GPA Supports One-Of-A-Kind Youth Center in Thailand

Photos courtesy of GPA

This holiday season, GPA is supporting a Thailand community, bringing together a team of Cheon Il Guk Youth Missionary (CIGYM) leaders and Youth and Students for Peace (YSP) Thailand chapter members to assist the “SMART Youth Center” — the first of its kind in the small northeast town of Surin. The team recently launched a fundraiser for the youth center, raising almost 30% so far of their $10,000 goal.

“We are creating this fundraiser because we know that, as Americans, we have a lot to offer to the world,” organizers stated. “[This] opportunity to support community activities here in Thailand [enables us to inherit] a lot from the general and blessed family culture.”

In Thailand, $100 USD can provide a month’s worth of salary, rent, or quality meals for a family of four, according to organizers. “It can definitely cover the expenses to run a weekend educational workshop that teaches family values to youth from local villages, and even provide a scholarship to support a student’s Bachelor’s Degree,” they stated.

The youth center also provides a space where village children can grow through “an environment of unconditional love” and gain “support they may otherwise not receive at home,” organizers said. 

However, the small size of the current facility is limiting, with an imminent need for more space.

“The hope for this provincial center is to attract the multitudes to be educated on their innately infinite value, on family as the school of love, and the importance of purity, [so] we need to afford a bigger space and more modern facilities,” organizers said. “The [fundraiser] is an offering that will go toward all things supporting this center’s activities — including any renovations or innovations they decide to make.”

Buying an oven is also essential to support a cafe run by center leader P. Ce, organizers said. This will bring sustainable revenue for the center’s activities, which are often funded by door-to-door donations.

“This oven would allow more goods to be made with less manpower, as well as train young people [and] members to attain transferable skills and work experience that can uplift them professionally,” organizers said.

Surin is one of Thailand’s 77 provinces, located some five hours northeast of the capital of Bangkok. Home to less than 40,000 people, the town of the same name has a strong population of young families. A single U.S. dollar goes a long way there, fundraisers said, equal to 36 baht in local currency which can buy a full meal.

“Any amount will be deeply appreciated,” organizers said, making a difference in countless lives this winter and well into the new year.

You can support the GPA fundraiser here, and learn more about their ongoing work here.