Can you improve on this label for coconut oil?

1. Bottling Expertise. The Herbal Drinks Group of Rawai make drinks form local herbs such as lemon grass and pandanus leaf, but they currently put these drinks into cheap plastic bottles which are not attractive, and which may give rise to health concerns about chemicals leaching from the plastic into the drinks. They believe that glass would be better, and would broaden their market, but do not have the expertise to make the switch.

The person or company we are looking for will be an expert in bottling drinks – including sterilising the bottles, the pros and cons of various bottle closures, and possibly setting up systems for bottle returns. If you are this person/company and you want to help, please contact us.

2. Graphic Design. The same group also need professionally designed labels for their drinks, so we are looking for a graphic artist to come up with a label that will be attractive to buyers.

Another group also needs graphic design work. This is the Cold Compressed Coconut Oil Group, also in Rawai. They have a supply of bottles, but the design of the labels could do with improvement.

If you are a graphic designer and would like to help either or both of these groups, please contact us.

3. Ornamental design. The Kala Rawai Group make decorative items and souvenirs from coconut shell. They recognise that their products are not particularly well designed or well made, and are looking for help to make improvements.

If you can help with designs sophisticated enough to be sold through souvenir shops in five-star hotels, for example, and if you can teach these people how to make them, then you are just the person they need. Please contact us.

Time for a photo before the clean-up starts.

Some 150 volunteers dug in with mattocks and grass cutters, and cleaned up a mountain valley and stream that flows from the Nakkerd Hills above Baan Sai Yuan Moo 7 in Rawai.

The aim of the clean-up, on May 30, was to refurbish a small dam and the water course below it in order to “return water resources to the community”. The villagers also plan to promote the valley as an eco-tourism learning site; the local scenery is beautiful and includes sweeping views of Nai Harn and the sea beyond.

The PCF donated B5,000 toward the project as part of its 1^st Small Grant Program.

Many others were involved. Twenty of the volunteers came from the Royal Thai Navy Third Naval Base in Ao Makham. Also present were Phuket Provincial Administration Organization President Paiboon Upatising and Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos.

Digging in.

Phuket MP Rewat Areerob donated four cloth banners for the project; Coca-Cola and drinking water were supplied by Hadthip (PBL) Phuket Co; another 200 bottles of drinking water came from the Kusoldharm Foundation; and 60 lunch boxes were donated by PCF board member Chalermkiat Ongcharoen to add to the lunch prepared by Sai Yuan villagers for the volunteers.

By the end of the day a large area of the valley from the small dam downward had been cleaned up. The local community will continue to tidy up the area regularly in order to protect local water resources and to make it a local beauty spot worth visiting.

The PCF is delighted to have been involved in this truly community activity – a fine example of local people’s understanding of the need to protect natural resources, increase environmental awareness and improve the quality of life on Phuket.

The PCF’s grants committee, after reviewing all the applications, decided that 11 of them met the criteria set by the Foundation. In most cases, the decision not to give funding at present was because the applicants asked for funding to cover ongoing costs, whereas the criteria for the PCF’s grant program limit grants to projects that must be completed within a year of the grant funds being received.

In addition, projects that did meet the criteria are not being funded in full, on the basis that applicants will retain “ownership” by being required to find additional funding elsewhere.

The PCF will help them identify possible additional sources of funds, and all members of the Phuket community – individuals, groups, local and national government departments, or companies – are invited to look at the individual applications (here) to see how they may contribute. In some cases, contributions may be in the form of expertise or advice, or simply donating one’s time.

For clarification or queries, please contact the PCF Director, Janyaporn Morel by email or by calling +66 (0) 8 1851 2280

Chalermkiat "Ko Chang" Ongcharoen

Chalermkiat, 62, better known as Ko Chang, is a veteran of social and charitable action. For the past eight years he has been President of the Kusoldharm Foundation. In 2004, under his presidency, the foundation was acclaimed as  an “Outstanding Foundation in Southern Region” and “Thailand’s Best Foundation”. The following year he received the “Phuket’s Best Volunteer Award”, and then “Thailand’s Best Volunteer Award”.

