At Rainbow-Scuba & Tour we belive that every company as well as every individual has a responsibility to their fellow citizens.

It is the wonderful people of Thailand that make living or visiting this country really special and through child sponsorship and regular donations to our favourite charities we hope to make better lives for those less fortunate than ourselves.

The SET Foundation
www.thaistudentcharity.org

The SET Foundation was established in 1994 by Phra Peter Pannapadipo, a British Buddhist monk. Phra Peter lived in a rural monastery in a northern province of Thailand. Through his life and work at the monastaries he came face to face with many cases of family hardship, wasted talent and lost opportunities.

To find out more about the work of SET please visit their web site. To learn more about SET's founder and inspiration Peter Robinson (and for wonderful insight to Thailand, its people and customs), we recommend these two books by Peter Robinson :-

Phra Farang: An English Monk in Thailand

A successful businessman who at forty five, gave up his comfortable life in London to ordain as a Buddhist monk in Bangkok.

Little Angels

The real-life stories of the novice monks and reflects the lives of many young people in Thailand who are trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty, broken homes, illiteracy and drug abuse. For many SET is a life line which Rainbow Scuba & Tour is proud to support.

SET & The Rainbow Scholarships

A committee of The Students Educational Trust selected Songpon Boontar in 2006 and Atipa Tongkon in 2007 to receive Rainbow-Scuba Scholarships.

Ms Atipa Tongkon is studying for an Ordinary Vocational Certificate (OVC) in Computer Studies at Nakhon Sawan Vocational College. She and her three siblings rely on the mother's income as a casual laborer (about 5,000 Bt per month), which after paying house rent and buying food for five people doesn't leave a lot for Atipa's education expenses.

Atipa will finish her OVC in March 2010 and then must decide whether to leave college and get a job, or to continue for another two years for a Higher Vocational Diploma (HVD). If she decides to continue her studies we will continue to support her.

Songpon will finish his Ordinary Vocational Certificate course in Auto Mechanics at Nakhon Sawan Technical College in March 2010 and at the moment he seems keen to continue studying.

Songpon's parents are rice farmers with only a little land from which they get one crop per year. He has one older brother, 21, who didn't even finish his primary studies and is now a casual laborer in Bangkok.

For Atipa and Songpon these scholaships are a real chance to break out of a cycle of poverty and we wish them every success.