School is destroyed by storm.

During the last week of April the storm clouds gathered and Mae Sot was hit by a fairly violent storm. We were at Mae Tao Clinic at the time and witnessed trees being snapped and tin roofs being ripped off. When it all died down we left and getting onto the main road we saw that all the main electricity poles had been snapped off and were lying on the ground. Over the next few days we discovered that a few migrant schools had been damaged. We were informed the one school, Hauy Ka Loke, a school we have visited regularly since 2005, had been severely damaged and please would we go out and visit them. Being very concerned for our friend PiPi, an 82 yr old teacher who lives and teaches at the school we went out to make sure she was OK and to see what the damage was. We discovered that most of the school had been flattened but all the children were safe. PiPi was Ok but is very distressed at how the school is going to be rebuilt when there has been a lack of funding for the basics of the school. The teachers haven’t been paid for months and the school has been relying on donations for rice and vegetables. We are discussing with the school director about how we can help and many volunteers at Ban Thai Guest House are now also looking at funding some of the rebuilding.