History
History of the BSfL - Beginnings in Chiang Mai
The first School for Life, following the concept of Prof. emeritus Dr. Jürgen Zimmer, was already established in 2003. It is located in Northern Thailand, near the provincial capital Chiang Mai. AIDS struck the villages of this region like the plague. Many young parents died and left their children behind in utmost poverty.
BelugaSchoolfor Life (BSfL) in Na Nai
When the extent of the tsunami disaster had become clear, thousands of victims were counted in Namkem near Khao Lak, a slum predominantly consisting of shacks. The village had been almost completely washed away by the tidal wave. Among the survivors in the center of the village were at least fifty children who had lost their mother, father or even both parents.
Immediately after the catastrophe a call for help from Namkem reached the "School for Life" in Chiang Mai. Only three days later employees from the School for Life had voluntarily traveled to the south and started to take care of the children. As far as this was possible, temporary accommodations were set up and the first aid measures initiated. However, in this way, only the worst, most acute destitution could be alleviated.
The TV pictures transmitted daily from the disaster areas reached Niels Stolberg, managing director of the Beluga Shipping GmbH, in Bremen. Already at this time, he was looking for possibilities of concrete project-related help in Thailand at the Federal Chancellery in Berlin through the partnership initiative "Fluthilfe". A short time later, contact with the team of Professor Zimmer in Chiang Mai was established. Spontaneously, Niels Stolberg boarded an airplane in the beginning of February 2005 and flew to Thailand. For two days he gathered information about the situation directly on site and had many conversations with Professor Zimmer, other helpers and various survivors. Before leaving Thailand he had already decided to provide the means necessary for the establishment of a second School for Life near Namkem as well as to guarantee its operation for ten years.
The required property was bought soon after this decision. The first children arrived, some of them accompanied by adults who had nowhere to stay and wanted to help. In a united effort they set up temporary accommodations and soon the project was able to accommodate twenty young orphans and half orphans and provide them with the necessities of life. For the time being, and additional thirty older children accepted the invitation to find accommodation at the School for Life in Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand for the time being.
After the first obstacles, which even carefully prepared aid projects encounter, were overcome in July 2005, construction work began. By the middle of November the 18 family houses were already close to completion. The school buildings as well as community accommodations for the children were erected during a second phase of construction. In October 2006 the guest children from Chiang Mai were able to return to their familiar surroundings in Na Nai. Since then, everyone has been living together at the Beluga School for Life.
