We currently have 111 children in our scholarship program, most of whom are fully supported by sponsors. Despite this, there are many more awaiting help.
Some of these children have not been to school for several years due to a lack of finances.
Many of the children attend our Hand to Hand centre and are being taught basic subjects in order to catch up with their classmates. Yet some have been absent from school for so long they would need to enter into a lower grade than their peers.
By Western standards, the cost to outfit and send a child to school for an entire year is less than what we may spend on coffee or eating out. However, by Thai standards, it is an unaffordable luxury that many children never have the privilege of experiencing. At Hand to Hand, it is our dream to bring an end to the cycle of poverty, neglect and abuse by giving as many children as possible a chance at an education. Your financial support covers everything for each child; fees, uniforms, supplies, breakfast and lunch, project supplies, school outings and even transportation to and from school every day!
Our assistance with all these scholarship students involves doing home visits, communicating with teachers and parents and also managing the finances. We see each child at least twice a month at our Kids Club on Saturdays but most of these students visit our centre every week. We also work with the social welfare department from Pattaya City Hall to acquire all of the paperwork for these children. Without house registration papers and birth certificates, it is impossible to enrol kids in public schools.
Covid 19 update
All Thai schools are closed right now and the return date for students to return to school in Pattaya is still very unclear. With our own centre closed and it’s more difficult to visit families, we have been unable to give any of our current scholarship sponsors an update on their students. Rest assured we are continuing to work with families and students to support them the best we can and as soon as things return to normal we will be contacting our sponsors and updating them with the current status of our students. If your sponsorship is an automatic monthly donation please be assured all this money will be spent on your student when schools reopen. We also understand the situation for many sponsors has also changed. If you feel you are unable to continue your financial support please let us know by emailing Margie at handtohandpattaya@yahoo.com
Sponsor a child
Hand to Hand provides education free of charge to families but this program costs a lot of money to run. Your sponsorship provides for all the child’s books, food, clothing, medical and classroom resources for the entire year. When the child graduates from our program into the local Thai schools they are ready to embark on formal education and as a sponsor you can continue to support them through their education journey.
This is a list of all our scholarship kids. Some have found a sponsor but, some haven’t.
If you would like to sponsor a child, please contact us and we will give you information about your student. You can donate via PayPal or direct bank deposit using the instructions on our donate page. Once you have chosen to sponsor a child we will privately email you a picture of your student, provide you with bi annual updates on his/her progress and you will also have the opportunity to communicate with your sponsored child, through our translators.
Cost of transport, breakfast and a daily snack per child, per month is 750 baht
School uniform for 1 year – 1500 to 6000 baht depending on age