Trade-off is our way of plugging in with others in need, practically, supportively…Using our various career skills to aid, educate and further others who desperately require a hand-up rather than just a hand-out!
Sammy is a trained electrician, teacher and ordained minister and Kylie has 3 decades experience as a registered nurse with diverse/tribal people groups in different settings, notably Australia (SA/NT), Saudi Arabia and also USA.
We are in planning stage to be back on the Thai/Burmese border again in Aug/Sep 2023.
Below outlines the last couple of trips:
February 2019 we returned to Mae Sot, Thailand, and ran three trade schools, a level 1 electrical one as usual, a level 2 electrical, and a first response trauma/medical skills school. This incorporated basic hygiene- hand washing, life support, first aid, wound management, and more. This was achieved in partnership with http://thecharisproject.org and https://www.globalcatalyticnetwork.com/. Check 'em out!
If you would like more information on our Thailand/Myanmar partners or how to be involved and support this valuable lifesaving work, please contact us.
If you would like to see what Charis Project achieved in 2020 during the pandemic read their report HERE .
From Sammy: Thailand Feb 2020
I jumped on a plane from Dublin at the beginning of February, (leaving Kylie at home so she can get her irish passport in the next 12 months) to meet up with Justin Lovan (GCN) and Rhys Duursma (musician/producer) from Australia in Chiang Mai. We headed to Maesot and Rhys found himself right into action sound proofing a studio area that was waiting for him.
Over the next 2 weeks, Rhys trained 7 young men and women on how to set up the studio and how to multitrack music. They also managed to record 14 songs in 3 different languages and one Charity Single …all proceeds will go back to the studio in Maesot.
Meanwhile downstairs in our training centre, my initial group of 8 students for electrical school had grown to 14, plus my usual 4 helpers / journeymen.
We did our usual work on boards: learning safety, grounding/ earthing, one way switched circuits, 2 way switched circuits, radial circuits, ring circuits and Consumer units / breaker boxes.
After training, we went to wire two very basic shanty houses of poor Burmese immigrants ..just a few lights and power outlets plus a grounding rod…the walls were made of metal, so we grounded them as well!
The Ark’s welding school was having electrical problems if they tried to run more than one welder. When we checked we found wires taped together inside the breaker box and everything running off an ancient 30 A trip.
We ran 4 single radial circuits for the welders, put more lights in the kitchen and put each circuit on a separate breaker on the new consumer unit.
We sorted out some maintenance around the training centre, mostly new lights and repairing old ones.
One of our many issues in this work is tools burning out or breaking so we also bought 3 new heavy duty power drills, a heavy weight tool box and new hand tools and 4 sets of steps ladders in various sizes.
We managed to achieve loads more than we had planned, and thanks to many of our friends we could pay for it all!
Thanks to all who have donated equipment, funds and resources that enabled these schools. We are grateful for all the technology including a multi SD card recorder custom built for this project for use in mobile phones regardless of internet.
Photos below of what happened.
Please contact us for any questions or about supporting what we do.
