DESCRIPTIONS of the Short Term Camps

DaLaa Program

January – December 2009

STC & MLTV

Program for 2009:

Short-Term Work Camps (STC)
Code / Kind of Project / Place, Province / Dates / Vol.
0901TEA / Creative English Teaching / Sam Nag Kam, Songkhla / 11 - 24 January / 10
0902-1ET / Environment Creative English Teaching / Tan Yong La Nai, Satun / 1 - 14 February / 10
0903-1ENVI / Environment / Kok Payom, Satun / 1 - 14 March / 15
0903-2ART / Art & Creative / Prik, Songkhla / 1 - 14 March / 15
0904AGRI / Agriculture / Nai Goi, Pattalung / 5 - 18 April / 15
0905TEA / Creative English Teaching / Chalung, Songkhla / 24 May - 6 June / 10
0906TEA / Creative English Teaching / Yang Ngam, Songkhla / 21 June - 4 July / 10
0907ET / Environment & Creative English Teaching / Baan Had Yao, Trang / 12 - 25 July / 10
0908ECO / Eco-living & Creative English Teaching / OASIS, Surat Thani / 9 – 22 August / 7
0908TEA / Creative English Teaching / Baan Hua Kuan, Songkhla / 9 – 22 August / 10
0909TEA / Creative English Teaching & Community living / Klong Dan, Nakorn Sri / 13–26 September / 10
0910ART / Art & Creative / Thung Mor, Songkhla / 11 – 24 October / 15
0911TEA / Creative English Teaching / Thung Tam Sao, Songkhla / 15–28 November / 10
0912KIDS / Activities With Kids / Kuk Kak, Phang Nga / 6–19 December / 10
0912TEA / Creative English Teaching / Baan Pru, Songkhla / 6-19 December / 10
Middle & Long Term Projects(MLTV)
Code / Name of Project / Place, Province / Dates / Type / Vol.
0940MLTV / OASIS / Vipawadi, Surat Thani / All year possible / SPIRIT/ECO/TEA / 5-6
0950MLTV / Environment House / Kok Payom, Satun / All year possible / ENVI/TEA / 5-6
0960MLTV / MLTV House / Nernpichai, Songkhla / All year possible / TEA / 3-4

DESCRIPTIONS of the Short Term Camps

SHORT TERMGeneral Information:

All Short Term Camps (STC) last two weeks, with fixed dates
There will always be a DaLaa Work Camp Leader
Besides the main project there will be time for Thai language / culture and other activities
Volunteers have to be 18 years or older
No special skills are required, only positive motivation and being open minded
Living conditions will be in Thai style (willingness to adapt and enjoy simple conditions of living)
For every STC we have a special info-sheet with more detailed information.

0901TEA / Creative English Teaching / Sam Nag Kam, Songkhla / 11 - 24 January / 10

Sam Nag Kam is a small sub-district of Sadao, Songkhla province, where the Thai-Malaysian border is 2 kilometers away from the campsite. The teaching project is situated in a normal and bilingual public school called Wat Sri Witedsangkaram, providing kindergarten to secondary. Students’ ages are between 3-15 years old. Most students come from different provinces through Thailand. They move to this school because of their parents’ work. The knowledge of English is half poor half fair, comparing with other bilingual schools in the city. Volunteers will have a challenge to teach in a bilingual part, about 100 students. It sounds like a rich school but it’s actually not. Bilingual-section students only pay low school fee for this curriculum. It’s one of the government’s educational policies to give an opportunity to students who are fond of studying the language. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. With our teaching project, school provides some hours out of the Thai/Filipino teachers teaching English in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

Aims of work camp

To improve and enhance children’s English language ability
To let children be familiar and comfortable with volunteers, not afraid of foreigners
To support school
To build good relationship between volunteers and local people

Accommodation: All volunteers will stay in a school classroom together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Sam Nag Kam sub-district, Sadao, SongKhla province (south of Thailand)

0902-1ET / Environment & Creative English Teaching / Tan Yong La Nai, Satun / 1 - 14 February / 10

Tan Yong La Nai is a name of a small Muslim fisherman’s village where only a hundred families living in. The village is located in a far-away island connected by bridges nearly 8 years ago. The dimensions of the island are only one square kilometer. It’s no doubt that every single family regards the fishery industry as a main, permanent career. Also, there’s a very small kindergarten and primary school in the village where there are only 60 students and 5 teachers. You’ll find no answer how those kids are good at English; they only know some basic words and the alphabet. It’s worth a reward if you bring some sort of teaching creativity with fun games or songs with you. That’s for the first week of the project. And the second week will be all about environmental activities such as planting young seedlings in the mangrove forests, sharing hands with the locals to come up with the idea of useful activities for the village and making shelters for sea animals. As it’s obviously seen, on the both sides of the long, narrow road to the village, it’s everywhere green!