He is president of the Phuket Foundation League and the Phuket Social Welfare Fund, and vice-president of Phuket Private Coordination Organization and of the alumni of his old school, Prasartwittaya.

He is also a consultant to the Rachaprachanukroh Foundation, under the patronage of HM King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and is on the boards of eight other not-for-profit organisations, helping the disabled and underprivileged; those facing difficulties after disasters; and providing coffins and transport home for the dead.

The PCF is delighted to have the benefit of his huge experience and wisdom.

Jitrarat "Tik" Willaert.

The other new board member, Jitrarat “Tik” Willaert, 36, currently works in the property industry but has always spent part of her spare time on charitable work. She gave invaluable help in the running of the PCF’s Race Day last November.

She also worked for two years for the Grandparents Group of Petchaburi, whose aim was to raise environmental awareness in the community, especially among young people. During this time she organised a variety of fund-raising activities, including designing and running projects with an eye on attracting sponsorship from international grant-makers, and promoted the various projects to the Thai and international press.

The PCF board looks forward very much to her input on exciting fund-raising events.

The PCF  also welcomes Jeerasak Thortip, 47, as an adviser to the board. Last November, Jeerasak was named “Outstanding Citizen” in Phuket for his work over thye past 10 years on preserving the traditional way of life in Bang Rong, a rubber tapping and fishing community on the east coast of Phuket.

In 2002 he led like-minded community members in establishing the Bang Rong Agrotourism project, the most prominent element being the Bang Rong Community Kitchen, a floating restaurant next to the quay from which many tourists take boats out to the islands.

Thirteen years ago he also helped to establish a local community savings fund which now has some 700 member and assets of B30 million.

With  Jeerasak’s help, the PCF hopes to reach much further and deeper into local communities on the island.

Teacher Donna Stephens with three of the children who explained about their class's toy donation.

The primary schoolchildren at British International School, who recently visited the PCF’s new toy library at nearby Baan Bangkhu School – and contributed some of their own toys – this morning handed over a load more.

PCF president Ajarn Pranee Sakulpipatana, along with two board members and director Janyaporn “Yo” Morel, were entertained to a song before some of the children handed over the toys, along with thank-you messages and a photo display of the recent visit, to a teacher from Baan Bangkhu and one of her students.

Piled high: Bags and boxes of toys donated by the BIS kids.

The school also donated a large box of children’s videos and a video player.

This is the second time that children from BIS have handed over a big lump of toys for the PCF’s toy library programme. BIG thank you, kids!!

Anyone may contribute toys to the programme. They can be left at the PCF office (see contact page for details) or at the Phuket International Hospital.

The PCF is also looking for sponsors to help with funding to cover the making of shelves and boxes in the toy libraries, or for painting the walls. If you would like to sponsor something like this, please contact K. Yo by email or by calling her mobile (08 1851 2280) or the office (076 224 317).

The PCF's new office.

The PCF has now moved into a small office space in Satun Rd in Phuket Town, with enough room  for desks for Director Janyaporn Morel and Manager Roongprakai Sang-In.

The office, close to the Phuket Pavilion Hotel, is rented from the Phuket Peranakan Association, which also allows the PCF use of its conference room on the top floor.

The phone and fax number for the office is +66 (0) 76 224 317. Email addresses remain unchanged.

For directions on how to reach the new office, please see our Contacts page.

Job done! Crew members of the USS Hopper (in yellow) pose with students from Baan Para school, Larry Amsden and Brad Kenny of the Patong Rotary (front, right and left), PCF director Janyaporn "Yo" Morel (right of centre row, in pink) and the Director of the school (top right).For more pictures see the slideshow at the end of this blog.

Not all US Navy crew members head for the bowels of Patong when they visit Phuket – many regularly get involved in what are known as “Comrels” – C0mmunity Relations activities – when they are in Phuket and other foreign ports. (Last year crew from the USS Boxer painted the PCF Toy Library at Hongyok Bamrung School.)

