Tipco launches charity to open educational centre in Chiang Rai village
　 Located in Chiang Rai's Mae Fah Luang district, Ahai Village is home to about 350 Akha-ethnic people who are struggling to make do with limited resources and minimal access to educational opportunities.
A number of children at Ahai Village still lack learning materials and more.
Aware of their plight, Tipco Foods – the manufacturer of Aura mineral water – has decided to extend help to them and in a sustainable way, too.
Recently it launched the Aura Charity for Hilltribe Children project in the hope of bringing the goodwill and support of people in other parts of the country to the less privileged children.
Under the project, some portion of the money from the sales of Aura products’ Charity Edition will go towards the construction of a learning centre at Ahai Village. This centre will feature a library, a playground, a multipurpose yard, a sports field, and a multipurpose pavilion. Inside the library will be books, DVD players, learning materials, and edutainment tools.
“We hope we are bringing to them something to change their lives for the better,” Tipco Foods chairwoman Anurat Tiamtan said.
Because the project is designed to achieve sustainable benefits, it is not about just the handover of financial donations.
“The project is done in line with our corporate-social-responsibility policy,” she said. Other CSR activities come in the form of scholarships, reforestation and more.
Anurat said the learning centre, overall, could benefit older residents of Ahai Village, too. This centre has provide books and space for them to carry out activities together.
Six celebrities have contributed to this project by offering “words of inspiration” that are now included on Aura’s Charity Edition labels.
“The amount of happiness will be small and last just a while if you only use resources. If you learn to share, your happiness will be more and last long,” is what Jayasaro Bhikkhu, a famous British Buddhist monk, has written for the Aura Charity for Hilltribe Children project.
Another contributor, a former Miss Thailand beauty queen Aeeya Sirisopa, has also supported the theme of “care to share”.
Her words on the label read, “Compassion comes from a beautiful heart”.
Other contributing celebs are MR Tanudsri Sawasdiwat, Thanpuying Pensri Vajarodaya, MR Janladda Yugala, and Nop-abha Dhevakula na Ayutthaya.
“Goodness may not be visible to the eyes but is always felt by the heart,” Nop-abha, a singer, said on the label.
Janladda, a fashion designer, said she had joined this project because she believed the learning centre would enhance the hilltribe children’s access to educational opportunities.
“Giving the source of knowledge is a great giving," she said at the event held to launch the Aura Charity for Hilltribe Children project.
Pensri said the learning centre would give sustainable benefits to children at Ahai Village. “We are responding to their needs,” she said.
Anurat said she expected the learning centre from the project to promote children’s development at the remote village and a care-to-share culture in the society.
