Our Training and Learning Center is suitable for volunteers who want to stay in NongKhai with our local staff and trainees as well as other volunteers. You mainly teach English and computer skills to our trainees and staff and volunteer some of the time at another project in NongKhai.
OpenmindProjects has created a successful training center in NongKhai helping underprivileged young people to better learning opportunities. It is based on our ideas about problem and self paced learning and designed as a simple but effective learning environment. Over the years we have had many successful trainees. This is also where we arrange our monthly cross culture and volunteer training for new volunteers.
Volunteers are welcome to stay at our Training Center together with other volunteers and our local trainees and staff, who stay and study for free at our center. They come from Thailand, Laos, Burma and Cambodia, mostly from the field projects that we support.
You train them and also volunteer part time at another local project; school, home for boys, temple or health project.
Our major training focus is on English and computer skills, preparing people to go back to help their own people, for a better job or for future studies. In April and October we run holiday camps for school children from villages. They also stay at our Training Center for free then. Volunteers with special skills such as teaching, pedagogical, IT, environmental, eco tourism, are welcome to help us with R&D work.
Our Training Center consists of two houses. Volunteers have their own office with PCs, Internet and wireless for those who bring their own laptops. There is also a small library in the volunteer office with travel,
Volunteer, teach, fiction literature. There is a separate office for staff.
The houses have bedrooms, some for volunteers, some for our trainees and staff. Showers in both houses. Bedrooms are simple Thai style, some with mattresses on the floor. Air conditioning is available at an extra fee per night and room. We can help you to rent a room in a nearby condo if you prefer more privacy.
Outside you find a terrace with a Thai style kitchen, a small garden, a tennis court, an outdoor room with TV with DVD. Staff, trainees and volunteers help clean up after themselves.
You bring your own bed sheets and towels, any hygiene articles that you are used to, and feel you need. A sleeping bag is useful during the cool season (November - February).
About NongKhai town by the Mekong River
NongKhai is a town in the heart of Indochina and on the shores of the legendary Mekong River, with the Friendship Bridge linking Laos to Thailand and the rest of the world. Vientiane, the capital of Laos, is just a 30-minute drive from NongKhai!
In NongKhai, you find places and people where life really is like the romanticized images of Thailand. Walk along the streets of NongKhai or along the river! Soak up the exotic Indochinese atmosphere. Eat at one of the many Thai, Isan, Vietnamese, Chinese or even Western, ‘farang’, restaurants. Food is easy to find, delicious and cheap, from 20 Baht upwards!
There are other attractions too, such as the many temples. The royal Wat Poo Chai with its legendary Golden Buddha, from Laos, is a must, as is the Buddhist/Hindu inspired Sculpture Park, Sala Kaeow Khu, unique in Thailand!
You can practice many sports, such as tennis, jogging in the nearby water park, golf, swimming, tennis, gym, badminton, soccer, petanque or volleyball.
Maybe you want to try the very local nightlife? Listen to Isan and Thai pop and rock performed by local artists! Our staff will show you.
Go on excursions along the Mekong River! The valley drive east of NongKhai is by many considered to be among the most scenic in Thailand. Go jungle trekking in the Phu Wua Mountains, Thailand or Phou Khao Khouai, Laos, two of OpenmindProjects Eco projects: swim in the waterfalls, trace wild elephants and stay overnight with charming, local host families.
