Movement News:

Thailand Student Christian Movement

2008 March

Thailand SCMers raised concerns on tourism and its impact on environment during the Work Camp

11 students and 2 staffs traveled to the mountain, Ban Wat Chan School in the Buddhist Karen Village, about 4 hours journey from Chiangmai city. The group lived with the families in the village from 14-18 March, and helped the community to build a new kitchen for the school.

This work camp was not only about helping the school in building a kitchen for the school but also to Study on community and environment development at Ban Wat Chan Royal Project, which helped the students to understand the impact of tourism on environment. As Ban Wat Chan is one of the plentiful pine tree forest in Thailand and there is a plan to develop it into a tourist attraction in the future.

The local indigenous people are faced with 2 different situations: whether to open the place for the tourist attraction or to preserve the forest. Thailand SCM would like to educate the students concerning this issue in the interest of the indigenous people and hoping to highlight this issue in future programmes of SCM.

2004 February-March

Thailand SCM is re-energising the movement in the preparation of the General Assembly to be held in August 2004. A new set of committee members and staff has been elected to carry out the uphill task of movement building and GA preparations. The current chairperson is Pat Pong U-Dorn, general secretary is Apicha Insuwan, national coordinator is Anuchran Siroros and the women’s coordinator is Kanungnit Phatcharat.