Young at heart? Young at heart!

Many people have the perception that working and holidays is something for the young and adventurous. Well, that might be so for a lot of projects, but not so for the people that come toTCDF Eco-logic. Adventure is in your heart and age has nothing to do with it. It does not matter if you are 21 or 71. Really, you are the one who makes the difference, together with us!

Over the years TCDF Eco-Logic has had many volunteers, guests, visitors of different cultures and ages, who spent a part of their holiday in helping the foundation. By work, by promotion, by fundraising. Singles, couples, we even have had a number of families who stayed and worked with us. Some stay for a week, some for a very long time.

Here are some examples of the ‘young at heart ones’:

Roland

A 50 plus man from Holland: he came to visit the foundation and wanted to learn more about the work we did. He joined as a volunteer for a period of 2 weeks. He did everything necessary from cleaning out the fishponds, making fences, sorting out garbage for recycling and selling, and working in the vegetable garden. Roland has a big network in Thailand and Holland and after his stay with us he decided to put his network to use to help the foundation in a more substantial way. He is, now, a very active ambassador for the Thai Child Development Foundation.

Gini

A very creative Dutch woman: also in her 50’s, came to stay with TCDF Ecologic for a period of 2 months. During that period she lived in one of our clay-houses (the dormitory was not her thing) and her input, energy and creativity made a big change around the place. To name a few things she did – working in the vegetable garden - :

• 30 signs with pictures and letters, to be used in the horseback riding area for educational purposes
• designed bags for the students of our Special School to make
• upgraded the look of our restaurant
• input for more information on the project and the work we do for people who come and work with us
• made hundreds of beautiful pictures for us; many of those are used for this website
• had an open mind and open arms for all of us who needed some advice

Before coming to us Gini did a lot of promotional work for the foundation and she arrived with boxes full with material for the horses, games and toys for the Special Students and a lot of toothpaste for young children.

Gini made TCDF her home and she left a big part of herself here. She’ll be back!

Loes, Truus en Reina

Three Dutch ladies came to TCDF Eco-Logic for a working holiday of three weeks. They brought us a lot of laughter, very good energy and they worked very hard on the upgrading of our Art Eco Shop and the entrance of our restaurant.

Thanks to Loes, Truus and Reina we have a two beautiful decorated flower ponds at the entrance of our restaurant. The Art Eco shop was painted, had shelves made and display areas for selling the art of our Special Students.

Loes, Truus en Reina were very active on fundraising for TCDF before their arrival. Thanks to their promortional work in Holland the students of the Special School now have a sawing machine and a lot of material. They are learning how to use this machine as you read this.

Thanks ladies! See you again!

Bianca

A beautiful energetic lady in her 30-ties came from Holland and joined us for several weeks. Very motivated, very active and always with a smile on her face, she worked as a volunteer in the Eco&Kids project. Gardening, working with the kids on Saturdays. Next to that she spent hours and hours on the decoration of several benches around our Special School. They are a beautiful mosaic now, and are used as and educational tool too, because Bianca mosaiced it all with numbers.

Lucy and David

They came to have a look, Lucy and David from Holland. They stayed for 6 months. Lucy and David, both in their twenties, worked on anything you can imagine on our premises. They made furniture, they worked in the gardens, build clay houses, organized activities for our kids, hosted our volunteers. They became a big part of TCDF and when they left, this place became a lot quieter. But they will return, as all good friends do eventually!

Several families with children

Numerous families came and stay with TCDF Eco-Logic. Families with very young kids, families with teenangers, families with kids in their 20ties even. They all participated in some of the activities and work around here. Trees have been plated by them, many children made friends for life with the local kids when they participated in the Saturday activities, kids discovered – together with their parents – the nature around us on bamboo-rafts and on hikes and short jungle treks, they cooked a meal for their parents in a special kids-cooking course with our cook. They played in our special school, on the playgrounds, in the river and in the special playroom at the restaurant. They had the time of their life, well their parents enjoyed their joy and a wonderful holiday.

The list can go on, continuously.

• Ben. Who comes every year, builds, organizes workshops and runs for TCDF for fundraising.
• Jolanda and Ingrid. Want to come on a yearly base and help with the Special School project.
• Marco and Clara and their beautiful baby Paula. Who come visit us on a yearly base. Ambassadors for TCDF in New Zealand and Spain.
• Jan and Astrid. Regular guests. Jan biked to Santiago-de-Compostella for TCDF. Astric is the best toothpaste collector for the toothpaste project of TCDF.
• Jacqueline. Coordinator for our ambassadors in Holland.
• Louis and Nelleke. Retired and big supporters of TCDF. They visit on a yearly base. Thanks to Louis we have the most beautiful flowergardens around the guest-accomodation.
• Bob and Truus. Regular visitors. Bob made beautiful promotional movies for the foundation.
• Lonneke. Guest and friend of the foundation. Lonneke organizes yoga and meditation holidays. One of her destinations is Paksong!
• Helen Purperhart. Organizes yoga-lessons for children-yoga. Comes every year with a group of people to Paksong for her lessons.

Traveling, sharing your world and experiences, learning and exchanging culture is not bound by age.

Come and pay us a visit and experience it by yourself! Together we can make the difference!

Ingrid and Rose

TCDF Eco-Logic