Dear Donors and philanthropists,

The COVID-19 pandemic since 2020 has affected the public health system, society, economy and people living in the country. We do realize that the underprivileged, as well as poor people, remain the ones who have been affected the most. In addition, the number of impoverished people has increased over the past year.  EDF estimates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could result in higher dropout rates from schools, especially from the poor and extremely poor students whose families are unable to bear the cost of their children's education due to declining income and employment opportunities since last year. 

EDF Foundation concluded its scholarship donation raising campaign for school year 2021 on 30 June 2021. The official figures showed that a total of 8,067 scholarship donations were raised. It accounted for 6,893 scholarships for lower secondary students, 740 scholarships for upper secondary/vocational students, 202 scholarships for poor students with disabilities, 195 scholarships for orphaned students affected by the unrest in the southernmost provinces of Thailand and 37 scholarships for higher education.  It is equal to about 80 percent of the 10,110 students in our waiting list for school year 2021. 

We could say 2021 is another year of the most difficult times both for our donors and students from poor families who applied for scholarship support but fell short. The COVID-19 economic impact adversely affected many of our donors. However, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all donors and kind philanthropists who continued their support to the education of the less fortunate Thai children despite the challenging economic condition due to COVID-19. 

Working closely with schools in rural Thai areas throughout the year, we discovered that both schools and students were facing new challenges as a result of the COVID-19's impact. Teaching and learning were inevitably required to convert to an online basis in accordance with social distancing, despite a lack of readiness on the part of both schools and students in many aspects. Furthermore, the COVID-19 impact affected poor students' and their families' ways of life and quality of life as they had to struggle to survive in circumstances where earning a living was much more difficult than before.

As a result, I'd like you to visualize the impact this has on schools, teachers, and students in remote areas through the story of Nut or Panas Kaliklubkam, 18, a former EDF scholarship student who graduated from high school at the beginning of 2021, unfortunately, he had to put his goal of attending university on hold in order to help support his poor family, which had been impacted by the COVID-19. In addition, there is an interesting article about how rural schools and teachers adapted to the new challenge of online learning and teaching schemes in order to prevent poor students from dropping out.

From 1 July 2021 and onwards, EDF Foundation is accepting early scholarship donation for the coming school year 2022. You can simply make your online donation through our website or make your money transfer from banks. For details, please download the EDF donation form here or you can contact us for more information and further assistance at public@edfthai.org. 

Please allow me to thank you in advance for your consideration to continue support the education of underprivileged Thai students in the coming school year 2022.

I wish you and your family all the blessings. Please stay safe and strong as we overcome the current COVID-19 situation.