We have 5 athletes living at Baan Phak Phing right now who are among the best in the region and will soon have an opportunity to break through into the national level. These girls participate in something called Jiu-Jitsu which is a self-defense sport. A couple of years ago we had a volunteer with us for several weeks who taught all the girls self-defense. Due to her participation at a local sports school we were able to send our girls to practice the sport further at this sports school. After a while of practicing on Saturdays it turned out that 5 of our girls really love Jiu-Jitsu and are quite good at it too. The teacher at the school wanted to give them a chance to see if they could get to higher levels in the sport. He, along with other trainers, got them to the point where they started to rise in the regional group. The sport isn’t cheap and we are extremely grateful for the continual financial support of the sport-teacher and his wife as well as the volunteer. They often have to play in competitions and not just in Chiang Rai but also Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

The 5 girls now play at a very high level which takes a lot of dedication because they have to keep their weight in check, so they don’t jump to another weight class, and they have to train every day to keep in shape. They have to do this on top of a full school-week and all their homework but these 5 are fully capable of doing this and they are really enjoying it. They are learning a ton and we have seen them grow a lot in their self-esteem over the past couple of years.

We try to find something that they can learn outside of school for each of the girls, for example: an instrument, something creative, or a new language. When they know what they want we start looking for a good place for them to do this. It is incredibly important to do something you really want and in that way develop new skills.