WSU Contingent to Help Orphanage in Thailand

OGDEN, Utah — By May’s end, children at an orphanage in Thailand’s Chiang Mai province will no longer eat their meals in a small storeroom. A group of Weber State University students, faculty and staff will travel to the orphanage May 3-28 to construct a new kitchen and dining hall. The team will work with a WSU alumnus, a Thailand native with a heart for service that can be traced back to her job as a student aide for Weber State’s Open-Student Computer Labs.
 
Ninnet Phurininnat graduated from WSU in 2012 with a degree in construction management technology. She lives in Chiang Mai and helps manage her family’s construction business. She will meet the WSU contingent and coordinate activities that involve the local community.
 
Mike Moon, assistant director of WSU’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, is directing the trip. Carey Anson, academic technologies coordinator for Student Affairs Technology; Julie Rich, associate geography professor; and Jeremy Farner, assistant design engineering technology professor are serving as co-directors.
 
The group will complete five projects in Chiang Mai and communities throughout northern Thailand, with a goal of improving the lives of orphaned children and the elderly. The projects include:
 
  • Constructing the kitchen and dining hall at the orphanage, which also is home to elderly individuals without families;
  • Constructing and installing a water reservoir at the orphanage;
  • Incorporating environmentally friendly elements into the construction project, such as rain water collection and recycled glass lighting;
  • Traveling to local schools and community groups to provide English language instruction and teach community members how to incorporate sustainable practices into their own homes; and
  • Contributing new beds, mattresses, books and computers to Thailand’s Somporn Foundation, a nonprofit organization that serves orphaned children, youth with AIDS, and elderly without families.
In 2014, two groups, including advisors Moon, Rich and Farner, traveled separately to Africa and Peru to help communities make positive, lasting changes.
 
The trip will be Anson’s first foray into international service. “Each one of us can be a change-agent,” he said. “We can make a difference in someone’s life. We can be part of the solution.”
 
As the supervisor of WSU’s Open-Student Computer Labs, that is the message Anson passes on to his student aides.
 
‘Closing the Circle of Service’
 
Phurininnat worked for Anson while at Weber State. She recalls becoming involved in a service project with her co-workers, making blankets for Primary Children’s Hospital. Each employee donated one hour of wages to buy materials. The first effort resulted in 250 blankets. The next semester, the students, Phurininnat included, toured the hospital.

“Being there made me understand the importance of the project,” Phurininnat said. “I talked with a nurse when we brought the blankets. She said they were soft and colorful and help children feel better. I am glad that I was part of the project. It showed me that you can do something meaningful, even if it is just a small thing like tying blankets.”

When Phurininnat moved back to Thailand, she kept in contact with Anson. One day, a telephone conversation between the two turned to helping impoverished schoolchildren. She suggested they help children in Thailand. In 10 days, Anson’s team raised $400, which Phurininnat used to buy supplies and donations for the Maehood School & Orphanage.

Afterward, Phurininnat became connected with the Somporn Foundation and began working with another orphanage, one that is closer to her home in Chiang Mai (the Maehood School was over seven hours away and didn’t have a telephone signal, making it difficult for her to communicate with administrators of the orphanage) and one that was in desperate need of a kitchen and dining hall.
 
Phurininnat developed a set of construction plans and sent them to Anson. “They came in so professionally done,” he said. “It was quite impressive.” He then approached the Center for Community Engaged Learning to see what more could be done. From there, plans for the international service trip to Thailand were made.
 
“It feels nice to know what I learned is useful for these people,” Phurininnat said. “It inspires me to keep doing what I’ve been doing.”
 
Every spot for the trip has been filled. Participants took a class in the spring called “Thailand: International Community Engaged Learning.” They learned about the geography of the area, how to implement green-building techniques and how to be globally engaged. In addition, they learned to fundraise and write grants to pay for the trip.
 
Anson is excited to go. “To be there in Thailand, helping an alum who was involved in service while she was at Weber State help others, is just a great way to close the circle,” he said.
 
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For high-resolution photos, please visit the following link:

https://wsuucomm.smugmug.com/Computer-Lab-BlanketThailand/n-fvnp2

 
Author:
Amy Hendricks, Marketing & Communications
801-626-6346 • amyhendricks@weber.edu
Contact:
Carey Anson, Student Affairs Technology coordinator
801-626-7018 • canson@weber.edu
 
Mike Moon, Center for Community Engaged Learning assistant director
801-626-6890 • mikemoon@weber.edu