KHT’s School Bus Programme ensures that over 300 children can get safely to and from school. They are not forced to live away from home or have to travel by unsafe methods to access school and miss less of their school time because of your support for our School Buses. A vital part of our programme are the bus drivers themselves, who work to get children to school and ensure their safety during the journey. Mr Pikatwatcharapong is one of our bus drivers and we spoke to him about his work and how it is making a difference…
When I was younger, life was difficult. It was hard to acquire daily necessities and I would share one blanket with my siblings. I have been a farmer all of my life and I share my work with my wife. I don’t want to ask my children for help as they are also working hard to provide for their own families. We eat what we grow such as rice vegetables and we also hunt in the forest. There isn’t enough left to sell and help improve our livelihood. Farming isn’t the easiest way to earn enough money to survive, so I needed a second job.
I started to learn to drive after KHT came to our village. In the past no one has cars or motorcycle, and the children would trudge to school and walk long distances. Many students stopped attending because of this tiring trek and because parents worried. The old concrete roads are cracking, and many roads were also bump and potholed but now with the KHT bus, the children don’t have to walk far in dangerous conditions.
Our lives are more comfortable, and travel is faster and easier from the village. Our quality of life has definitely improved with this service. The parents don’t worry about their children traveling to school, even in the bad weather and children have more time to study because of reduced travel times. The parents trust the bus and me to ensure the children can get to and from school safely. This makes them very happy.
Children don’t miss school or drop out and this means improved literacy and new skills that will help them have careers outside of just farming. Without KHT’s support I wouldn’t be able to drive the bus and afford the costs of the car maintenance and fuel. The villagers just can’t afford to support the service themselves.
I hope KHT will continue their support as the costs of fuel is also rising and also support scholarships for university and higher education. With this, we hope Karen children can have a better education than we did and support themselves in the future. I don’t want to have a difficult future as I have had because I couldn’t study.
Thank you to KHT for all you do for us and I am glad I can be part of that and I hope together, this support will continue.”
You can help us ensure Karen children can access education by donating to our School Bus Programme today!