education life for

i just signed on (technically as there was no actual signing) for another year with education for life. most of you are thinking, wow, that's great she's helping people in thailand. what does she do again? i originally came here as a fundraiser but quickly realized that the programs and administration needed an overhaul before we could have the wherewithal to accept donations and grow. i mainly do long term bainstorming and program development while the staff does all the administration, planning and actual work. here's a little of what we've been doing:

• according to statistics, thailand has a pretty encouraging number of children in primary and even secondary schools. what these numbers don't tell you is that children in thailand still suffer from lack of access and incentives to go to school. many parents keep children home to work, some children are completely ignored because they are orphaned or undocumented immingrants and lots are simply very poor. i have been contacting children's homes and other organizations trying to survey what's being done and best practices.
  
• we are currently managing 3 programs while working to launch new ones soon. the water project installed water filters in 63 area schools to provide clean drinking water. the bikes project gace children bikes to help them get to school. the scholarship program, the founding initiative of the organization, gives 2000 baht a year ($60 USD) to deserving students to help them pay for expenses necessary to attend school.
• ELF (don't ask me why it's not EFL, i haven't even asked because ELF sounds so much cuter) was founded about 10 years ago. while the scholarships given to children since then definitely helped over 1,000 children to stay in school, there was no relationship component to the programs. the money would be given and then no further contact was initiatied, leaving many children not knowing why we are giving them the scholarships or why we believe in them so much. we have started doing events with the girls to promote careers, safe sex and general well-being. our pilot project for an afterschool program will begin next month and will hopefully take our aid from being merely sustaining to transformative.
• we've extended our scholarship program to a small group of students in high school and even college. we also want to be realistic and have alternatives for students that couldn't or shouldn't go on to university. we will also be doing... da da da duh... career counseling. okay, so aid programs aren't always sexy, but providing basic social services and connecting girls to existing government resources is a logical next step for us that will go a long way in helping girls plan their futures.
  
• outreach. i re-did the website, started a blog and a monthly newsletter to better tell people who we are and what we're doing.
  

work has been good but slow. getting used to the pace of life in phayao has been the most difficult thing for me (not phillip, he's zen about most everything). i'm the person who has to do power yoga because regular yoga is too boring. life in phayao isn't just even yoga -- it's tai chi when you're stoned. but things are slowly moving forward and there are so many great reasons to stay here; the programs are just taking off and the girls are just starting to be engaged in what we're doing. change the world. educate a girl.