Donations and Volunteers - Basic Facts

Teaching, Lessons, Field Studies, Birding.

Price Structure, Bookings and Donations & Extras

Wat Muenbuddha - Wittaya School. Mr Sattarin Chan Auninta. We feel highly honored by Mr Chan to be allowed to teach 130 Student Monks at Wat Muenbuddha English Studies Harmony of Buddha and Nature.

Wat Muenbuddha is The major landmark, overlooking Yonok Wetlands.

Merging - Buddisum and the Community with Wildlife and Conservation.

Teaching: Ideally we would like teachers who will be able to work for a period of; at the very least one month.

Fridays; 1300 -1500 Wat Muenbuddha - Wittaya School. We teach about 90 Student Monks; aged 14-19. We teach English and Nature Conservation. We adhere strictly to Buddhist principles.

Saturdays; at the Temples of Pa Mak No and Yonok. 0900 - 1130 and 1300 1500. Children are aged 6 - 17, some of the older ones have a good level of English. We teach English and Nature Conservation and help with developing ideas for their future careers.

Dress code and conduct; All out teaching is conducted in Buddhist Temples. Please consider, prior to visiting.

Food; If you eat with us good food is available in the village on Saturday at midday.

Transport; best if you have your own. At present we use our pickup for Wat Muenbuddha (40km) and sometimes on Saturdays. We can give you a lift, however we combine project survey and bird studies on these days, which means we leave early morning and return to Chiang Saen around 7pm.

The short journey between the Temples is beautiful and takes one past some of the best features of the wetland. However in the wet season it can be impossible and you will have to go on the main roads. Dowroong and I travel by motorbike and combine birding and general matters on our journey.

Accommodation: There is a variety in Chiang Saen, we can advise.

The reason we need teaching help is to allow us to expand our teaching to other Temples, where we have a waiting list. We can always do with new ideas. If your here on field work you can try a days teaching if you like, or help out. We would like to include teaching on Sundays, however, this will be totally dependant on volunteers.

I am sorry but we do not have the time to accept people who are offering assistance for a day. It is a very demanding job and we would have to explain everything to you. If you do not speak Thai, Dowroong would have to work with you, sadly this means more work for us. However, your welcome to visit.

Lessons - Joining in : If you wish to visit us for a morning or afternoon session at either our Teaching or Birding activities. We would be pleased to receive a generous donation to the project. You can then join with Teaching with your own ideas and with Dowroong's assistance we can give the children some new experience and have some fun.

Teaching methods: Our method is all about the kids having fun and wanting to come along each week. We play games that are based on learning and actions. We also go for walks to show them Birds and Nature. I have also devised an on going lesson for English conversation. Many Thais are quite shy off speaking English and our classes are designed to give children confidence in themselves. It is of the utmost importance that this is a happy experience for all.

Teaching notes - page down.

Environmental Field Studies, Bird Surveys: We will be pleased to help anyone wishing to carry out field studies, long term. As with the teaching you will have to look after your own arrangements. I will do my best to help, we can probably supply accommodation in the temple. I will update this section later, (if you wanted a motorbike, very useful, 3000 a month in Chiang Mai, not sure about Chiang saen 180 a day).

Birding: All our birding is geared to counting migration, roosts and resident wintering and breeding species. We are pleased to receive visitors and to show you birds that you particularly want to see however we have to make a charge for this, as we have to take time off from our regular work. If you need us to show you certain difficult to find species, I need to check in advance as how best to find them. Birds like Baer's Pochard and Jerdons Bushchat can be difficult and nothing is guaranteed.

Guided Trips: follow this link.

Donations: The following items are urgently needed.

Cash: the day to day running of this project is not expensive, however even small cost add up and I expect we get through 4000 baht a month in petrol alone. Items like Signs, T Shirts, photocopying, copies of important photographs, telephone and internet charges, all add to the cost.

A lot of our work involves public relations and when we have a crisis we have to react fast. Unfortunately it all cost money. and as all the financing of this project is paid out of my own pocket, and so some Items we are in need of have to wait.

