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Naresuan University Project

School: Naresuan University, Phitsanulok
Date of project: March 2007
Project: To build a children’s canteen at a rural primary school
Number of students: 50
Cost: 100,000 Baht (part-sponsorship)

The 2007 project by SET students at Naresuan University was considerably more ambitious and challenging than their first project the year before.

Huay Nam Pla Primary School is typical of those chosen by our students for their projects. The school consists of just one old wooden building with only the most basic and run-down facilities. 100 children study at the school, with three teachers.
In the 2006 project, the students renovated an existing children’s canteen at a rural primary school. In 2007, they built a new canteen from the ground up. Project leader Ms Tidarat Pimvoramatakun, 20, a second-year student of Management, said: “We’re not as experienced as the students at Rajabhat because they’ve already run several similar projects, so before we started planning ours we had a meeting with them to get some advice. That helped give us the confidence to tackle something more challenging. In fact, erecting the building wasn’t technically very difficult but there are many other things to take into consideration on these projects, especially budgeting and logistics. Although we’re obviously not professional builders, SET expects us to do the very best we can, otherwise we’re just wasting everybody’s time and money. Everything about the project is a challenge; to get the job done on time, to stretch the budget to the limit, and to live and work together in close quarters as a team. 

“SET keeps the budget on these projects tight, but that’s part of the challenge. Our budget was 100,000 Baht but we knew that wasn’t going to be enough. We’d estimated costs at 160,000 Baht, so we raised 25,000 Baht amongst ourselves and got about 35,000 Baht in free cement from a manufacturer. That worked out exactly right."

“Our canteen is very simple but we’re pleased with what we achieved. Huay Nam Pla School is very run down but can’t get government funding to make the necessary improvements. Ideally the school needs another classroom, as well as a canteen and activities hall. We couldn’t do all that but we tried to go some way to filling all the needs with our little multi-purpose building. The headmaster and the children seemed very pleased with it, so I think we succeeded.

“From our point of view, the project was successful in other ways too. Our team of fifty students lived at the school for a week without proper washing facilities and in fairly basic conditions. To get the building finished in the allotted time we had to work non-stop from early morning till about 9pm every night, sometimes in temperatures of nearly 40C. After a couple of days that can be quite discouraging, but the work helped build a sense of team spirit in us. We were well motivated and felt that what we were doing was important, especially when we met some of the children who study at the school. The local community is a poor one and the children have very little in their lives, nor much opportunity or motivation to improve themselves. In a small way I think we made a difference to them. Perhaps even just talking with us may have encouraged them to think beyond the confines of their village and to strive to study higher. Just that would make our project worthwhile”.

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