Volunteer with Thai Mueang Volunteers in Thailand

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Organization	Thai Mueang Volunteers
website	http://www.tmvolunteers.org/
Country	Thailand
Program Costs	$225
Duration	Varies
Room & Board	$500 to $600 per month
Language Requirements	English

We are a community based organization that brings people together, from around the world, to teach English to the children in our area. Our main goal is to give the local students an opportunity to interact with an English speaking foreigner. Some children have never heard English spoken by a native speaker, let alone had the chance to learn with one. All government schools in Thailand have very limited resources. Having a volunteer at the schools lifts the standards of English language learning for all parties involved.

In addition to improving the children’s English speaking skills, volunteers also promote creativity and imagination. Most of the Thai curriculum is very strict and the teaching methodology in Thailand rarely encourages individual thought. We would like to give the children an opportunity to learn in a more fun and interactive environment. We want the children to reach for every possibility, and understand how many options they have. The key is to make the learning process more enjoyable, to inspire the children to want to gain knowledge.

Volunteers will also be helping the children overcome their fears of interacting with foreigners, just by being around them. The Thai children are ordinarily very shy, and it takes time for them to feel comfortable trying to speak with foreigners. Similarly, when volunteers live in the community, acting respectful of the Thai people and their way of life, volunteers are helping to break down some of the stereotypes that Thai people have of foreigners. Your good example will become a model of how other foreigners are viewed, therefore bridging gaps between perceptions and differences.

Our organization is based in Thai Mueang, Thailand. It is a relatively small Thai community of about 8000 people, with approx. 21,000 in the surrounding area. We have eleven government schools in the local area; they have all expressed a need for volunteer English teachers. Thai Mueang is 35 km north of Phuket airport, in Phangnga province, on the beautiful Andaman Coast in South West Thailand.

Thai Mueang Volunteers has no outside funding and does not charge the schools in exchange for volunteers. The fees cover the living expenses of the volunteers during their stay like transportation, meals, accommodation, and 24 hour support. The fees are also used to pay the TM Volunteer Thai staff (drivers, cooks, technical staff etc.).