I first went to Thailand in 1997 and immediately fell in love with the country. Thailand at that time to me was mysterious and exotic, full of potentials and pitfalls.
Fast forward to 2010 and here I am after 13 years and many trips to the LOS sharing, with the help of my 
Giving Back To Thailand – The SET Foundation
I’ve been spending the past 4 days fighting battles. First with the 10 inches of snow that got dumped on us here Saturday and then my own personal battle with a cold. Loads of vitamins, juice and other liquids are helping, but I still feel drained and washed out. Hopefully I will get past this by Christmas day and will be able to enjoy the holiday to its fullest.
Even though things have been tough for me the past few days, for some people things can be tough every day. This has been made clearer to me over the last 24 hours by several Thailand bloggers who have been discussing giving back to Thailand and the wonderful Thai people through charitable donations.
The trend was started by Catherine over at WomenLearnThai.com when she posted about the SET Foundation and how they are helping Thai children to continue their educations. The torch was then picked up by Talen over at ThailandLandofSmiles.com who has committed to donating his December Adsense earnings (roughly 5000 baht) to the SET Foundation as well as issuing a challenge to his readers to help out as well in any way they can – money, time or simply spreading the word. Mike over at My-Thai-Friend answered the challenge by posting links to both Talen and Catherine’s posts and helping to spread the word.
My answer to the challenge is multi-faceted. Obviously I am posting to help spread the word about the SET Foundation and I hope that you will be able to help out as well in some small way. Even the smallest donations can mean the difference between a Thai child getting an education or not, something we take for granted here in the West. You can see some examples of how SET can use the money here.
The second part of my answer is to commit to donating 1000 baht a month to SET throughout 2010. I know it’s a small amount, but will add up over the 12 months. In addition, I will be rolling out a challenge to you, all my readers, in 2010 that will enable us to band together to give far more than that. More will be posted about that, most likely on or around New Year’s Day.
So, I am taking a three pronged approach to giving something back to Thailand, not only during this holiday season, but every month in the upcoming year. Please join me and Catherine and Talen and Mike in helping the SET foundation in whatever way you can. If you can afford it a small donation of even $10 or $15 will go a long way. Instructions for donating can be found here. If you have a website or blog please spread the word and let your readers know about SET and what they are doing to help the youth of Thailand.
Most of all have a joyful Christmas and holiday season no matter where you may be!
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Excellent post Steve…Thanks for picking up the torch and hopefully we can all get our readers to help the Set Foundation throughout the year.
My pleasure Talen. Education is so vitally important to the future development of a community/town and hopefully enabling the students to continue in their studies will bring future improvements to Thailand. Coming from the States it’s hard to believe that education is not freely available and that stopping school at the age of 12 or 13 would be necessary. I know that even university graduates in Thailand have trouble finding good paying jobs, I can only imagine the lack of prospects for a person with a 9th grade education.
Hi Steve:
Thank you for the input concerning the SET Foundation. What is the
meaning of the acronym, “SET?” I will definitely become a supporter,
early in the New Year.
Dennis
Steve,
Thank you so much for passing on the information about SET. I rarely find a charity I feel good about, so SET is a rare one.
Fighting colds seem to be the name of the game this Christmas. You, Talen, and myself are all in the same boat.
Luckily, SET has give us the option of donating via paypal. And while my nose might be kicking up a fuss, my paypal finger works a charm
I’m really touched by this post. I totally agree that education is very important and still needed to be improved a lot more in Thailand. There are many people who lack this opportunity.
Have a nice Christmas!
@Dennis – SET stands for Students Education Trust. Really glad to hear that you’re going to help support them!
@Catherine – I also have had problems finding charities that I feel good about and that I feel spend my donations appropriately. SET fits my needs perfectly.
@Natta – Nice to see you here! Hope the midterms are going well for you and not too much stress. Thanks for the nice holiday wishes. Have a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year as well!