Year 3 students have been supporting Thomas House as part of their Community Action for few years now. Last year the students created and sold Christmas cards and also raised money through a Timestableathon to support Thomas House.
About Thomas House
Thomas House is a centre for children with special needs located in Ban Tha Ton, ChiangMai province on the Thai-Burmese boarder. The area is home to Northen Thai people as well as different ethnic minority groups including the Shan and six Hilltribes. Most have come from Burma in the past fifty years and have settled in northern Thailand. But as migrants many do not enjoy full Thai citizenship, they are poor and mostly uneducated and living a mainly hand to mouth existence. Although they are encouraged to send their children to school, there is very little provision to support children with special learning needs. This means that many parents are either forced to leave their children alone at home while they go to work or, in many cases, mothers are unable to work, and the family income is reduced.
Some twenty-six international school groups have committed themselves to Thomas House. The students raised funds and provided support for building, painting and mural decorations for the classrooms and canteen. Schools have continued to make generous contributions of educational materials, toys and equipment. Thomas House became a reality with its opening on 27th November 2017, providing up to 24 children to come to school. Now we have children range from age four to twenty-seven years old, learning under one roof. A number of the children are now in their teens, and we hope to establish what would be Thomas House 2 as somewhere specially for the young adults to be a bit more independent but SAFE!
Children in Thomas House
The children attend school five days a week from 8.30am to 2 pm and travel from their villages by Thomas House bus. The bus has made possible the regular attendance of all children. Thomas House welcomes any children at different ages and accepts everyone regardless of disability.
They all enjoy a wide range of activities, daily lunch and snacks as well as outings such as picnics and other events. Several children have made great progress and have been accepted into their local schools.
Some children come to Thomas House 2 or 3 days a week to get individual attention which the schools are not equipped to do staff wise. Children attend their school for scouts and guides and more social events, so they keep the contact and experience wider social gatherings. Whilst they are among some of the more able, they have varying difficulties learning and conforming to school systems.
Most of the children are from ethnic minority and impoverished families. Many parents lack understanding of their child’s needs and some think that it is bad luck to have a child with special needs. Consequently, many children are not properly cared for or are hidden away. This was what drove the incentive to build a small school. The Thomas House children have impressed a lot of people in the community showing they can learn too in different ways.
Some of the children have developed skills at Thomas House and overcome physical disabilities to be able to go to their local school. We are so proud of them!
Thomas House New Project
The children are currently busy making Christmas cards, bags they have embroidered, crocheted hair ties and bracelets for sale in Patana.
Weaving has become a big industry for Thomas House. The children grow the plants to make natural dyes for the yarn which they spin for the weaving. Two types of weaving machines – Karen and Shan – are in use and the more able children are learning to weave on the more complicated machine. All the children to some degree learn about the process and can be involved.
How you can help
We are looking forward to your partnership with Thomas House. Year 3 are raising funds for the Christmas event. Bracelets, bags, hair ties and Christmas cards made by the children from Thomas House will be sold here in Patana. Year 3 student council reps will be selling them and the Patana community can buy to help to raise funds. Please contact Rosie at rosie@mrv-educationservices.com for more information and find out how you can help Thomas House.