Digital Camera, not bothered about quality, just need it for taking pic's of dead birds, nets, tree cutting, that sort of thing. (our Camera is a Canon A70, and has been a load of problem, in 2 years has been 8 months twice in Bangkok under repair, and is now going wrong again, producing pink picture, this is the second duff camera we have had from Canon).

Binoculars: Dowroong's are 20 years old and had it really, we just need a pair of 10x40 or 8x 40 second hand, but good quality.

Tripod: Good quality full height smooth tripod.

Teaching equipment: This is a difficult one. Cash is better as we can buy whatever is required when we need it. Pens etc are all cheap and good quality in Thailand. Teaching Books, the problem is that a new book means I have to spend a lot of time adapting to a lesson and in many cases I can't do it. So it's better if I buy the books myself when I see something good. Single books are welcome as may give me some good ideas.

Teaching notes - Examples: Candice worked with us "off and on" for four months. We are very good friends and she is an excellent teacher of young children and adults, However she found it very difficult to manage a group of children for a 2 hour session. Both Dowroong and I also feel the strain to keep the interest of a group for this length of time.

How do we manage, with no help? Well I have devised a number of teaching Games and these keep the Kids interest and they have a lot of fun. This is what it ia all about, giving the kids a good time.

When we have Candice with us we alternate and learn from each other, Dowroong has to be on hand to translate and therefore has to concentrate for the whole 2 hours so she can explain when needed. She also has to Speak on various subjects related to Yonok conservation and a way to conduct your self in your life and love of our world and explain the true meaning of being a Buddhist.

With Candice helping means we have to use our car, normally we go by motor bike and combine, birding, before and after teaching, as time is precious.

Mick & Dowroongs Teaching;

I am not a teacher, I was asked to teach at a local private school. I quickly worked out that many children were, outcasts and a problem in the class room. This had the effect of making my job impossible as I do not speak Thai, Candice had the same problem when she took over from me and eventually terminated her contract as she felt she was getting nowhere.

However, with Dowroong's help I achieved great success at that school: I threw away the books and designed my own lessons. A mixture of word games, drawing and what I would call! "silly fun games".

All the problem kids soon became my friends. With a system of stars 1-5 and points 10/10, I found that children with poor learning ability responded very well to drawing and games. Basically everybody is good at something and so by experimenting we allowed all the kids to shine in some way.

One boy: Guan I could have happily strangled, however he was very good at drawing and soon got the best marks with "stars", eventually the penny dropped for him, and he asked, Dowroong, why he never got any points, "you have to do the righting as well" I said. He very soon became top in the class. I had thought this boy was stupid, but he just needed some help in life. Dowroong found out that he had a new step mother and no one cared for him. I found this a common problem and with Dowroong's help we achieved a transformation in all the children we were involved with, about eighty.

"Fun games" I invented these to bring the children that I considered outsiders into the fold. All the kids liked these games and by pitting the outsiders carefully against the brighter children I could raise they're esteem by them winning of these silly games. We had a lot of fun doing this.

I was sacked, I assume they didn't like my methods, my main interest was to allow children to develop their own personal self esteem and learning from within themselves. Bullying and bad behavior are created by teachers and parents that take no interest in the children in they're care.

As I said earlier, I am not a Teacher, but I am very proud of our achievements in helping children who I hope will fit in with society.

The children that we teach in the Temples, receive they're education in Government Schools and I was very impressed with they're ability in english and much better than my Thai. Obviously, they or their parents want them to come along and this makes teaching more easy. However, the designing of lessons is a lot of work.

I am still working on and up dating this page and will complete ASAP - Mick.

Please disregard the following;

Food is provided free in the Temples; but in the main it is not of a taste to westerners and many Thais, Dowroong included would find it difficult eat. The food is donated from local villages to the Temple, however the village is several miles away and food is not brought in everyday. There is usually fruit, coffee and water available. We do like to eat with the monks and children so we supplement with some of our own food.