Out of all the options available for winter break, Hashem gave me the opportunity to venture around the globe to Thailand on a humanitarian mission.
Before departure, our group of 18 Yeshiva University students was unaware of all the logistics but excited about our journey.
This adventure to a Third World country was definitely a life-altering experience, which enhanced my appreciation of running water, clothing, as well as many other luxuries which most people take for granted in America.
Upon our arrival, we were greeted by everyone who lives in the 200-person community. Roughly 30 years ago, the residents of Bon Kamklang lost their homes, jobs and comfort to a massive flood.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej granted each of them acres of land as compensation, however their rice patties and spirit were drenched. The new land which they received was not as fertile as the valley in which they once lived; they were out of jobs and options in their new town.
During our interaction with the community, we noticed that there is a high concentration of elderly and children. This is because the breadwinners of the community, who struggle to earn a yearly salary of about 6,000 Baht (roughly $200), were forced to travel eight hours by bus to Bangkok in order to supply food and essentials to their parents and children, whom they see only twice a year.
As representatives of the Jewish community, we YU students, along with two American Jewish World Service (AJWS) staff members, devised ways to enhance the community’s financial and educational infrastructure. In addition to educating, playing and conversing with all 150 children every day, we raised enough money to start an endowment for the teachers.
The community lenders charge 10 to 20% interest per month on essentials like clothing and mosquito nets to protect against malaria. We set up a fund to aid the teachers with a lower interest rate of 2% so that they may free their minds of losing their homes and furniture, and would be able to focus on teaching the developing youth.
The Pattanarak Foundation, whose mission is to enhance the quality of broken communities’ lives through improved health and nutrition, finds dignified ways of creating income, uses local wisdom to guide environmental preservation, and assumes the responsibility of overseeing the money we donated. In addition, the Pattanarak Foundation took the mounds of clothing, shoes and accessories which we left behind for the community and divided and distributed them to the families of the community.
In addition to our interaction with the community, we were able to aid in the physical development of the community school. For hours upon hours we took tons of pebbles, sand, water and cement, and put them in a big mixer in order to make concrete for the floors and sidewalk for the new school. For years this community was waiting for the funding to develop the school, as well as the physical labor and materials which we provided.
Our own struggles are our priorities; our own community’s struggle is our responsibility. At the age of 21, I have devoted years of my life to helping others who are around me; immediate family, relatives, friends, as well as the elderly. It is upon us as individuals to take that which we learn at home and in our community, and extend these concepts to those who are less fortunate. Hesed starts at home, in my case Brooklyn and Israel, and may extend as far as a Thai child half-way around the globe; where it is not only an act of hesed but also a tremendous Kiddush Hashem (a deed which sanctifies G-d’s name).
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Sion Setton is a Yeshiva University student. He is an active member of the Syrian community in Brooklyn and Manhattan.
