top of page
Search

20 Time Project - The Pitch

  • Jennifer Gehrmann
  • Feb 18, 2016
  • 3 min read

Sami and I have done our pitch and presented our project to all high school grades and surprisingly it wasn't as frightening as we thought. In the pitch we mentioned our plans of visiting some families at the Klong Toey slum and and fundraising ideas, and received pretty received pretty good responses. However, our English teacher gave us some essential advice, and we realised that we need to start executing our plans ASAP because the Ted Talk is coming sooner than we thought.


After the pitch, we immediately contacted Dream of a Future's coordinators and visiting a few families that are sponsored by the charity. However, there were slight alterations to our plans. Instead of funding for families in the Klong Toey slums, we're actually going to support the families of the Samrong slums. It was a little surprising at first but it was in fact more convenient for us, as Samrong is very close to our school, and much safer than the Klong Teoy slums that are packed with drug dealers, alcholics, and mafias.


During our visit to the Samrong slums, we learned a lot about the charity's scholarships program, the surroundings, and the living conditions of a few families. The first thing we learned was that there are 70 houses in the slums at the moment, with over 100 people. We also found out that the Dream of a Future's school that's managing the charity's scholarships is the Samrong Nursery, which is currently giving out 275 scholarships to various disadvantaged families for their children's educations (they also have scholarships for the elderly)—7 of which are in the Samrong slums.

One of the families we visited was the family of a 15-year-old girl, Siriphorn (Som), who currently attends a local high school there. Som has been living with her grandmother since birth: her mother had long disappeared and her father's identity remains a mystery. She also lives with two other boys who were adopted by her grandmother after their parents have left them behind. Som's grandmother, Lavan, supports her family by selling shoes at the Jatujak market every weekend. It is the only job she has at the moment and it does not pay well at all, as she only makes 1500 baht a week. This is a huge problem because there are many stomachs she has to feed and educational fees to pay, and her income is unfortunately very insufficient. Worst yet, she is also responsible for all the payments of the electricity bills for her house, which also shelters four other families (each of them receive scholarships). We've visited a few more families and interviewed several locals, and learned that, despite their current difficult living conditions, their lives have actually improved due to the scholarships from Dream of a Future. Those families all confirmed that without the support from the charity, their lives would be much worse and that truly shocked me.


Our visit to the Samrong slums was truly eye-opening. Although we've been to the Klong Toey slums on a school trip, this gave us a fuller experience because we had the chance to interact with the people of the slums and listen to their stories first-hand. And that has enhanced our understanding of the daily struggles of people, and helped us realize that there are so many people out there who aren't as fortunate as we are. Therefore, we've become way more passionate about this project of ours.


If you share the same PASSION and want to be a part of TRANSFORMING LIVES, please contact me, Samantha Ballesteros, or Berkeley International School to donate as much as you wish. We are extremely grateful of all your supports!


 
 
 

Comments


Featured Posts
Check back soon
Once posts are published, you’ll see them here.
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Basic Square
  • Google+ Basic Square
bottom of page