As the concrete poured on the new playground at the Wat Sawang Arom Temple & School in Rawai, several on-lookers gathered around talking about what was to come. The majority of the people that gathered last Monday (January 19) around the area all played a part in the school’s newest addition. While there had always been a playground in the vicinity, it had become delapidated with holes everywhere, hardly a safe-environment for the more than 800 primary school kids that attend Wat Sawang Arom.
“This is a happy day here in Rawai, everything came together to help the school so the children have some area to play. It’s going to help get kids out of trouble, they have a safe place to play,” said Rawai village head Sin Polrob.
In his 20 years as the Kamnan of Rawai, Polrob says he’s rarely seen as much of a mix of foreigners and Thai’s coming together for the better good.
The project, spearheaded by the Mushy Peas – the Rawai-based Phuket FC supporters club – is expected to be completed within the next few weeks with flood lights, fencing and a donation of sports equipment all in the works.
“We started collecting the money for several weeks, a lot of it came from our monthly donations, but then there were a lot of one-off donations from people who saw what we were doing,” said Richie Dell of the Mushy Peas.
The group has made it a point to help several Rawai-based causes and have already donated B30,000 worth of sports equipment to the local sea gypsy village, helped organise football clinics for disadvantaged Burmese children, and donated football boots and school uniforms to several children.
This project, however, is easily the biggest for the group and has included donations from people all over the world as well as the generosity from local businesses. Salika hardware donated trucks and riggers for the old concrete while Property For Sale Phuket donated other materials. Chochkai Concrete even agreed to donate the entire B150,000 worth of concrete for the surfacing.
“We’ve liaised with the head director of the school, the Kamnan (village head man), the monks at the temple, co-contributing businesses. It’s definitely by the community for the community,” Dell said.
In addition, a small meter will be put up near the playground to collecte rental fees from locals so the school can make a bit of money. Once complete, the entire playground will be marked for basketball, football, volleyball and tennis.
“We are happy to have foreigners helping out for the kids. Normally, we are looking for anyone to help, but we are even more happy that foreigners have lent a hand,” Polrob said.