ThaiBookDrive.com

ThaiBookDrive.com - August 3, 2005
Andrew Titley writes: My name is Andrew Titley and I am a 17 year old student from New York, USA. I am a 12th grader from Oceanside High School in New York and will be in Thailand until about the middle of August. I am currently living in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand.
My reason for contacting you is that I am the organizer and founder of Thai Book Drive. My website, www.ThaiBookDrive.com, has the basis and information of my book drive on it. Over the past year or so, I have collected thousands upon thousands of books in English to donate to children all across the Si Sa Ket Province of N.E. Thailand. I collected many of these books from libraries, school, colleges, and households all around the Northeastern part of the United States. The books were sent by ship to Bangkok which was later transported by truckloads to Ubon Ratchathani where I am living. On every weekday, for about a month or so, I will be delivering these books to various schools all around the Si Sa Ket Province. I usually visit about 3 schools on a daily basis and stay at the schools to talk with the children and teachers about the importance of English. My success can be viewed from my website above.
My inspiration?
Truthfully, it has to do with my first visit to this section of Thailand during the summer of August 2004. After being brought around a local village where my stepmother was born and raised, I was able to visit a school in the area. I met many of the children, teachers, and administrators at the school which were very glad to meet me. It was the initial kindness of the local people that made me want to do something for them, but at that point I was not sure what I could do. It was not until my plane ride home about a week later that I designed and thought up a plan to send children’s books in English to their school as well as others in the area to help them. So for the past year, I collected as many books in English that I could to send over to Thailand in which I would follow to distribute them. My logic for helping them to speak English is a very easy one. I believe that with the knowledge of English as well as their Thai, it would open up new opportunities for them when they were older. To be able to find a good job in Thailand and around the world, to go to school, as well as to travel would be much easier if they could learn English. If they were to receive a better job because of their English, then it might as well help out their whole village and their families. I immediately started the project because I wished to do this at the age I am now, rather than waiting until I’m older. For me to travel to these schools, I believe that they will listen to me closely due to my age and it would make an impact on them to learn English.
Why Thailand?
The main reason, which is mainly included in the previous paragraph, is because of my visit to the local area where I am now donating the books. Since my stepmother is from NE Thailand, I wished to help out those in her village and the project increased in size to include many others in the area as well. My first trip to Thailand, which was about 4 years ago when I was about 13 years old, was one that I will always remember. Whether it was in Bangkok, Pattaya, or Chaingmai the people were all very friendly. Over the years, I have formed a great passion for Thailand and that is the primary reason for doing this to help the country and it’s citizens. If I was working on a larger scale or had multiples of myself, I would spread to other parts of Thailand.