Work with disadvantaged children

Project at a glance

Location: Bangkok , Ayutthaya Start point: Bangkok End Point: Bangkok Duration: 2-12 weeks Hours: 30-40 hours per week Food: Local food (3 times a day) Room: Host family or hostel Date: First and Third Monday of each month

Project Summary

Volunteer with disadvantaged children in Thailand and help poor farmers, factory workers and other low-income people in Thailand cannot pay for often-expensive childcare services. Local government and Buddhist temples have established childcare centers to support children between the ages of 2-6 especially for children of poorer families. Most of these childcare centers are located near or within the compounds/confines of a local school or temple with the purpose of providing educational as well as recreational opportunities for these young children. The parents usually drop the children at the respective childcare center prior to work and retrieve them at the end of the workday.

Skills/Qualifications

There are no specific qualifications needed to join the disadvantage children program in Thailand . However, volunteers are expected to be flexible and patient as well as possess a passion and love for children.

Volunteers' Responsibilities

As you volunteer with disadvantaged children in Thailand , you teach children to speak and write English, to be active: walking, running, dancing and playing; and to have fun: sing songs, play games, arts and crafts, etc. Disadvantaged children project volunteers can create their own lesson plans for classes using what they feel suit the needs and interests of the young children. Volunteers working with young children will be provided teaching and playing materials for use in teaching centers. The working hours are between 8:00am-12:00pm. Volunteers then also teach English in nearby primary schools during afternoons.

Room/Food/Supervision

IFRE manages living accommodations, provides meals and supervision for volunteers for the entirety of their stay in Thailand . IFRE's Thailand office is located in a beautiful area about 50 km from the Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Ayutthaya City – the former capital of Thailand . We offer home base in Thailand . Our Home base is very safe. It is a clean, sparsely furnished home but will meet all your needs as an IFRE volunteer. We try to create a “home away from home” for volunteers staying at our home base. It is a perfect situation for volunteers to live safely and comfortably while making many new friends and sharing experience every day. Most of volunteers project in Thailand are located within 1-10 KM of our home base so you may walk or ride a local bus to your project. In the evening when you return to home base, you can relax, eat dinner, explore local areas or simply share experience with volunteer comrades.

Occasionally, depending on volunteer traffic, available projects or distance to a volunteer's assigned project, we may also place our volunteers with carefully pre-screened host families. Our host families are socially respected and are experienced with hosting international volunteers. They have strong interest in our volunteers' safety and well being and demonstrate this with caution and care. In most host family situations, volunteers will share a room with another volunteer of the same gender. Volunteers staying with a host family will be able to have home cooked meals with the family. Those who have stayed with a host family describe an enriched experience as a result of having done so. Once you have applied, you will receive specific details of your accommodations in your personal placement documents.

Our field staff visits volunteers regularly and always happy to help our volunteers in any way needed. We offer 3 meals a day of local cuisine. Typically, volunteers eat breakfast and dinner at the home base (or host family) and have lunch at their project. We offer fresh, nutritious and safe local foods to our volunteers to eat.