Sawasdee kah to supporters!

I hope this first newsletter of the year finds you all well.  As you may all know, we currently have plans to open a branch up in Ubon Rachathani province and have been quite busy drafting the proposal and looking for funds. If anyone knows any individual, company or organization that might be interested in supporting this expansion and the work that we do, please let us know or refer them to us. We would appreciate all the help we can get.

Now, let’s go to the latest updates for this year…

 New students registering to study at Goodwill.



Khun Nang chats with some students before class.

Donations
Goodwill would like to thank the following individuals for their generous donations to our organization over the past few months. Thank you to Andrew Clifford, Paul Gilmurray, Otto Burchardt, Regis Paul, Alexander Duss, Klaus Schendfeger,  Alan and Malin Laubsch for their donation. Thank you also to Riskmetrics and Pearl Oil (Thailand) companies for their donations. Pearl Oil (Thailand) has been our continuous supporter for the last three years (www.pearlenergy.com).

Khun Apinun of Pearl Oil (Thailand) poses with Khun Beer and some of our students. Pearl Oil (Thailand) has generously supported Goodwill for the past three years.

Thank you to Khun Kamolmas Jaiyen for her donations towards our Micro-Lending program.

Thank you to Khun Kithisak Seesuknam and John McCord for donating office supplies and gifts for the students.     

We would also like to thank you The Body Shop (Thailand) for donating some of their cosmetic products to support one of our vocational training program – Make up and Personality Development.

Our students are big fans of The Body Shop (Thailand) and its outstanding products.

Another piece of great news - this year we also had our old computers replaced!   We would like again to express our thankfulness to The Annika Linden Foundation (www.alfoundation.org) for purchasing eight new student computers and also to Alicia Kershaw, the President of The Fund for Women in Asia who funded four new staff computers. Our old computers were donated to another Thai NGO called The Mirror Foundation (www.mirror.or.th) who has a project called Computer for Children (C4C) which aims to increase computer accessibility to disadvantage children across Thailand in order to improve the quality of education.

Students learn to use email and search on our brand new computers.

Thank you again to all of Goodwill’s supporters. Without you, we will not be able to do what we do. Please don’t forget that we constantly need funds to support our programs and accept either general or program-based support.

Ubon Branch
We received our very first donation for the Ubon branch! Thank you to Peter Yeung from Hong Kong for donating $40,000HK.

We welcome any contributions -whether big or small- to help us open the Ubon branch. If you or know anyone that is interested, this is our bank information:

The Goodwill Group Foundation, Inc.
Bank of America
Swift Code: BOFAUS3N
CHIPS ID:0959
I/F/O: Goodwill Group Foundation Inc

A/C: 94209 35372

New Faces
The New Year also comes with a new staff! n We would like to welcome our newest team member, Sirinapa Suwannatham (Klong), the Administrative Trainee who will be assisting Nang in managing Goodwill’s administrative needs.  Klong is also a student at Goodwill and will continue her studies every Sunday, whilst working with Goodwill.  Below is a short Q&A with Klong (translated):

Khun Klong hard at work at Goodwill.

Emma: Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Klong: “I am 18 years and originally from Chiang Mai. I have an older sister and older brother. My mother still lives in Chiang-Mai and has her own food stall. As for my father, we haven’t heard from him since I was young. When I was still living in Chiang-Mai I wanted continue my studies in high school but at that time my family had some financial problems and couldn’t support my tuition fees. That was why I was sent to Bangkok when I was 16 and had to work as a full-time maid with the Chinese family. The family was very kind to me and supported me to study at a school for non-formal Education. I have been working with the family since then before working here at Goodwill”.

Emma: How long and why did you come to study here at Goodwill?
Klong:  “I heard about Goodwill from some friends while studying at the school for non-formal Education and I applied because I was behind in my English studies wanted to improve. I have been studying here every Sunday since November 2009 and will continue to do so”

Emma: Why did you apply for the Administrative Trainee position at Goodwill?
Klong: “Because I wanted change. I didn’t want to settle down and work as a maid for the rest of my life. Now that I have finished my non-formal education, I would like to continue my studies and apply at Ramkamhaeng University for a Business Administration degree. I feel that the Administrative Trainee position will not only give me the opportunity to gain skills related to my studies, but also improve my English”.

Emma:  We hope that you will enjoy working with us!
Klong: “Yes. I am happy to work here at Goodwill because I am able to support myself and not burden my family back home. I am also excited to learn from P’Nang how to run the office administrative needs since everything is very new to me. Thank you for this opportunity”
 
We would also like to introduce and thank Claire Souchet who was Goodwill’s Micro-lending Program consultant from November 2009-February 2010. Claire is currently finishing her postgraduate degree from the University of Metz, France with a focus on microfinance. She has six years experience working as a finance administrator in NGOs in France, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea and Cameroon. She spent 3 months with us this winter helping us to evaluate and strengthen Goodwill’s micro-lending program.  She delivered a valuable report on our efforts and areas of potential improvement.

Goodwill is also planning to hire two new staff to the team to help manage Goodwill and also implement Goodwill’s fundraising activities. Hopefully, we will be introducing new staffs to you soon!

Volunteers
We would like to give a warm welcome to our new Thai Volunteers including Khun Thamas Hongladarom, Khun Chayaporn Woraming , Khun Sirikorn Suessiri, Khun Siritharin Chareonsiri and Khun Raweeroj Nirojthirati as well as volunteers from the UK,  Heather Webber,  Stephanie Lill and  Kate Bowen. Other new volunteers are David Kuipers and Olivia Ngo from the USA, Stacy Ho from Canada, David Mccalden from Australia, Sophie Mechin from France and Mette Beyer from Denmark. We’d like to again thank all our volunteers for so generously volunteering their time here at Goodwill. We hope that all the volunteers will have a memorable experience here at Goodwill. 

Khun Lisa captivates the students during English class.

Vocational Training
As the New Year begins, Goodwill hopes to organize a variety of vocational training courses that will not only help our students be more economically empowered, but also to increase their self-confidence through skills and knowledge. We’ve already organize several trainings including Basic Self-Defense, Bead Jewelry, Computer (Internet & Email), Make up and personality development and English for Spa’s. We hope to organize more new trainings these next coming months and will update you all again.

Khun Sup demonstrates the finer techniques of eye make-up.



Khun Yut shows the class how to fend off an attacker.

Goodwill Products for sale
After the launching of Goodwill’s Hand-made Jewelry Product we are happy to receive so many support from our friends, especially Khun Claudio Romano (Sainam Foundation) for ordering over 100 pieces of jewelry! Thank you for your support ka.  Profits made are given back to the students and also used to buy more raw materials to support the trainings. 

Please note that we accept pre-orders and we will let you know soon when we upload the products on our website.

Thank you
Thank you again for all of your support. Please, spread the words about our work to your friends and we hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter!

Thank you for reading this and see you again next month.

Emma
Vocational Training Manager