Bangkok (Thailand) – November 8, 2019 (travelindex.com) – Thai school supports UN in localizing SDGs in disadvantaged communities. Ahead of UN Day, which takes place every year on October 24, the UN Country Team (UNCT) Thailand celebrated a partnership with a rural school in the northeastern province of Buriram to localize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to communities across Thailand.

The UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand, Deirdre Boyd, and representatives of the UN Country Team visited the Mechai Bamboo School in Lamplaimat District, Buriram Province, on Tuesday, October 22, 2019, to acknowledge the school's achievements in putting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into practice. Since its founding in 2008 by prominent Thai activist Mechai Viravaidya, the Mechai Bamboo School has employed innovative teaching methods with a focus on sustainability and environmental protection.

To enroll at this school, parents and students do not have to pay school fees, but instead plant 800 trees and perform 800 hours of community service annually. On this occasion, students from Mechai Pattana School, along with students from 15 schools in northeastern Thailand, came together and pledged to work towards implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in their communities: “We, the undersigned, commit to promoting, communicating, and implementing the SDGs in our schools and the surrounding villages to improve the quality of life for all people.”

The UN Country Team Thailand attended the signing ceremony of the declaration of commitment. The ceremony was part of the UN Day celebrations, jointly organized by the Mechai Pattana School and the UN Country Team Thailand. The celebrations, themed "Children are the Future," aimed to highlight the role of young people and local communities in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the importance of sustainable education. Resident Coordinator Boyd explained that local needs must be heard and considered when pursuing the SDGs. "The SDGs were agreed upon globally by all heads of state and government. However, they are based on the views and needs of all people on our planet."

“If we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) globally, we must first implement them at the local level,” said Boyd. “Mechai Pattana School and the surrounding communities have done excellent work in implementing the SDGs locally.” In addition to presenting various SDG-related projects to the representatives of the UN Country Team, the students had the opportunity, as part of the “SDGs Exchange Classroom” workshop, to exchange ideas with representatives of the Regional Committee and the UN Country Team about the implementation of the SDGs in Thailand.

The UNCT team also visited the first SDG village in Buriram – Ban Kwang Ngoi Pattana in the Kok Klang subdistrict of Lamplaimat County. This village serves as a model for 15 other communities surrounding the school, which are to implement the SDGs locally. Ban Kwang Ngoi Pattana is a typical rural, disadvantaged community in Thailand, whose residents have an average annual income of around US$1,100. The Mechai Pattana School, which aims to become a center for the social and economic progress of the villagers, has already been implementing SDG-oriented projects in the surrounding villages for several years. Examples include waste management, water management, environmental protection, and clean energy. With the SDGs set to be achieved in just ten years by 2030, the school has decided to take a bold step and implement them even more comprehensively.

The Mechai Bamboo School has conducted workshops with villagers to educate them about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), collaboratively identify which goals are most urgent and relevant to them, and subsequently develop visions for the village. They will meet again soon to define their own goals and indicators, taking into account the global framework of the SDGs.