Sustaining Thailand's Treasures
A rare opportunity to live and breathe the beauty of Thailand beyond the mass media stereotype. See and participate in how Thais really live and help in solving the problems they have identified. You will find yourself in the most unique environments, possibly interpreting English songs for Buddhist monks on one day and cooking Pad Thai with your Thai family in the evenings. Your proximity to Bangkok (less than 1 hour by bus) and the surrounding treasures in Ayuthaya provide a wealth of opportunity for your free time.
Work Project
This program has an extremely wide range of outreach activities available to you, most of which involve work with Buddhist monks including, but not limited to: Helping at a Nursery, Training for the disadvantaged, enhancing capacity at Rehabilitation Shelter, Emergency Relief, Elderly Care Unit, teaching basic English in impoverished schools, and giving basic computer instruction.
Projects vary depending on the number of volunteers, which projects were finished (or not) with the prior group, what priorities have changed, weather conditions, which supplies are available, and often the interest and fitness level of the volunteers. For these reasons, specific projects are often not fixed until the week prior to your arrival and can even change upon arrival.
Click here to view a short video on this program.
Please note it may take a couple of minutes to buffer before viewing, but it does NOT download to your desktop.
Some of our Super Volunteer Coordinators
The Objectives of the Project Partnership in conjunction with our Host Foundation:
- To conserve and revive the natural environment
- To encourage the consistent realization and sustainability of Thai traditional agriculture & Culture
- To be an accumulation center of Thai traditional agricultural tools
- To be an education center of Thai tradition in terms of "Traditional Thai Gardener Words"
- To maintain a clean environment
- To encourage upright occupations in order to minimize social problems
- To care for the disadvantaged and for children and to arm them with sustainable skills
Food and Lodging
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Your Globe Aware Country Agent will meet you at the Bangkok airport or at a pre-arranged location at a specified pick up time. From there you will be taken to one of two possible lodging sites. One site is a traditional Thai style group set of homes. In these cases, several volunteers will share a home with Thai style bath facilities (no hot water, but RARELY missed in the tropical climate!), modified western style toilet (water is poured in to make flush), and limited electricity. The second site is in Bangkok at the headquarters of our host foundation (foundation lodgings). There is running water with overhead showers (no hot water) and toilets you flush by scooping water. Unlike the Thai style homes, which run on a generator, there is much more access to electricity at the foundation and plenty of space. The accommodations are on the 3rd floor of a 5 story building. Flavorful traditional Thai style meals are cooked fresh, with your help, throughout the day. Abundant, safe drinking water in each home.
Leisure Activities
Life moves at a delightful, slower pace in the Thai style homes near Wang Noi, where you will have ample time to discover things such as temple ruins, learn Thai cooking, get a Thai massage, go to floating markets, and other simple pleasures such as reading while perched in a hammock in a breeze. In Bangkok, the possibilities for experiencing the unique and ancient culture of Thailand are seemingly endless. Click here for a sample itinerary.
Arranging Your Airfare
You will need to arrange to be in Bangkok by 12:30pm on the Saturday afternoon your program begins. The program ends at 11am the following Saturday and it takes approximately 2 hours to get you back to Bangkok . The airport is one of the return drop off stops our driver will make. You would not want to arrange a flight that departs any earlier than 4:30pm on the return.
Click here to see a volunteer's video of the monks with whom we work
Click here to read journal entries from our Thailand Alumni
A note about Avian Flu.
Safety and Security
Fundraising Information