Aims of work camp

to give English classes and do activities with local children
to help support the local community of Tan Yong La Nai fisherman’s village
to build friendly relationship between volunteers and local people
to save the island away from seashore abruption

Accommodation:All volunteers will stay in a school classroom together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Tan Yong La Nai village, La Ngoo, Satun province (south of Thailand)

0903-1ENVI / Environment / Kok Payom, Satun / 1 - 14 March / 15

Kok Payom is the name of a small Muslim fisherman’s village where only 600 people living in. The village is located 7 kilometers away from its district called La Ngoo and close to the seawater canals where on the sides of the canals surrounded by mangrove forests. It’s no doubt that every single family regards the fishery industry as a main, permanent career. All the villagers are linked constantly as a close relationship between community and related families and they greatly welcome visitors, activists and volunteers to bring up voluntary projects to their village and join in any useful activity. Here’re some possible activities you will do in the village: planting young seedlings in the mangrove forests, sharing hands with the locals to come up with the idea of useful activities for the village such as organizing a clean-up day round the village and cultivating young seedlings in the nursery. Volunteers will be able to learn how the villagers lead their lives; in the same way, it’s the experience you cannot find in the rushes of city life. Lead a life as easy-going as a countryman!

Aims of work camp

to preserve environment
to help support the local community of Kok Payom fisherman’s village
to build friendly relationship between volunteers and local people
to organize fun and enjoyable activities to the village children
to cultivate young mangrove seedlings

Accommodation: All volunteers will stay in the village dormitory together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Kok Payom village, La Ngoo, Satun province (south of Thailand)

0903-2ART / Art & Creative / Prik, Songkhla / 1 - 14 March / 15

Prik is a small municipality of Sadao district in Songkhla province, south of Thailand. It is about 20 kilometers from the Malaysian border. The project will be held in a pre-school in a small and nice environment village. Most of the villagers are Muslims while the rest are Buddhist. They work in rubber plantation and some work in Dannok, the border to Malaysia. The pre-school is called Mureebeen. There are 77 kids and 3 teachers in total. The ages of the pupils are between 2.5-3.5 years old. Mureebeen pre-school is a one-storey building with a big room which is also used as a napping place for the pupils. In two weeks we will repair and decorate the building and its surroundings which include the garden and the playground. First, we repair and prepare. When everything is ready for the painting, we will draw pictures choosing nice paints to make this pre-school a better and lovely place for the little children. We need your ideas, creativity and motivation for drawing and painting on the walls. Preparing tasks can be: cleaning before painting; preparing the garden and the playground.

In this project, you will be doing these following activities:

Painting and drawing walls.
Clearing and cutting grass around the building
Joining activities with students in primary school (about 1 hour a day/ 2 times a week)
Learning Thai language and culture

Aims of work camp

To bring a nice atmosphere to the pre-school
To support the school
To build friendly relationship between volunteers and local people

Accommodation: All volunteers will stay in a school classroom together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Prik sub-district, Sadao, Songkhla province (south of Thailand)

0904AGRI / Agriculture / Nai Goi, Pattalung / 5 - 18 April / 15

This project we are doing together with the agricultural groups of Nai Goi village, Pattalung province. The groups promote their agriculture in a friendly-nature way (so-called: King’s Royal Projects). For example; they make their own non-chemical compost which is made from cow or chicken’s waste matter or lead a life in a self-sufficient way such as growing their own vegetables and having a fish pond in the backyard. Also, they set up a learning centre for interested people. Volunteers and group members will work together on the fruit and vegetable garden so that you can help learn with each other to do cross-fertilizing with sala (a typical Thai fruit mostly found in the southern parts of Thailand), to make a clay grill distilling magic liquids from herbs, to know the methods of self-sufficiency and to understand a lifestyle of people in a rural area. They want to alert people to be aware of the importance of biological farming. This is an opportunity for interested people to have a close relationship with the locals. People will experience and learn how they organize the projects.

Aims of work camp

to learn and experience ways of biological farming
to support and help the local agricultural groups of Nai Goi
to build good relationship between volunteers and local people

Accommodation:All volunteers will stay in the Nai Goi Learning Centre together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Nai Goi village, Nong Tong, Pattalung province (south of Thailand).

