Thirty Years Ago, I walked in a Slum in Bangkok

# Thirty Years Ago, I Walked Into a Slum in Bangkok. That Was Where the Story of Volunt2Thai Began.

*Some projects begin with a business idea. Others begin because you witness something you can never forget.*

More than thirty years ago, I was actually planning to move to Australia.

I wanted to work there, earn money, and start a new chapter in my life.

But life had other plans.

By chance, I ended up in Thailand.

At the time, I had no idea that this decision would change the course of my life forever.

I studied the Thai language and soon began working as an interpreter for international companies in Bangkok. During the day, I moved between modern office buildings, hotels, and conference rooms.

Yet only a few streets away, there was a completely different world.

The slums of Bangkok.

Out of curiosity, I went there. I wanted to learn the language, understand the people, and become familiar with the Isaan dialect as well.

What I saw there never left me.

Families lived beneath corrugated metal roofs in tiny spaces. Children played among piles of rubbish and open sewage canals. The smell of dampness, wastewater, and rotting garbage filled the air. Young mothers tried to raise their babies on worn-out mattresses. Teenagers joined gangs or died before they ever had the chance to build a different life.

I kept coming back.

Not because I wanted to help.

I wanted to understand.

I listened.

I spent countless evenings with the families and kept asking the same question.

**"Where are you from?"**

Almost everyone gave the same answer.

**"Isaan."**

Thailand's rural northeast.

They had not left their homes because they wanted to.

They had left because they believed they had no other choice.

Without access to education, opportunities were scarce. Bangkok promised hope.

For many, that hope ended in poverty, crime, or prostitution.

Their own children were often left behind with grandparents in their home villages.

That was when I realized something that has stayed with me ever since.

Poverty rarely begins where we see it.

It begins much earlier.

It begins where children grow up without education, opportunities, and hope.

## Twenty Years Later

In 2013, I moved to my wife's home village in rural northeast Thailand.

Suddenly, I recognized the same story again.

Not the slums.

But the reason they existed.

Many villages were populated mainly by children and elderly people. The working generation had moved to the cities. Schools struggled with too few teachers. Some didn't even have a permanent principal. Learning materials were limited, sports equipment was scarce, and sometimes there wasn't enough food for every child.

One day, the village mayor asked me a simple question.

**"Can you do something to improve the lives of our people, especially our children?"**

My first answer was discouraging.

There seemed to be nothing here.

No industry.

No major employers.

No obvious economic opportunities.

Then I realized I had been asking the wrong question.

Not:

**"What is missing?"**

But:

**"What already exists?"**

I saw a strong community.

Dedicated teachers making the very best of what little they had because they genuinely cared about their students.

A unique culture.

Centuries-old traditions.

Beautiful nature.

Deep local knowledge.

Hard-working people, many of them elderly, who were still willing to build something together.

From that realization, Volunt2Thai was born.

## The Beginning of Volunt2Thai

I wrote a 28-page concept and presented it to the local council.

From the very beginning, I made one thing absolutely clear.

**"Volunt2Thai must become your project—the project of your villages and your people."**

**"I can start the project, build connections, organize, and guide it. But it has to be owned by the community itself. You—the villages—are Volunt2Thai."**

That is how Volunt2Thai came into existence.

Not as a business.

Not as a tour operator.

Not as a volunteer vacation.

But as a long-term community project.

My family and I invested our savings.

We sold personal belongings.

Friends supported us with donations.

Then the first volunteers arrived.

They were just as much pioneers as we were.

In the beginning, nobody knew whether the idea would actually work.

There was no advertising.

No agency.

No large budget.

The first volunteers found us through personal contacts and recommendations. They came with curiosity, open minds, and a willingness to step into something completely unfamiliar.

When they returned home, they shared their experiences with family and friends.

Their stories inspired new encounters.

Those encounters brought new volunteers.

Step by step, an international network grew—people united by one simple belief:

Real human connections change people far more than any tourist experience ever could.

Today, we work together with schools, teachers, principals, local communities, and government authorities. More than 700 volunteers from over 35 countries have helped shape the project over the years.

Not because they had to.

But because many of them became part of a community.

For me, that is the true success of Volunt2Thai.

Not the number of volunteers.

But the fact that an idea born in a small village in Isaan has grown into a community connecting people from around the world.

## What Volunteering at Volunt2Thai Really Means

Many people believe volunteering is mainly about helping others.

For me, it is first and foremost about mutual learning.

Most of our volunteers reach places they would never discover as ordinary travelers.

Not because these places are secret.

But because without language skills, local contacts, and the trust of the community, they would never have access to them.

Our volunteers do not stay in tourist destinations.

They spend their time in small villages across Isaan, visit local schools, sit with families outside their homes, share meals, celebrate village festivals, and experience everyday life alongside local people.

They discover a side of Thailand that no travel guide can describe.

That is why we see ourselves as a bridge between cultures.

We open doors that normally remain closed to outsiders.

We guide our volunteers through the language and culture, explain traditions, build trust, and help people understand one another.

Our role is not to replace Thai teachers or arrive with ready-made solutions.

We support communities only where support is genuinely wanted.

Volunteers assist with English activities.

Sometimes they help build playgrounds or organize sports.

Sometimes we work together on cultural projects or fundraising campaigns to provide school supplies and nutritious meals for children.

Every village is different.

Every school has different needs.

That is why Volunt2Thai has no fixed program.

We listen first.

Only then do we act together.

In the end, our volunteers take home far more than memories.

They gain experiences that cannot be bought or planned.

They discover a culture from the inside.

They become part of a community.

And many later tell us that they did not change Thailand—

Thailand changed them.

## Education Changes More Than a Résumé

Our vision has never been to bring as many volunteers as possible to Thailand.

Our vision is to help raise a generation of children who can shape their own future.

Children who speak English.

Children who meet people from different cultures.

Children who develop confidence.

Children who realize that their opportunities are greater than the boundaries of their home village.

Perhaps one of these children will sit on the local council twenty years from now.

Perhaps one will start a business.

Perhaps one will become a teacher.

Perhaps one will choose to stay and create jobs for future generations.

Then the circle will be complete.

Perhaps the next generation will no longer have to leave their villages to search for hope somewhere else.

## Looking Back

People often ask me when Volunt2Thai really began.

My answer surprises them.

Not in 2013.

But on the day, more than thirty years ago, when I first walked into a slum in Bangkok.

That was where I learned that poverty cannot be solved where it becomes visible.

It must be addressed where it begins.

With children.

With education.

With opportunities.

Because when children are given hope and opportunities, you do not just change their lives.

You change the future of entire communities.

And sometimes, that kind of change begins with one unplanned decision.

For me, it was the decision not to go to Australia.

But to go to Thailand.