In this case, the Hopper crew members helped out by painting one full side of the school building. There’s an old navy saying, the second half of which is, “If it’s nailed down, paint it.” We asked if there is still a lot of painting to be done in the US Navy. “Oh yes, Sir!” was the reply. All that practice is effective. These efficient sailors had the whole side of the building looking shipshape in about three hours.

Community service projects are a long-standing tradition in the U.S. Navy and are performed to help others in need and build relations in ports of call. “Interacting with other cultures and giving back is my favorite part of this job. Today was a great opportunity to do both.” said Hopper’s Electrical Officer, Ensign Tyler Lloyd.

Thanks to Brad Kenny, Larry Amsden and the Patong Rotary, who coordinate all US Navy Comrels in Phuket and to Glenn Defense Marine who sponsored the beautiful blue topcoat and the rest of the painting supplies.

Thanks, too, to Mission Hills Golf Club, who put up scaffolding and helped out with applying the undercoat (funded by the PCF), and to all the local people who joined in today and over the past couple of days.

Duty done, the Hopper crew tucked into a lunch made by parents of the Baan Para schoolkids, and a song performance by the school choir, including the choir’s rendition of Que sera, sera.

The USS Hopper, an Arleigh Burke class guided missile destroyer, is currently with the US Seventh Fleet. The ship’s website is here.

Click here for pictures.

Three cheers for the new toy library! Children from BIS (foreground) and Baan Bangkhu School celebrate getting to know each other.

About 60 grade-1 children from the British International School (BIS) recently visited the new Toy Library set up by Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) at Baan Bangkhu School, just down the road from their own school, and donated some of their own toys to the new library.

The children visited in three groups, on the mornings of March 16 to 18, the aim of the visits being to teach them to share and to give to less privileged kids.

Isabel Ford, Year 1 teacher at BIS, said that her pupils very much enjoyed spending time with the Baan Bangkhu students. It was delightful, she added, to see all the children making new friends by playing together.

Kids from both schools play together.

“Coming from privileged backgrounds, the BIS students have a lots of toys, so it’s very good for them to see that they can help the Baan Bangkhu school children by sharing some of their own toys. It’s very good experience for them to see how it helps and I think all our children here will really love to continue bringing something to share with these children in the future.”

Thanking the children for their donations, the director of Baan Bangkhu School, Niyom Promkhunthong, added that children at his school are very happy and excited about the toy library.

“They wait every day to play in the toy library. Now they are very keen to come to the library. It makes the room livelier; children can play with the toys if they get bored with reading books.

“The school would also like to announce to the public that we would be happy to receive further donations of toys for our library. People can donate them directly to us, or through the PCF,” he said. “They can also donate toys for the PCF’s next toy library.”

Baan Bangkhu School is on the west side of Thepkrassatri road, just past the entrance to the Boat Lagoon marina. To donate toys via, or to the PCF, call the director, Janyaporn Morel, at 08 1851 2280 or email her.

Established 84 years ago, the Michigan-based Mott Foundation aims to strengthen local communities anywhere in the world, reasoning that “strong, self-reliant individuals are essential to a well-functioning society. Moreover, individuals have a critical role to play in shaping their surroundings.

“There is a fundamental need to promote the social, economic and political empowerment of all individuals. All individuals should have the right to work and pay their own way, the right to an education, the right to better themselves, and the right to a clean and healthy environment.

“Therein, society must respect individual, human and civil rights, and those rights should be protected by law,” the Foundation’s website stresses.

The Mott Foundation is already a major financial supporter of the PCF, and the PCF features in an article in its website about the work of the Global Fund for Community Foundations (GFCF), another major supporter of the PCF.

The article can be seen here.

Phuket Vice Governor Teerayuth Eimtrakul snipped the ribbon to open the fourth toy library organized by the Phuket Community Foundation (PCF) at Baan Bangkhu School opposite to Boat Lagoon on Feb 26th. The library is plenty with toys that were supported by many contributors and the main supporter – Phuket International Hospital (PIH) that organized the Teddy Bear sale during Christmas 2009. PIH also donated THB20,000 in order to support PCF’s Toy Library series in the future.

In additional, PCF donated THB5,000 to support the fund for children’s lunch.