Sauch Kha Hong Sar is one of 11 Migrant Learning Centres supported by Help Without Frontiers in Mae Sot, Thailand. Founded in 2005 with 50 students, the school has grown under the leadership of Mi Seik Khamar Chan – also known as Chan Chan – and now has 139 students and seven teachers. The school provides access to education, child protection and health services to the children of migrant workers from Myanmar.
Most of the students at the school come from low-income families, with their parents working in local factories or as daily labourers in agriculture. Low wages can cause big challenges for many migrant families – including forcing children to drop out of school in order to work to support their parents and siblings.
Almost 3,000 miles away, Shiori Sakuda is selling coffee in her native Japan. “I became interested in poverty issues and international cooperation when I was in Junior High School,” she says. “Since then, I have always wanted to work to support children in developing countries. While I was studying agriculture at University in Okinawa, I travelled around impoverished areas in Southeast Asia, providing hygiene education to children in Myanmar, Cambodia and Thailand. Of these, I have come to love Thailand the most.”
Shiori has made many visits to Thailand since graduating, learning that there is a big gap between life in the city and in rural areas, and that there are many immigrants from neighbouring countries in Thailand. “I found the environment of immigrant children growing up in a blend of cultures very interesting. Children living in such environments can create things out of limited resources, transforming everyday objects into tools for study and play.” However, Shiori could see through her visits that not all children have the same opportunities.
Using her agriculture studies, she decided to establish her own coffee-selling enterprise in Japan, with the goal of using the profits of sales to support the children of migrant workers and refugees in Thailand. Shiori called the company Saphan – meaning “bridge” in Thai – in the hope that this company’s support can help bridge the gap between the children’s current situation and their future, while also creating a bridge of cooperation between Thailand and Japan.
She visited Help Without Frontiers in May 2023, meeting with staff and headteachers of our 11 Migrant Learning Centres. After some discussions, it was decided to begin using the support from Saphan in the form of a school lunch project. The project launched in August 2022 at Sauch Kha Hong Sar, where the school staff identified 22 students in need of support – children who were bringing only rice and chilli paste to school for their lunch, or who were sharing lunch with others. Shiori provided financial support for an initial four weeks of food, a new cooker, and a daily stipend for students’ parents who have volunteered to help with the cooking. The school has also designed a menu which includes pork and pumpkin curry, chicken soup with rice noodles, and catfish with vegetables.
“I heard that in migrant schools, some children drop out because they have to work for their families,” Shiori says. The hope is that, by providing lunch to these students, the financial burden on caregivers can be relieved, and the students will be more likely to stay in school. “We are starting with one school, but if we find that it has a positive impact on students and parents, we would like to do it in other schools as well.”
“I am very happy to have lunch at school,” says one Grade 8 student who is benefitting from the lunch project. “We have faced many hardships in our family; however, my parents try the best for my education. I would like to thank the kind-hearted person who donated for our lunch. I will never forget my school life and the people who have helped and given support for my education and my future.”
As for Shiori, she sees this as the beginning of a more far-reaching project. “I want to tell the stories of this region to the people of Japan. In the future, I would like to expand the support for the people of this region and do many things in partnership with them – such as making goods and launching a brand together.”
Thank you Shiori, and the teachers and parents of Sauch Kha Hong Sar school, for bringing this project to life!
