1) Ban Nong Puen Tag School is located in a poor village in central Thailand called Gangkrajan, where most people earn a living by working banana or pineapple plantations. Many of the children we taught live in an area where the houses are simply one-room huts and there is only one outdoor toilet for several families to share.
2) Until about 10 years ago, there was not school at all in this poor village. The monks down the road donated land for a school to be built on and a few very caring and dedicated people worked hard to raise the funds neccessary to build the first school in Gangkrajan.
3) The school can only educate children until they reach grade 7, and the nearest high school is far from town. Although there is no tuition for high school, the cost of transporation, school supplies, uniforms and food is far beyond what most families here can afford, therefore very few of the children actually have the opportunity to go on to receive further education. Without higher education, the window of opportunity is closed for these kids and for the majority of them, their only choice is to stay in the village working low-wage jobs on a banana or pineapple plantation, just as the generation before. This only contributes to perpetuating the poverty here.
4) The children WANT to go to high school! But they just don't have that option now.
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