Khun Tuen Primary School is located in the Om-Koi district in the Chiang Mai province in Northern Thailand.
Having visited the school, the location of the Khun Tuen village took my breath away. Perched high in the mountains in the middle of a rolling stream, it was simply beautiful.
The Khun Tuen Primary School provides education to over 170 students aged between 5 to 12 years of age. The majority of these students belong to the Karen ethnic minority group and are considered legal Thai citizens.
Some of the students in the past had to travel far to get to the school, walking up to 8 kms twice a day along winding dirt roads. With the very kind assistance of Child's Dream, two boarding houses were consequenly built nearby housing up to 45 students.
The current school was established over 30 years ago by the community. Over the years, the existing building greatly deterioated and the foundation in particular was in desperate need of repair (see photo below). Consequently, the building was deemed no longer safe by the community and Child's Dream.
Thank you to the extreme generosity of both Lachlan and Marcela Miller in raising funds for this school as their wedding registry, we were able to consruct a new building for the Khun Tuen community. A new building consisting of three classrooms was built in 2013.
It was also equipped with brand new classroom furniture and teaching equipment.
We are hoping to build a new playground for the school in the future.
The community was able to provide the labour for building of the school and contributed the wood sourced from the area.
Construction of the building was managed by a professional contractor and overseen by the Child's Dream project team.
Having visited Khun Tuen Primary school, I would say the trip is definitely not for the faint-hearted! However, it is without-doubt worth the hairy car trip. It is unfortunately not accessible during the rainy season.
To visit, it is best to fly into Chiang Mai (numerous flights from Bangkok daily). It is then a four to five hour car trip from Chiang Mai along extremely difficult terrain. Windy and dilapidated roads make it a difficult journey. Our car was bogged twice and nearly tipped once.
For those brave enough to visit, you will not be disappointed... we would be delighted to organise a visit for you. Please contact Alex on alshaw03@gmail.com for further details.
This project has been fully funded and is now complete. For details of the opening of this school, please click here.