COERR Maesot Promoted Youth in Tree Planting Activities in Umpium Camp

   As trees are vital and have much environmental benefits, COERR promoted youth to spend their school vacation on tree planting as to raise their awareness and participated in environmental conservation.

   On May 10, tree planting activities were organized with the participation of 58 youth, comprising 37 female and 21 male.

   Step by step the youth plant various seeds in small containers and watched as seeds germinated and grew into seedlings.

   Then they dug the hole in square or round shape, two times wider than the root ball of plants, fill water to check drainage, set the plants and fill the hole with the same soil that came out of the hole. Water the seedlings to encourage growth.

   The community tree planting event have several benefits. Youth are promoted to have volunteering spirit, to grow more seedlings for themselves and keep the surplus for others who might come to ask for them or to distribute them to household that want to grow plants, either for food or decoration purposes. It is also an aim that youth should have sense of concern of the trees they have planted and might feel like protecting them. Youth has also been united through working together in this project.

COERR Mae Sarieng Supported the Youth Volunteering Activities in Ban Mae La Oon Road Repair

   As Mae La Oon camp is located on the mountainous areas, when the rainy season comes, heavy rainfalls often cause flash floods and mudslides. In 2018, the heavy rainfalls had washed away some parts of the roadside and flooded some refugees’ houses. Therefore, COERR and the camp committee met and planned about how to repair the damaged road before the rainy season arrive. 75 youth of 46 female and 29 male volunteered to help in this job on 11 May 2019. It was even more critical for us all to set up security measure to ensure that the work would be done and everyone concerned, especially the volunteer youth, played their roles and responsibilities and all had to be safe.

   With strict schedule and sfaety care of staff and refugees especially for the youth volunteers, the road repair work has been operated successfully. The volunteer youth took the supporting role in filling the bags with rocks and sand and placed these bags as roadside barriers to prevent erosion so that the road became smoothly passable for vehicles again, even when the heavy rainfalls pour.

   After the work was done, youth volunteers expressed their pride, confidence and happiness. They also shared that no matter how hard the responsibilities were and how much they had to tolerate till the work completed, they were proud that they were parts of this successful public work as much as the adults were.