Contact with this locally established plantation school provided a deeper and wider understanding of the hardship and limitations facing the students of this school and Karen, Mon and Burmese children throughout Sangkhlaburi. We would find children sick with Tuberculosis and Malaria not visiting the hospital because their ethnicity meant they were not entitled to free health care. With no land, no permanent home or community, students would leave school suddenly as their family moved on to the next plantation. Girls from as young as twelve would leave the school and other students would inform us the family had sent them to work in the city. For students from  single parent families the free school lunch could be their only meal that day. The school had no funding to help these students continue their studies. Sadly, and despite the students determined efforts, their academic career would start and finish here.

With limited funds and resources, we tried to work with the plantation school and respond where possible. A bag of rice a month was given to a family of six children whose mother had passed away. The  payment of a hospital bill for a child with malaria. Contact with a Thai NGO to provide a home for two children in distress. Providing a volunteer English teacher for six months. Using only personal funds, we were always limited with the amount of help we could offer. It seemed like there were so many problems, yet we were working with only thirty families on just one plantation.

Since this simple beginning our knowledge and level of assistance have been able to grow. Through the establishment of a sponsorship program a level of funding was acquired to help older children from the plantation begin attending an official school. Generous financial support then enabled us to develop an area of land,this was the start of our Home for Children and Free School. After visiting other settlements and learning of the many children with no school we decided to build a basic bamboo school ourselves.The children came to learn enthusiastically and in great numbers. We had expected about fifty students to join our free school, yet one hundred and fifty arrived on the first day.