Our story
It started with people who could not leave it alone.
Effective Aid International was mobilised in 2002, by a couple of like-minded Gold Coast locals.
Where it began
What they saw on the border.
They were greatly challenged on seeing people living as refugees, marginalised and displaced, on the Thai–Myanmar border. Living with no power, no water, no future and no hope, because of no legal status.
The camps had been there for decades, with generations of displaced and vulnerable people living in them, and little or no education inside. So they saw the need to educate the children, and the parents where possible, so that a more normal life became possible.
So started the first EAI schools.
What grew from it
Teachers first, because teachers stay.
Local adults were trained to teach and support the children through an EAI Teacher Training College, which lifted the standard of education for children who had none. From there we partnered with local communities to establish more schools, staffed by the teachers we had trained.
Alongside that, we became a major supporter of a children’s home in Northern Thailand for abandoned and orphaned babies, together with the couple who run it. The children they raised are grown now.
We partner to build not just buildings, but lives.
As a result of that education, lives have started afresh in many other countries around the world.
The people
Run by a few volunteers, and the teachers on the ground.
Phil and Wanida Hohnen
They have cared for the children of Blue Skies Home in Hot, Northern Thailand, for more than sixteen years.
The teachers we trained
Local people who trained here, and went back to teach their own. Some of them are training the next teachers now.
The board
Chris, Tim, Paul and Len. Volunteers, on the Gold Coast.
Everyone else
Supporters, schools, community groups and businesses who have carried this for years, some of them since the beginning.
How we work
Encouraging, Educating, Equipping, Empowering.
On the Thai–Myanmar border since 2002.