A water project at Nato

The Natoe Learning Centre(NLC) is an initiative of the Royal Princess.  The centre is located in theTambon  Mae Salong Nai, Mae Fah Luang District, some ninety kilometres from the city of Chiang Rai, near the border with Burma. 

 The learning centre offers certificate and diploma level courses in agriculture to students in the catchment area who would otherwise not have the opportunity to continue with their education after seconadry schools.  The area is mostly inhabited by ethnic hill tribe peoples who are most at risk of exploitation when they venture in to larger centres seeking employment.

It is already five years of NLC operation. We have the first batch of certiificate and diploma graduants who greatly success in their jobs and furthur studies. The ones who get jobs send  money back to their parents which is a great impact to the villagers on their perception of education. They send more of their children to Nato, even before that they usually asked their children to quit from school and work with them in the plantation areas of upland rice and corn. Some children were asked to work as labours in the cities as sources of income for the families.

NLC is lack of water due to the earth quake and land slide and one pupming system is not functioned.  So there was some discusions among Nato staff and our team. We surveyed the possibilty to draw hill water system to NLC.

Fortunately there is a village named Pong Hai located at a higher level and near NLC. The villagers there have a high recognition of NLC in education, shape up  and developing their children. They agreed to share their hill water to NLC.We will have to line PVC down from the village to NLC forr some 2.5 kilometers and we have to build sediment tanke at a smakk hilll behind NLC. Another challenge  of our journey !

We have not statrted the water project yet as all materials have to be prepared for the constructions. This hill water system will be  working together among the  villagers, the parents of the students, the students and teachers at NLC and our foundation team.  A small workshop of hill water system and an interesting outdoor classroom for all of us.