In mid-December 2011, I boarded a commercial flight from Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok to Narathiwat province (south Thailand), to inaugurate an English-language book corner that the Usarong Charity Foundation would be handing over to the Attarkiah Islamiyah Institute in muang district, Narathiwat province.
It was one of the few trips to southern Thailand that I had made in the past few years, and it was particularly refreshing not to travel for official duties, but rather for pleasure, specifically on behalf of a small charity foundation that my father had set up in 2003 to support children's education. Moreover, the floods in central Thailand had just subsided from the peak in October and November, so it was definitely a refreshing change.
Usarong Charity Foundation is a family-based charity foundation registered in the province of Nonthaburi, and its objectives are to support small local schools, orphanages and institutions that do not usually get the funding or materials they need to operate.
We focus on ground-breaking and creating new connections, particularly between local organisations and the sources of funding that they would normally not have access to. Such sources of funding include from foreign governments that support local foundations to engage in activities for development purposes.
While our project in Narathiwat was held in a medium-sized, dual system school that was jointly visited by both the Thai and Malaysian prime ministers in 2009, the focus was on opening up the global perspectives of Thai-Muslim students in the school, through procuring books related to globalisation, encyclopaedias and short stories in English to support the school's library. The project aimed to educate high-school students from the Attarkiah Islamiah Institute about global diversity and provide them with the opportunity to "see the world" from their own school.
The main objectives of the project were first, to create amongst the Narathiwat youth a sense of being global citizens.
Second, to empower the Narathiwat youth so that they can, one day, play a role in shaping the global agenda.
Third, to make Narathiwat students feel proud as Muslims, as citizens of Thailand and as global citizens.
Fourth, to encourage acceptance of diversity and build familiarity with people who look, speak and sound differently. Usually we are familiar with people having the wrong impression of Muslims around the world, but this project is in "reverse mode", building a more global outlook for Muslim youth in southern Thailand.
Usarong Charity Foundation proposed and received generous funding from the Canadian government's Canada Fund for Local Initiatives to establish the "Narathiwat To The World" book corner.
The library corner was inaugurated on December 12, 2011, with over 200 English-language books available in the library of the Attarkiah Islamiah Institute. The events included a 45-minute talk to 200 students, focused on expanding their global outlook, as well as on Thailand's relations with the world. The school executives attended the handover ceremony. Most important was that the students exhibited a keen interest in the project, and later exchanged views on the Facebook page "Narathiwat Canada" set up for the project. One student even expressed her interest in being a future Thai ambassador from Narathiwat.
The unexpected benefits of the trip were the strong connections established with the executives of the school, as well as local leaders. The meetings and visit to the school were an opportunity for the foundation to talk with the executives on the underlying causes of underdevelopment in the southern region of Thailand, as well as on the security situation in the three southernmost provinces.
It was found that the executives of the school have a very progressive outlook towards developing education for Thai-Muslim students, and they would welcome visits by foreign embassies or dignitaries, and they are open to collaboration on student and teacher exchanges with foreign countries.
Education is linked to poverty, and the development of education in the southern provinces of Thailand will help uplift the wellbeing of students, and ultimately improve their chances of getting better jobs, and take them out of the poverty cycle. The English-language books are important for the students as they will now have material to read and refer to, while improving their language skills. After all, we are soon to be a part of the integrated Asean Community in less than four years time, and 2012 is "English Speaking Year" in Thailand.
Because of the security situation and other factors, southern Thailand remains generally less developed than other regions, and so there is a continuing need to develop the education sector. Islamic schools are transforming into dual-system schools with standard curricula taught side by side with the traditional Islamic courses. The local leaders that I met were supportive of a comprehensive effort to improve education in Narathiwat. There remains a need for more support in terms of materials, teachers and any activity that will provide greater exposure for the students to the world, or at least for Narathiwat students to be on a par with students from other regions of Thailand. As I exchanged views with many local leaders during the trip, they said that there needs to be a more transparent effort to tackle the security issue in the South. At the same time, they hope that the government, as well as foreign embassies, will interact with locals directly on many issues, rather than rely on secondhand information or assessments by academics. This of course has certain sensitivities.
There was also an opportunity to meet the senator from Yala, the representative of the Thai Parliament on the Asean Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, who appreciated the efforts of the foundation in soliciting funds from Canada for the project.
Indeed, the window of opportunity is there for the development of education in the South, from the bottom up, rather than waiting for national policies to trickle down. If we wait too long, it will too late for us to groom a Narathiwat schoolgirl to become a future female ambassador representing Thailand and, ultimately, "bringing Narathiwat to the world".
Natapanu Nopakun is vice president of the Usarong Charity Foundation
