From tragedy to hope: The story of Phuket Has Been Good To Us

The first part of the walk makes its way down the west coast, passing through Kamala and Kalim. This is where one of the five organizations I'm walking for, Phuket Has Been Good To Us, is located. This Monday, I visited their school in Kamala Beach and met with Tina, the executive director, and a few of the teachers working at the center. They explained more about the foundation's origins and how they support the children.

The 2004 tsunami was a big tragedy for Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries but at the same time, it also became the starting point for many solidarity initiatives. When the disaster struck, one of the local schools in Kalim was destroyed. Money for rebuilding came in from the Thai government and from overseas, and a new building went up. But there was one thing the school couldn't afford: a teacher who could speak English. In a Thai state school, English is usually taught by a Thai teacher qualified to cover any subject (science, maths, Thai, etc.) and rarely a specialist. So the headmaster made a simple request: please, send us someone who can teach the children English.

The person who answered was the owner of the Baan Rim Pa Restaurant Group, Mr. Tom McNamara, who had supported the Kalim community before the tsunami and wanted to help again once the school was destroyed. He set up the charity, a process that took about a year, as registering a charity in Thailand is no small thing. "It's quite complicated," Tina told me. "We actually didn't start teaching until 2006. Kalim was the first school, and then a year later we came and taught here."

The founder passed away sixteen years ago, but as Tina explained, the family behind Baan Rim Pa still supports the charity to this day.

The idea was clear from the start, and it hasn't changed: provide fully qualified, experienced teachers who understand the Thai curriculum, and give the children English lessons the schools could never otherwise afford. "We say we will teach your English lessons for free," Tina said. "They give us a classroom, and then we provide the English class."

Nearly twenty years on, that's still exactly how it works. The senior teacher, Jerlin, has been with the foundation for eleven years and knows precisely where each child sits in the curriculum, tracking, week by week, what's been covered and what still needs to be, because, for many of these children, these lessons represent their best opportunity to learn English well. With classes of thirty or more children, as Jerlin explains, it’s hard to find “one‑on‑one moments” with each student. This is precisely why she carefully monitors each student's progress, ensuring that no one is left behind.

And English, here, is not a small thing. On an island whose economy runs on tourism and hospitality, the language is often the difference between a job with a future and a job without one. More on that later in this series.

That's where it started: one destroyed school, one headmaster's request, and one restaurant owner who decided to help. Twenty years later, it's still going, a quiet, steady thing, teacher by teacher, child by child.

Next in the series: the after-school club with a name that means more than it first appears: the Coconut Club.

Phuket Has Been Good To Us provides free English education to underprivileged children in Kamala and Kalim. To learn more or support their work, visit phukethasbeengoodtous.org.

Photos courtesy of Phuket Has Been Good To Us.