August 2015 Newsletter

RM4C Inc. & DAC Inc. joint meeting.

It was so wonderful to have a volunteer team from Australia to renovate the volunteer’s accommodation. It needed a complete renovation prior to the arrival of a large group that will be coming to the Academy in September.

Every volunteer worked really hard to finish the jobs required in the time they had here and completed everything and much more in 2 weeks. All of the doors and windows have all been installed, the walls painted and the floors were all scrubbed. Additional work too of the electrical wiring.

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It was a combined trip for the purpose of having an annual joint meeting between the board committees of  RM4C Inc. and DAC Inc for 2015.

This was the first time the Boards have met since the re-establishment of the work of The Akha Academy. Both parties were happy with the final outcome of the meeting. They also visited an Akha village during this trip.

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AGRICULTURE TRAINING PROGRAMME.Part of the vocational training programme at the Akha Academy is in Agriculture. We took the opportunity of Paul Evans, an Agriculturalist from Australia being at the Academy to teach and train the children in the process of planting bamboos and figs tree.

First step of any planting is to do the research on what native vegetation is suitable to plant on the site of the Academy, so we went and approached the local forestry department. They recommended us to use the native bamboo and native figs trees.

downloadCHILDREN GETTING INVOLVED.We learnt from how to cut the branches, then how to plant them and how to water and maintain these plants. It was a great opportunity for the children to have hands on training and gain knowledge in agriculture.
They were all so enthusiastic to learn new methods of planting of branches.

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The children were involved at every stage, from cutting the branches, digging up the native bamboo and the replanting of both bamboo and fig trees under Paul’s guidance. Now we watch them grow.
Thank you for your help and support for the stateless children and give them life opportunities.
Asa Stevenson
General Manager – Akha Academy

The Australian Rescue Mission for Children Board and Friends travel to Thailand

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Our board members, President and his wife Junette, Vice President and Project Manager, Michael, Treasurer Noel, together with Terry Wark from Playworks and Paul Evans have had a very busy 2 weeks over at the Academy.
They had an inaugural meeting with DAC Inc Thailand which was very successful, discussing many aspects of the life in the Mission and its short and long term vision and needs.

download Maintenance at the Academy has been of the utmost importance with 26 people from the Genesis Church on the Gold Coast arriving in September. Work has been preparing 4 units ready to accommodate everyone. So as these units neared completion, there was Mick welding window frames, adding door hinges, locks, lighting for the kitchen and shower areas, Terry forming the screens, Noel fitting the mesh and Paul painting the frames, all units are now fully fly screened, lights and power on. Fantastic and jobs well done!

Two hot water systems were beyond repair even for our project Manager! So, off on an interesting shopping trip go Mick, Terry and Noel. Along with looking for Mossie curtains but ended up being shown Badminton rackets! “Obviously something about our Thai?” says Noel.

download downloadThe team had some willing helpers one day as some of the smaller children did not go to school. They also had lots of spectators!

There would have been such a buzz of activity and was so exciting all around! The kids collected a small pink flowers and mixing them with water to make a colour change. They also collected Lemon Grass for the evening meal, cutting the “grass” with a great golf swing!

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Asa and Paul sourced some valuable advice on the stabilisation of the creek bank. They hope to plant some more clumps of local bamboo and local edible fig trees and propagating these from existing stock. If this is successful it will go a long way towards reducing any further erosion when the creek floods in the future.

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On another occasion Barry, Junette, Paul and Noel took the opportunity to visit an Akha coffee plantation, where they met with some of the DAC board members. While this was a social gathering, discussions about the future and vision for the training centre, was central to the conversation.

 

In all, their stay has been very productive on all fronts, and achieved most of what they set out to do. They are all now back home safe and well.

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Saying goodbye to the mission and the kids was difficult for them all. Even though  communication was hard, they were still able to build a bond that will be remembered for the rest of our lives.

 

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Your Australian Committee.