rebuilding Education with Yatee in Huay E Khang, Thailand

Support Students in Huay Ee Khang After the Myanmar Earthquake

Goal: $6,000 USD

Following the recent earthquake in Myanmar, communities in nearby northern Thailand—including Huay Ee Khang Village in Chiang Mai—have been deeply affected. While these impacts are being felt throughout the region to varying degrees, rural livelihoods and ethnic minority status are additional barriers to both governmental and NGO aid.

Huay Ee Khang, a Karen (Pakayaw) village rooted in resilience, autonomy, and sustainable land practices, is one among those impacted communities. Specifically, the community's only preschool/ early childhood education center has received structural damage from the earthquake, making the building unsafe for children and forcing the village to relocate the facility elsewhere.

We are raising $6,000 USD to help Huay Ee Khang re-establish this early childhood education center and ensure that their children can safely return to class.

Contributions will go toward:

•⁠ ⁠Repairing damaged classrooms and school facilities

•⁠ ⁠Replacing lost or broken desks, supplies, and learning tools

•⁠ ⁠Supporting teachers and local staff during this transition

•⁠ ⁠Providing emergency educational materials to students in need

Notably, this is the first time that the village has sought monetary aid from outside their immediate network and this is therefore a historically significant problem. Generally focused on self-sufficiency as an approach to sustainability, leadership in the village is apprehensive of such unsustainable forms of aid.

However, as regional and subdistrict administration rolls back funding for the preschool program in Huay Ee Khang, using the earthquake as an excuse to shut the center down, the community is looking towards their extended community to fill this gap. Through years of partnerships with various governmental, NGO, and academic institutions, Huay Ee Khang serves as proof of concept for many and it is not lightly that we ask for support.

All funds raised will go directly to Nor Yatee Salaithongpres, a community leader in Huay E Khang and will be used for the sole purpose of restoring education and care to the community's children. Yatee is a leader in indigenous communities where agriculture is conducted by ecologically sound methods and she has been working on enhancing opportunities for youth leaders to improve economically viable products for self-reliant communities. Her team is composed of highland ethnic Karen (Lapato Organic Coffee), organic farming community leaders (Mae Tha Organic), a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef (Suwitra Wongwaree).