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History of the Foundation
The Phuket Has Been Good To Us Foundation is the brainchild of Tom McNamara, a local restaurateur with a vision for the future. The organization sprung
from Mr. McNamaras efforts to give back something to a community that had been so beneficial for him, and which he loved so much. With humble beginnings,
the Foundation has grown over four years and is now a well known charity organization working to improve the lives of over 600 children and to inspire the
efforts of many more to come.
The origins of Phuket Has Been Good to Us can be traced back to a meeting in early 2005 in which Mr. McNamara approached a local Thai schoolmaster to inquire how he could best help his school on Kalim Beach, in the wake of the 2004 tsunami disaster which destroyed the school. Mr. McNamaras Baan Rim Pa restaurant group had long supported the Kalim school, sponsoring its sports teams, teacher training trips, etc. The school had been rebuilt and additional relief money was pouring in at the time, but both men wanted to do something that was long term, sustainable and not potentially squandered or misdirected. The Headmaster of the Kalim School expressed his concern about the low quality of English language education at the school. Although there is an English language curriculum in government schools like the Kalim School, its implementation is less than adequate and funding is severely limited. Mr. McNamara soon came to the conclusion that funding an English language program could prove highly beneficial. Living and working with Thai people on the island for nearly two decades, he knew first hand how difficult it is for businesses on the island to find staff who speak English well enough to work effectively in the tourist industry. He resolved to dedicate himself to making quality English language training available to all of Phukets youth. To understand better why Mr. McNamara became convinced that such an endeavor was so important, it is necessary to consider the historical context to some degree. Thailand was the only country in Southeast Asia not to be dominated by a European power during the age of colonization. Today, Bangkok is as cosmopolitan as any other large city in Southeast Asia and Thailand has all the trappings of the contemporary world. However, possibly due to the preservation of her political sovereignty, Thailand retained a cultural uniqueness that to this day continues to make it a source of fascination and delight. English is spoken in most parts of the country, but perhaps due to the persistence of the nations cultural independence, it is not spoken nearly as well as in places like Hong Kong or Singapore. In fact, in a well publicized 2005 study, Thailand ranked second to last among nations in the region in English language skills. 
In the last decade, Phuket has emerged as a world-class tourist destination and continues to grow at a rapid pace. The island had prospered in the past on
the strength of tin and rubber industries, but tourism is now the sole economic factor for the island both in property development and the hospitality
industry. Visitors to Phuket will find English signs on almost every road, and it is the language spoken by most people. However, even on Phuket, few Thais
speak English very well. Demand is high in all sectors of the tourist industry for staff with good English language skills. Such skills usually outweigh
other factors, such as experience, in hiring, retention and salary levels. Many foreigners have come to Phuket and opened up successful restaurants, hotels
and resorts that create many jobs for local Thais. But within these companies, the higher paying jobs and upper management positions are dominated by
foreigners with a far stronger command of the language. The result is that fewer local Thais can earn a salary to match the rising cost of living on Phuket.
Many wind up leaving their families behind and heading off to Bangkok where they can secure higher paying jobs. The same is true in most parts of the
country.It is this reality that convinced Tom McNamara that quality English language training, if done in an organized and sustainable fashion, would have a transformative effect on Phuket. With the support of the Headmaster of the Kalim School, he approached the Governor of Phuket with the idea for the program. It was decided that a charity foundation should be established to make the program a possibility for all the schools on Phuket. Enter Fleur Birch-Atkinson, Mr. McNamaras daughter and current board member of the Foundation. Ms. Birch-Atkinson is fluent in Thai and spent a large part of her formative years on Phuket where she lived among Thai people and went to school at a local English institution. She left Thailand briefly to earn an undergraduate degree in America but returned home to Phuket where, in just a few short months, she transformed her fathers Foundation from idea to reality. A Board of Directors was established with a mix of influential Thai nationals as well as foreigners with a demonstrated talent and concern for education. With much excitement we moved ahead. Start up funds were quickly raised and soon the Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation became an officially registered charity organization. From the beginning our sense has been that this innovative approach to using private sector funds in public education will of course have long-run benefits for the very same businesses that are currently being courted. Despite Phukets explosive growth, all businesses on the island have suffered at one point or another from labor shortages and this plan promises to provide a solid long term solution. Those who would see the Foundations work as loosely veiled cultural imperialism should note such a program could exist anywhere and could use any language. English merely happens to be the language or currency at present in many parts of the world, including Phuket and Thailand in general. Such a program could also be applied in areas where Mandarin, Spanish or some other language is important to the fabric of local economy. The Pilot Program at Kalim 
