The International School Community Unites during Thailand’s Flood Crisis

NIST, the New International School of Thailand, quickly responded to Thailand’s flood crisis during October and November by carrying out a series of events.

The School started off its flood relief efforts by raising funds from the NIST community to purchase 100 boats, costing 350,000 Baht. Amazingly the School raised this in less than seven hours. These 100 boats have since been distributed across the flood affected areas of Thailand where 66 were donated in Ayutthaya, 20 in Bang Bua Thong and the remainder in affected communities in the greater Bangkok area.

This first initiative has since spiraled into a sequence of fundraising and relief efforts. To date, the NIST community has raised over 1 Million baht in cash and countless donations of supplies ranging from donations of 1.6 tonnes of rice, thousands of bottled water, sanitary napkins, to diapers and children’s kits.

The School’s second focus was on the distribution of relief packs to those in desperate need of food, water and medicines. This effort was an initiative that replaced the Bangkok Service Conference, an inter-school student service conference that was postponed due to the flooding.

International schools united on a Saturday in mid November and 710 packs were assembled in just under two hours, with guidance from NIST’s Community and Service Coordinator, Teresa Tung. The following Sunday, 20 NIST staff and students travelled to Bang Bua Thong and distributed packs to families who have been completed inundated by water. Students and staff alike were astonished by the sheer enormity of the flooding and were humbled by their ability to ‘do their part.’

Two weeks following this, a second phase of relief pack assembly and distribution occurred, with the NIST community traveling to five affected regions and distributing an additional 800 packs, and the remaining boats.

In addition to the aforementioned flood relief efforts, NIST has also united with Harrow International School, which has been flooded for months, by offering Harrow the use of NIST’s facilities and campus from 3:30pm onwards from Monday to Friday to ensure senior students can continue learning.

“The NIST Executive Board has considered an approach from Harrow whereby they requested if they could use our facilities for their Year 10, 11, 12 and 13 classes. These are the examinable years for the IGCSE examinations and the British ‘A’ level examinations. NIST would very much like to ‘help out’ during this difficult time in Bangkok and Thailand, to ensure that the young people of Harrow are not unduly affected by the floods which surround their school. So we made a decision to offer this support to students who are in need and to a fellow international school, in Bangkok”, said Mr. Simon Leslie, NIST’s headmaster.

Mr. Leslie also mentions the following story: ”Mr. John Loftus, a NIST parent also shared with me a story he was very proud of:

“Today I took my daughter to the orthodontist. She said to her: "I heard that your school will allow students from Harrow to use NIST classrooms as their campus is badly flooded. What a wonderful thing to do! That is a kind gesture and will help the Harrow students greatly. You are so fortunate to be going to the best international school in Thailand.”

I agree with her totally. In fact, it sets a wonderful example for the students and shows that NIST is confident, has real leadership skills and practices what it preaches about being a positive, contributing member of the community.

I'm sure my daughter felt proud. I know I did. You've done a wonderful thing.”

During this particularly difficult time in Thailand, across the country one can hear stories of communities uniting and NIST is incredibly proud of all the students, teachers and staff who have ensured the School stands united with those affected.

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