Volunteer in Northern Thailand

By Kenneth Champeon

Northern Thailand is a center of volunteer activity, in part because of its many problems: AIDS, poverty, the plight of hill tribes and Burmese refugees, deforestation, and drug abuse, to name a few. A number of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), their work supplemented by volunteers, operate only in this region. The ones below stand out because of their past accomplishments and need your support.

The Chiang Mai Disabled Center concentrates on making the disabled more employable.

Helping Hands provides support for Thai and hill tribe people, refugees, the handicapped, and other minorities, chiefly by providing education, educational materials, and scholarships for AIDS orphans and underpriveleged children. Needed are teachers of English, French, computers, and music; nurses; administrators; writers; midwives; community health workers; illustrators; and translators.

Huen Nam Jai provides free shelter and education to a small group of street children, mostly from the hill tribes, lest they fall prey to drugs, prostitution, or AIDS. All are enthusiastically encouraged to come to teach the children and, says Khun Chananwat of the Home, "share love for them."

Volunteers at Elephant Nature Park are selected on the basis of their knowledge, experience, and interest in caring for elephants. Vieng Ping is one of the area's best-known orphanages and nursing homes for homeless, abandoned, neglected, and HIV-positive children. Its mostly foreign volunteers help caretakers attend to the children's material, medical, educational, and emotional needs. They also teach English classes to those orphans slated for adoption.

TVS supports volunteers working in NGOs. It helps villagers promote and manage tourism to their areas.

Raintree Resource Center (RRC) is a library of books, videos, and CDs for the children and adults of Chiang Mai. Foreign volunteers maintain the resource center, lead English conversation classes as well as preschool craft and story hours, and coordinate other special events.

KENNETH A. CHAMPEON lives in Chiang Mai.