Volunteer worker
PHUKET: During the day, 25-year-old Prapan ‘New’ Meeprankij is a support engineer for a fire alarm system company in Phuket, but by night he is a volunteer for problem teenagers in Cherngtalay.
Tanyaluk Sakoot
Monday 9 July 2012, 09:17AM
New moved from Chiang Mai to Phuket about a year ago.
“When I came to Phuket I didn’t know anyone. Yhe Seed Church in Cherng Talay was one of the first places that I went to and met many young people. A lot of them needed help.”
New is now head volunteer for the teenage group ‘U-Teen,’ and spends every Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday evening with a group of troubled teenagers, many of whom have had a difficult upbringing.
Among the group are runaways, drug addicts, and victims of domestic abuse, as well as many young girls with unplanned pregnancies.
As well as counseling, New was responsible for initiating a partnership between a clothing company, musicians and a marketing team to design a programme of activities for its teenage members.
Their most recent activity was the “Envirody” project, which focused on the cleaning of Patong beach.
The U-Teen group has since extended its programme to a number of schools, including Satree Phuket school, Phuket Wittayalai School, Muangthalang Phuket School, Phuket Technical School and Phuket Rajabhat University.
All teenagers are welcome to join U-Teen every Sunday at 48/67 Moo 4, Soi Pasak 8, Cherngtalay or Muangthalang Phuket School every Tuesday at 5-5.30 pm. Thai-language only.
