Articles from Alumni Newsletter June 1998
Pestalozzi Foundations
POCT Projects
Alumni News
POCT Staff News
Alumni Reunions
Ladybird Club
Fundraising
The International Baccalaureate Course
The Pestalozzi graduates form Foundations in their own countries
These Foundations sponsor needy children so that they can receive a good education in their own country.
The work of the Pestalozzi alumni ensures that education spreads in their own countries
Congratulations to the Foundations for their tremendous work!
KASISI BASIC SCHOOL, ZAMBIA
This year's major project is headed by Maurice Murphy at Kasisi Basic School, Lusaka, Zambia. A hostel to accommodate eighty girls is now nearing completion. There will be the first intake of forty in September 1998. A Skill's Centre is also being set up and the standard of education at the school is being generally improved.
TIBETAN CHILDREN'S VILLAGE IN INDIA
The POCT funded Hostel at the Tibetan Children's Village near Dharamsala has been completed. It accommodates twenty-five children.
BUDHANIKANTHA SCHOOL, NEPAL
A Pestalozzi Skills Centre has been established at Budhanilkantha School, Kathmandu, Nepal. The mini-farm at the Centre is now self-sufficient
The POCT is putting up half the cost of a Hostel to accommodate one hundred girls at the school. Work has now begun on the Hostel.
SHRII SITA RAM SCHOOL, NEPAL
A vegetable farm has been set up at Shrii Sita Ram School in the Far West of Nepal. As a result, the Girls' Hostel is now self sufficient for vegetables.
NEWS…NEWS…NEWS…NEWS…NEWS…NEWS
Arporn Jamnongrak has just been promoted as a Marketing Manager for Castrol (Thailand) Limited
Yashpal Kapoor now has a one-year old son and is living and working in Delhi
Amornrat and Wass Saosila have a newly born baby girl. Her nickname is 'Ma-prang'. Ma-prang is a Thai fruit, which has a reddish-orange colour, just like the colour of her cheeks
Phuntsok Tashi's work building a Technical School for Tibetans is progressing fast and is now halfway to completion. It will open in July 1999, initially providing training to between eighty and one hundred trainees
Thank you, Chaiyan Tippayosot, for the following:
Maybe I should introduce myself first. My name is Chaiyan Tippayosot. I am one of the first batch of Thais to arrive at the Pestalozzi Village in May 1996. I left the village in July 1978 after achieving a Bachelor of Science Degree in civil Engineering from Aston University in Birmingham and having a memorable twelve years in the Village. On returning to Thailand, I became a registered Civil Engineer and have worked in my profession as a Contractor Engineer ever since. It is a profession that I am very proud of and very happy with. Currently, I am a Project Manager for the Natural Gas Distribution Pipeline Project in the Bangkok Metropolitan Area and one of my clients happens to be, but who else, the British Gas Plc. End of a very brief history of my life.
As you know, the Ex-Pestalozzi Students in Thailand have established a Foundation for Further Education, to help local school children in the spirit of the Pestalozzi Village. It is our social contribution to our country and serves as a reminder of our experience and link with the Village. At present, I believe that our Foundation is on good standing and, for this, our many thanks go to the POCT for their kind assistance and encouragement.
The Foundation is providing educational grants to one hundred school children today. They are attending classes in their last year of Primary or are in Secondary. Our aim is to assist them to the end of their secondary education, which is six years. Grants for fifty children are provided through POCT and the remaining fifty children are by the Foundation. I am the head of the Fundraising Committee. I am now in my third year of the assignment. Basically, to break even, the foundation needs an annual income of about 350,000 Baht (5,800 pounds).
Some 100,000 Baht are made through interest from our fixed Bank deposit account and through direct sponsorship from sponsors. The remaining sum is raised by having a Raffle Ticket Sale. This year, we will have a Raffle Ticket Draw on August 12, 1998. Prizes for the Raffle draw are obtained as free gifts from Corporates and business friends. Other ways of raising funds are always discussed in our meetings but we have found the Raffle Ticket Sale to be the most productive and less of a problem to manage.
As an ending to my short note, I would like to thank all those who have worked hard for the Foundation and also many more thanks to Sir Richard Butler and Lady Butler for their keen and continuous support to the Foundation.
CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL!
Valerie Deacon has been the London Office Administrator since July 1997
Maurice Murphy is at Kasisi Basic School in Zambia where he is overseeing a POCT capital project
Joanna Nair has been the Regional Co-ordinator for Asia since August 1997 and lives in New Delhi
ALUMNI REUNIONS
REUNION 1997
Last year's Reunion was organised by the Tibetans. Our thanks go to Phuntsok Tashi and to Sonam Yangzom (The Pestalozzi Overseas Children's Trust's Co-ordinator for Tibetans) for hosting the Pestalozzi Alumni Reunion 1997, which took place in McLeod Ganj, Dharamsala, India.
It was a very enjoyable and fruitful weekend in a beautiful setting. It was arranged so that it coincided with the Tibetan Children's Village Anniversary celebrations, which we were also able to attend.
REUNION 1999
The 1999 Reunion will be in the United Kingdom. It is provisionally to be between the 22nd and the 31st of May and is to coincide with the departure of the last long-term students from the Village as well as with the completion of the first IB course.
REUNION 2000 The Reunion in the year 2000 will be held in Thailand
SPECIAL THANKS FROM THE POCT TO
The POCT scholars are now members of the International Ladybird Club. They receive a half-yearly magazine in which their material is published and many of them exchange letters with each other. The aims of the Club are: To create awareness of the POCT and of its aims amongst the sponsored children, to give the children an opportunity to learn about other countries and to give them an opportunity to form friendships with POCT children in other countries. If any of the Foundations would like the scholars they support to be members of the International Ladybird Club, please inform Joanna Nair (address on the back of this Newsletter)
THE INTERNATIONAL BACCALAUREATE
His Holiness the Dalai Lama has kindly agreed to be the Patron of the Pestalozzi Overseas Children's Trust