The first step was to develop a three year pilot program in the Kalim School. The idea was to put together the best possible program to serve as a model
for future expansion into other schools. Together with Tom McNamaras assistant, Tom Doherty, who would over time help build the organization behind the
scenes, Ms. Birch-Atkinson worked to recruit and hire the Foundations Director of Education, U.K. born Kate Cope. As discussed in the section on our
educational approach, Ms. Cope was brought in to develop an approach to teaching practical English that specifically takes into account the economic and
cultural context within which the youth of Phuket are living and learning. The Kalim Pilot program thus began operating at the beginning of the school
year on May 15, 2006.As the only paid employee of the Foundation at the time, Ms. Copes work was vital to establishing a good Foundation for the organizations long term educational efforts. Beyond developing an approach to teaching an English language curriculum, her work involved a thorough and thoughtful consideration of teaching materials, as well as benchmarking and ongoing assessment, all with an eye to applying the newly established program in other schools in the future. She served as the teacher in the pilot program in 2006 and ultimately recruited, trained and supervised volunteers and paid teachers as the Foundations work expanded over time. Through oral and written tests conducted with the support of many hard working volunteers, Ms. Copes demonstrated improvements in the English skills of the Kalim school children. See Progress to Date for full information on the test results. Meanwhile, Tom McNamara continued his efforts to raise funds to insure the Foundations long term survival. His efforts paid off handsomely when the Foundation was awarded 5.2 Million Baht through the efforts of Australian music promoter Michael Chugg, who Mr. McNamara had invited to join the Board of the Foundation. The funds had come from the proceeds of Mr. Chuggs Wave Aid tsunami relief concert and proved to be enough to finance the full three years of the Foundations pilot program at the Kalim school. Expansion to Kamala 
With the Wave Aid donation fully funding the Kamala program and more support coming in, the Foundations efforts were expanded in 2007 to a second school
in Kamala. Like the Kalim school, the Kamala school had been destroyed by the 2004 tsunami and has been rebuilt. The Kamala schools official name is
Rachaprachnukroh, which translates from the Thai as the king and the people helping each other. This Kings foundation has established many
Rachaprachanukroh schools all over Thailand, the Kamala school being the 36th. Honored to be connected with a school sponsored by HM the King and his
family, the Phuket Has Been Good to Us Foundation began operating an English language program for students in grades 1-3 in May, 2007.In the second year at Kamala, we expanded our program to include grade levels 1-6, with the total number of students involved in our program now exceeding 600. Additional teachers were hired, and the school granted the Foundation four classrooms, an office for the teachers and a space to house an English language library. As the Foundations notoriety on Phuket Island and beyond grew, financial support and in-kind donations started coming in from all quarters, including books for the Kamala school library, arranged through Simon & Schuster publishers. See the Media Coverage page, and donor profiles in our newsletters for more on the support we receive. On the administrative side, the Foundation has from its inception operated out of a shared office with Mr. McNamaras Baan Rim Pa group, which to this day offers ongoing and invaluable. But the growing size of the Foundation made it necessary to move to independent offices in Kamala, and hire a small administrative staff to coordinate efforts at teacher and volunteer recruitment, testing, fundraising, public relations and other initiatives. Among the new directions the Foundation took in 2008 was to establish a teacher training program. Initially called Teach to Reach, the Foundation began outreach efforts to assist Thai teachers in other parts of Phuket to provide better English language education. The Future The Kamala school also serves as a residence for several orphaned students who rarely have the opportunity to leave the grounds of the school and interact with their community. The Coconut Club is our way to enhance the lives of the children we serve and also to provide a chance for them to speak English outside the classroom. The initial idea to implement our program in every public school on the island may yet come many years from now, but in
the next few years, our intent is to hone our efforts to become the best at what we do. We will strive to fine tune our pedagogical approach, to
provide excellent training to our teachers, to develop better assessment practices, to become a resource for other educators, and to be an inspiration
to all who seek to improve the lives of children in Thailand. | |
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