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Rajabhat University Project

School: Rajabhat University Nakhon Sawan
Date of project: April 2007
Project: One-day visit to Nakhon Sawan Old People’s Home
Purpose: To build a children’s canteen and toilet block at a remote rural primary school and to undertake other renovation work
Number of students: 90
Cost: 156,487.86 Baht

The fifth SET for Society project by our Rajabhat students proved again how keen these youngsters are to help other needy people in their society – and how good they’re getting at it.

The site of the 2007 project was Bahn Nong Saigay Yao Primary School, nestled in mountains about 90 kilometers from Nakhon Sawan City. The school is typical of those chosen for these projects; isolated, very run-down and serving a local community of farming families. There are 66 children at the school, aged from 4-12 years old, with four teachers. The school was one of six assessed for a project by the Rajabhat students. The school has a new head teacher – Ms Rattana Tangprom – and when she was appointed in 2006 she was determined to improve the facilities for the children, so she was delighted that her school was chosen for the project. Top of Rattana’s wish list was a new toilet block - understandably, because the old toilets were not only in an appalling state but, with only two cubicles, inadequate even for her small number of students and staff. Next on the list was a combined canteen and activities hall; something that SET Rajabhat students are now expert at building. And, asked Rattana, could the team do anything about the broken playground equipment? How about a bike shed too? No problem!

That was quite a lot of work; more than could be done in the seven days and nights allowed for the project or for the fifty students originally selected for the work team. SET has nearly 200 scholarship students at Rajabhat and there is never a shortage of volunteers for these projects, so the solution was to appoint two teams, one of 40 students and one of 50, working at different periods and on different parts of the project. Joint project leaders were Chai Saher, 24, studying Science, and Supaporn Phromthuan, 22, studying Human Resources. Both have worked on previous projects.

Team Leaders

Chai said: “This was the biggest job we’ve undertaken so far and it was also the most labor-intensive. The only available site in the school grounds for the new canteen was in a shallow depression, so before we could start building we first had to level the ground. That needed many tons of earth, all moved by hand. We then had to raise part of our leveled site by an additional meter, to give a high-enough base to protect the canteen from flooding. That took many more tons of earth. A deep pit had to be excavated for the waste tanks for the new toilet block, which was also a lot of heavy earth-moving. All that preparatory work was done by the first team, so when the second team arrived a week later they could get straight on with the construction.

I told your students what improvements I would like to make, thinking there was no way they could manage all the work. They just smiled and said No problem! And it was done”. Head teacher

“The canteen is to the same simple design we’ve used at other schools, but it works well. The building has one floor-to-ceiling solid wall and is open on the other three sides to allow a good airflow. The gypsum roof is supported by a heavy metal frame and the upright concrete supports have deep foundations. The concrete floor is partially enclosed on the three open sides by a meter-high wall, which protects the building from flooding and prevents stray dogs getting in. The building has ceiling fans and a water supply, so with tables and benches it can be used as a canteen, an open-air classroom or an assembly/activities hall. It’s a good addition to the school’s facilities and we’re very pleased with the way it turned out.

“The toilets presented us with a new challenge. We’ve renovated toilets before but this was the first time we’ve built a new block from the ground up. It was our original intention to demolish the old block because it seemed to be in such a bad state. There were just two cubicles and an outside broken concrete trough as a urinal. When we looked more closely we realized the foundations were quite sound, so instead of knocking it down we decided to renovate instead. Together with the new block of six cubicles, that gives the school an adequate number of separate toilets for boys and girls.

Supaporn added: “For the building work we split the second team of fifty students into several smaller teams, each with its own project; the canteen, the new toilet block, renovating the old toilets and repairing and repainting the playground equipment. Anybody not immediately needed on those teams worked on building the bicycle shed and landscaping the area around the new buildings. It was great; everybody worked non-stop and knew exactly what they were supposed to do, but even with our large work force we had to set up floodlights so we could continue working late into the night.

“We’re very serious about these projects but there’s always a good fun atmosphere on site too. At night especially, when we’re too exhausted to work anymore, we try to relax for a few hours and just enjoy being together, not only as a work team, nor as students from the same university, but as friends. Most of us don’t know each other before these projects start, so it’s a good opportunity to make new friends, especially as we’re all SET scholarship students and come from generally similar backgrounds. Usually somebody brings a guitar and someone else will bring some bongo drums, so we get a little band together and organize a sing-song around a camp fire with our evening meal. We have a lot of fun but we also know we’re doing something very worthwhile, which is why many students volunteer every year. We love these projects and hope they will continue for a long time”.

The old toilet block

Nearing completion, the canteen/activities hall, with the new toilet block on the left.

On the handing-over day of the new facilities, Rajabhat President Dr Pratuang visited to inspect the work and congratulate the students on their achievement. Each member of the team received a certificate and the project leaders received commemorative plaques. All 66 children at the school received a gift pack of exercise books, pens, pencils and cartons of milk.

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