The Rotary Club of Bangkok managed six active Global Grant projects in 2024–25. Clean water, cerebral palsy care, peace education, HIV/AIDS home care, stateless children getting into school. Here's what each one actually does.
The Rotary Foundation's Global Grant programme works like this: a club proposes a project that meets Rotary's criteria, and the Foundation matches the club's contribution. Partner clubs from other countries add their funding, and the Foundation matches those too. A well-designed project can end up with funding many times what the host club put in.
We are one of the most active Global Grant clubs in District 3350. In 2024–25, we managed or participated in six active projects. Here's what they are.
Clean Water Across Chiang Rai: 15 Schools
Grant 2233008 — water systems, sanitation improvement, and hygiene education across fifteen schools in Chiang Rai Province. We're the host club; the Rotary Club of Amagasaki West, Japan, is the international partner. Twenty-three Rotary clubs contributed in total. Project cost: USD 39,236.
The systems have been installed at all fifteen schools. In 2024–25, the focus shifted to completion: hygiene training sessions at each school, protective fencing around systems, filters cleaned and replaced after their first year of use, and signboards acknowledging donors.
In February 2025, a Club team travelled to schools across Chiang Rai, Chiang Khong, and Chiang Saen for an on-site review. Nearly all fifteen systems were working correctly and being maintained by school staff. The project is wrapping up and should close in 2025–26.
Children at fifteen schools that previously had no reliable safe drinking water now have it.
Peace Education in Chiangmai: Aikido and Better Scores
Grant 2010441 — reducing bullying and violence at Ban San Pakwan school in Chiangmai, a government primary school with 180 ethnic Shan children. The method isn't punishment — it's building a culture where students don't want to bully in the first place.
Practical tools: Aikido martial arts classes for self-confidence and discipline. Teacher training in positive discipline and bullying recognition. From Year 2, a "Bully Buster" programme where selected students wear a badge, are empowered to intervene in bullying situations, and report back weekly in a structured session. A peace theatre group has performed for peers and broadcast stories on local radio.
The programme ran into real problems: COVID closed schools mid-way through; five of the original twelve teachers retired; parents of ethnic Shan children working unskilled jobs couldn't attend training without risking those jobs. The programme adapted, stretched from three to four years, and continued.
The result: teachers who once said students wouldn't pay attention now report improved academic scores across the board. Students say the school atmosphere is better. The Bully Buster programme will continue after the Grant closes, embedded in the school's own systems.
The cooperating partner is the Peace Culture Foundation, led by psychologist and Rotary Peace Fellow Dr. Sombat Tapanya.
Cerebral Palsy in Southern Thailand: Training the Trainers
Grant 2351163 — Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, population 1.5 million, where over 760 children need specialist cerebral palsy care but the local healthcare system doesn't have enough trained practitioners to provide it.
The approach: don't just treat children — train local practitioners who will keep treating them after the international team leaves. A team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and specialist teachers from Canada and Hungary delivered a three-week intensive training programme for local therapists, special education teachers, parents, and volunteers.
In early 2024, Club members assessed needs in the province. The training happened in January–February 2024. In November 2024, the same team returned for an impact assessment — questionnaires, focus groups, discussions with therapists, school directors, teachers, and parents.
On 28 February 2025, a delegation including PDG Peter Wong and PP Dr. Albert Poon from our sister club in Kowloon East attended the project's wheelchair handover ceremony — thirty-five wheelchairs distributed to children with cerebral palsy and their families.
Cerebral Palsy in the Northeast: The Same Model, New Province
Encouraged by the results in Nakhon Si Thammarat, we launched a second project: Grant 2568081, at the Ubon Ratchathani Special Education Center in the northeast.
The Center focuses on improving children's functional abilities — feeding, toileting, mobility — with the goal of eventually moving some into mainstream schooling. It supports 24 satellite locations across Ubon Ratchathani Province.
Training began on 13 January 2025, opened by the Deputy Governor of Ubon Ratchathani. Six specialists from Canada, Hungary, and New Zealand delivered three weeks of hands-on training to twenty physiotherapy graduates — morning practice, afternoon theory. Initial assessment at the end of January: outstanding. Final impact assessment is scheduled for July 2026.
HIV/AIDS Home Care: Training Multiplies
Grant 2458272 — rural Thailand, where family members caring for people with HIV/AIDS lack the knowledge and skills to do it well, leading to worse outcomes and more pressure on already stretched healthcare services.
The approach is a Train the Trainers model. In December 2024, twenty-six people from three provinces — Nong Khai, Lumpoon, and Sakol Nakhon — came to Bangkok for a three-day training. They went home as qualified trainers. A further workshop was held in Cha Am. In March 2025, the Nong Khai cohort delivered training to thirty new participants in their own province. Lumpoon and Sakol Nakhon were scheduled for mid-2025.
One Bangkok training event becomes three or four provincial training events. That's the point.
Children of the Forest: Getting Stateless Kids Into School
Grant 2571871 — the most recently submitted project, and the one with the most direct connection to fundamental rights.
The Children of the Forest Foundation runs a school in Sangkhlaburi district, Kanchanaburi Province, near the Myanmar border. The students are children of Karen, Mon, and Bamar descent — born in Thailand, speaking Thai, living in Thailand — whose parents have no Thai citizenship. Under Thai law, neither do the children. No legal identity, no legal protection, no formal access to the Thai education system.
The Foundation's school teaches Thai-language preparatory classes that get children ready to enter Grade 3 in the Thai government system. A child who enters the government system gets a Thai student ID — the first step on the path to citizenship and legal protection.
We've been supporting the Foundation since 2022–23. The expanded Global Grant — USD 88,817 — brings in partner clubs from Germany (Rotary Club of Pforzheim, Rotary Club of Pforzheim Schwarzwald, Rotary Club of Ueberlingen, and Rotary Club of Muehlacker-Enzkreis), Japan (Rotary Club of Kushiro North), and the US (Rotary Club of Palo Alto), plus partner Rotary districts. The application was in the Rotary Foundation's approval process at the close of the 2024–25 year.
What These Six Projects Have in Common
Each one addresses a problem that is specific and real. Each involves genuine international partnerships. And each is designed to keep working after the grant closes — because trained practitioners continue treating children, the Bully Buster programme runs inside the school calendar, clean water systems are maintained by school staff, and local trainers keep teaching.
That's what responsible grant funding looks like.
We are the host club for multiple active Global Grant projects. Members and partner clubs wanting to contribute or collaborate are welcome to get in touch.