CNH Industrial Renovates and Donates Resources to Wat Chatthong School in Thailand
CNH Industrial’s Asia Pacific Agriculture Brand and Commercial Services team, together with the Thailand Finance team have helped improve the safety and wellbeing of students at Wat Chatthong school in Ayutthaya, Thailand. They volunteered their time, donated school supplies, and made a financial contribution to assist with much-needed building work.
Wat Chatthong school educates more than 60 students and is located approximately 80 kilometers outside of Bangkok. The children, aged between four and 12, come from local farm worker families, including migrants from Laos and Myanmar.
The school’s picturesque location overlooks rice paddies. However, this comes at a price, with the school grounds subject to flooding each year during the monsoon period. In late 2022, the school suffered significant loss when above-average flooding damaged its cafeteria, kitchen and playground, and decimated the vegetable gardens.
The school already relied on donations of rice to feed the children during the day, and government contributions have been unable to cover the cost of the renovation work required to make a safer and more comfortable environment for the students.
When members of CNH Industrial’s Asia Pacific team gathered in Bangkok for a team meeting in late January, they decided to engage in a team building activity that would have a long-lasting impact for the local community — helping children in need.
An international team of 36 people, including Australian, Belgian, British, Chinese, French, Indian, Italian, Thai, and Turkish colleagues arrived at Wat Chatthong School, armed with gardening and painting equipment, and a stack of notebooks, pencils and other stationery.
One team set to work sanding and repainting two classrooms, while another cleared a patch of land, constructed raised garden beds, filled them with soil, and planted seeds, establishing what is hoped will be a productive kitchen garden, providing nutritious vegetables for the children’s lunches.
CNH Industrial’s Vice President of Brand and Commercial Services for the APAC region, Matthieu Sejourne, presented the school principal, Acting Sub Lt. Pongprapa Wasuwat, with a cheque to cover the cost of rebuilding the cafeteria and kitchen. This work will be carried out by professional tradespeople in late April 2023.
“Education is the key to providing opportunities for all people to contribute to the development of their country. As a company, we believe in the value of equal opportunity,” said Matthieu Sejourne.
“We especially want to assist the children of the farm workers who are the foundation of the industry in which we operate, and whose valuable work ensures there is food on all our tables.”
Mr Wasuwat expressed his gratitude saying, “Our students come from low-income families – the majority of whom are underprivileged. Most of their parents work in agriculture. On behalf of the teachers and students, I would like to thank CNH Industrial for your acknowledgment of the importance of education and your support for this small-scale school like ours.”
