Ruamrudee International School’s Interact Club Helps HFH Thailand’s Flood Response
April 10, 2012
Students Raise Over One Million Baht And Volunteered On Habitat Build In Lopburi Province
Nearly 170 volunteers from Ruamrudee International School and its sister schools worked in Lopburi. Photos: courtesy of Ruamrudee’s Interact Club.
BANGKOK, 10 April 2012: When the Interact Club of Ruamrudee International School in Bangkok built with Habitat for Humanity Thailand in early March, it was different from earlier builds.
This time, nearly 170 student volunteers and teachers helped to repair homes in flood-affected Lopburi province. The volunteers included students from sister schools in Bangkok and Myanmar.
To support Habitat’s Rebuilding Thailand flood response project, the students raised more than one million baht (about US32,500), enough to rehabilitate 10 houses.
More than 2,000 volunteers who have joined ReBuilding Thailand program since heavy flooding swept the country late last year.
Habitat’s volunteers have been helping out every weekend since early January. Many of the volunteers are staff from corporate partners such as Coca-Cola Thailand. Others are from local schools and universities.
Together with Habitat home partners, the volunteers have built more than 50 homes. The volunteers have also rehabilitated nine schools through cleaning, painting and landscaping works.
HFH Thailand is building new houses, repairing or rehabilitating homes as well as schools in Phitsanulok, Lopburi and Saraburi provinces in the north, and in Ayutthaya, Pathum Thani, Nonthaburi provinces north of Bangkok.
The new houses are built on top of concrete columns up to 2.5 meters in height. This will help to protect families from future flooding. In addition, floors and walls are made of a durable and economical cement-bonded particle board.
During the March build in Lopburi, the volunteers from Ruamrudee and its sister schools mixed cement, passed buckets of sand and rocks, dug holes and built walls. Habitat home partner families, HFH Thailand staff members as well as volunteers from a Thai military unit joined them.
“It was the best experience to be able to express sympathy and to literally help those unfortunate flood victims in Lopburi. If I had a chance, I would love to volunteer again,” said 18-year-old Maythita ‘May’ Eiampikul.
The Interact Club first began working with HFH Thailand in 2007. To date, the club has donated 1.6 million baht toward Habitat’s work in Chiang Mai, Korat and Lopburi. Over the years, more than 330 student volunteers have helped to build 10 houses and repair another 10.