Workcamp Details

Description: Immerse yourself in the fresh winter environment of a Northern Hill tribe at Kong Por Neua monastery, in a remote Karen community from Chiang Mai province. Too Neuk, a local young and active monk there, is the one who invited the foundation Watcharaparamita (our partner)to organize the 2nd universal moral and ethics camp there. This time, with DaLaa, we wish to expand our love to children there and embrace the foundation’s camp (13-15 December) by creating meaningful activities for the children in both the school and the monastery toward international culture exchange, having fun while respecting each other’s, learning about ourselves and peace. Volunteers will help to prepare and join some parts of the foundation’s camp.

Type of Work: After a preparation day, volunteers will organize two full days of activities with students at the local School to support values of international peace, culture exchange, solidarity, team building, leadership…depending of the skills of each one and using English language as a tool. The next 3 days, we will focus on a Universal Moral & Ethics Camp at the local Buddhist monastery (our living place) organized by a partner foundation from Chiang Mai. Volunteers will help with vegan cooking, organization of activities, such as games for adults and children, take parts in the discussions and share their own culture. The last two days will be dedicated to visit the local community and discover the watershed forest with our hosts.

Study Theme: With this unique workcamp, we wish to gather our regular education - opening to the world- children activities with universal morals and ethics camp initiated from the foundation Watcharaparamita, deeply immersed into Buddhism/Asian wisdom. Both the foundation participants and the local community (lead by Too Neuk) are willing to open up to the world through the international volunteers and to exchange on our deepest concerns and visions to improve the world situation.

Accommodation: We will all stay in the compound of Kong Por Neua monastery. There is a communal building and you will be provided with simple sleeping equipment like thin mats, pillows and blankets. We will sleep in communal rooms (1 for females and 1 for males). These rooms will be used in the day time for the camp so we will need to pack up our sleeping stuff every morning. If you need more privacy, we advise you to bring your own tent that you can pitch in the yard. The temperature may drop to 10 degrees Celsius in the night so please bring your warm clothes.

Language: Expect language barrier and to practice your non-speaking communication skills. Local people speak Karen dialect. Most of them can speak Thai except the oldest generation (over 50-60 years old). Very few local can speak English. The workcamp leader will do the translation and hopefully quite a few Thai volunteers can help with translation.

Requirements: Volunteers should be ready to eat vegan for the whole stay at least in the monastery. Volunteers should be ready to stay in a remote area for 10 days with only basic facilities. Volunteers should be ready and responsible to organize activities with kids.

Approximate Location: Kong Por Neua is situated in a very remote area of Om Koi district , Chiang Mai province, not far from the Myanmar border. It's a hilly landscape with beautiful forests around and mostly dirt roads, even no electricity lines (but solar panels in the monastery and mobile phone coverage). Our camp will be based in the monastery of Kong Por Neua, about 5 km from the School and the Health center. There are about 50 houses spreads around in the village. The travel from Chiang will take 5-6 hours.

Camp Photographs