0905TEA / Creative English Teaching / Chalung, Songkhla / 24 May - 6 June / 10

Chalung is a small Buddhist village of Hat Yai district, Songkhla province. The teaching project is situated in a junior-high school called Hatyai Jarernratpittaya, which is surrounded by rubber plantation. Students’ ages are between 13-18 years old. There are about 461 students and 31 teachers. The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with other schools in the city. Most Thai Schools want foreigners to teach English at their school. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. Some of the reasons most Thai children living far away from civilization have no chance to learn English by themselves: lack of home Internet access, a cause of poverty or a remote area. It’s something they regret when they get older. With our teaching project, school provides some hours out of the Thai teachers teaching English in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

Aims of work camp

To improve and enhance children’s English language ability
To let students be familiar with volunteers and learn in international/multi-cultural atmosphere
To support school
To build good relationship between volunteers and local people

Accommodation: All volunteers will stay in the teacher’s residence in the school area.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Chalung village, Hat Yai, Songkhla province (south of Thailand)

0906TEA / Creative English Teaching / Yang Ngam, Songkhla / 21 June - 4 July / 10

Yang Ngam is a small Buddhist village of Bangklam district, Songkhla province. The teaching project is situated in a kindergarten and primary school called Baan Yang Ngam. Students’ ages are between 3-12 years old. There are about 150 students and 10 teachers. The knowledge of English is quite poor comparing with other schools in the city. Most Thai Schools want foreigners to teach English at their school. For Thai children, English language is really difficult: the alphabet and the pronunciation are completely different. You will experience it yourself during your project. Some of the reasons most Thai children living far away from civilization have no chance to learn English by themselves: lack of home Internet access, a cause of poverty or a remote area. It’s something they regret when they get older. With our teaching project, school provides some hours out of the Thai teachers teaching English in order to get students motivated and interested in learning English. First we stimulate them to enjoy the class, show them it can be fun and useful to learn English by giving creative lessons (games and songs) in a relaxing way.

Aims of work camp

To improve and enhance children’s English language ability
To let children be familiar with volunteers and learn in international/multi-cultural atmosphere
To support school
To build good relationship between volunteers and local people

Accommodation: All volunteers will stay in the school classroom together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Yang Ngam village, Bangklam, Songkhla province (south of Thailand)

0907ET / Environment & Creative English Teaching / Baan Had Yao, Trang / 12 - 25 July / 10

Baan Had Yao is a name of a small Muslim fisherman’s village where are 600 people living in. The village is surrounded by the Andaman Sea; it’s no doubt that most of the villagers regards the fishery industry as a main, permanent career, but a few families have their own business in tourism which provides them a good living. There’s a very small kindergarten and primary school in the village where there are only 75 students and 8 teachers. You’ll find no answer how those kids are good at English; they only know some basic words and the alphabet. It’s worth a reward if you bring some sort of teaching creativity with fun games or songs with you. Teaching is mentioned as the first week job of the project. The second week will be all about environmental activities such as planting young seedlings in the mangrove forests or sharing hands with the locals and school to come up with the idea of useful activities for the village such as holding a day of beach clean-up or restoring the condition of the mangrove forests.

Aims of work camp

to give English classes and do activities with local children
to help support the local community of Baan Had Yao fisherman’s village
to build friendly relationship between volunteers and local people
to preserve the nature

Accommodation:All volunteers will stay in the teacher’s residence together.

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: Baan Had Yao village, Kan Tang, Trang province (south of Thailand)

0908ECO / Eco-living & Creative English Teaching / OASIS, Surat Thani / 9 – 22 August / 7

Eight years ago a Thai-French family with 3 children (12-year-old girl is the oldest) started their dream of a new life experience in close harmony with the nature. They bought a piece of land in a small valley far from the crowded cities and decided to build a small, spiritual and self-sufficient eco-village. They choose to lead a life “back to basics” without harming the precious nature in any way. It’s like a model and an alternative way to escape from our straight-to-the-wall civilization we are living in. Until now, they’ve planted over 300 species of fruits and edible vegetables for their family and invited people. Some friends came to join Jean-Luc family, stayed short or longer and helped to make this dream come true. But last year when we (DaLaa) met them, there were only 6 people left, the family and 1 friend. Others friends had to go back to their country. It’s difficult to make a community with only 1 family.

By cooperating with DaLaa, they hope volunteers will come to participate in their community, sharing with them eco-way of living. Since 2008 DaLaa has promoted OASIS for Middle and Long Term volunteering. Here is the first time OASIS would like to host short-term work camp. All international/national volunteers applying for OASIS project through DaLaa are warmly welcome to be their invited people as long as they respect the nature they live in!

Oasis is closed to a small village where there is a primary school (3km). Like most of the schools, they are happy with help for English teaching as the teachers themselves are usually not very good in this language. It’s a good opportunity for kids to have contacts with foreigners and they can understand the utility of English as they will want to communicate with you (English is the second language in Thailand and is very useful to find a good job, tourism…). It’s also a good opportunity for volunteers to get more relationships with local people.

Aims of the project

To be part of OASIS
To support the nearby small primary school by giving non-formal English classes

Accommodation:All volunteers will stay in the houses located on waterfall stream’s banks

Fee: 7,000 Baht (about 155 Euro)

Location: OASIS community, Vipawadi district, Surat Thani province (south of Thailand)