The Tuk-Tuk Dartmouth Thai Association a new student group awaiting official approval from the Council on Student Organizations formed to unite students interested in Thai language and culture, serve as a resource for international students and raise money for individuals impacted by the extreme monsoons that have ravaged Thailand's central provinces in recent months, according to Earth Chariyawattanarut '14, one of the organization's founding members.
The new group hopes to make it easy for students with similar interests and concerns pertaining to Thai culture and history to locate one another, collaborate on events and organize fundraising efforts, Chariyawattanarut said.
"Before the creation of this club, it's been up to us to find each other independently," he said. "This will give us an established network."
Tuk-Tuk has submitted a constitution to COSO and is currently seeking a faculty advisor in order to become recognized by the College, according to Chariyawattanarut.
The group of students who collaborated to form Tuk-Tuk were moved to action by the millions of individuals displaced by the recent Thai monsoons, according to Esteban Castano '14. The extreme weather conditions have already affected eight million people and the nation faces the worst flooding it has experienced in 50 years, Castano said.
Tuk-Tuk will begin its fundraising events on Sunday with the sale of Thai Tea and Thai finger foods, Castano said. All of the proceeds from the event will go to the Thai Red Cross, which will then distribute the funding to the Mercy Center, Si Jie Loo '12 said. The Mercy Center, which is located in Bangkok, serves as a shelter, orphanage and general community resource for impoverished, sick and orphaned residents, according to its website.
"[The money] will try and help the slum kids to go back to school after the flood," Loo said.
Tuk-Tuk's founders were greatly influenced by the "incredible efforts" of long-time Dartmouth custodian Paphanh Sithavady, Castano said. An American missionary brought Sithavady who was originally from Laos but was living as a refugee in Thailand for several years to New Hampshire and then to Dartmouth about a decade ago, Castano said.
"She's been raising money completely independently through catering and all the proceeds have been going to a school in Thailand," Chariyawattanarut said. "She's the inspiration of us coming together. We thought, If she can do so much by herself, a group of us who are more privileged should start doing something soon.'"
Sithavady has also sought to unite the Thai community at Dartmouth by cooking weekly dinners for Thai students on campus, Loo said.
"We have been doing this dinner with her and gathering around her because she cooks for us and serves as an inspiration to us all," she said.
Tuk-Tuk also aims to serve as a resource for international students since there are several students every year who arrive at the College from Thailand, Loo said. Loo, who was the coordinator for the Office of Pluralism and Leadership's International Student Programs for the past two years, said it has been challenging for OPAL to support international students in their attempt to find a "100 percent fit" in the Dartmouth community or within specific organizations at the College. The Thayer School of Engineering offers an exchange program with Thailand's Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. Three undergraduate engineering majors in their third year at the College trade places with three students in their final year at the Thai university for two consecutive terms.
"Every fall, students from Thailand and Dartmouth are exchanged and these are the people who are actually absorbing all of Dartmouth within one term," Loo said. "We want to show that these people really exist and that there aren't enough support systems for this turnover that happens routinely every fall."
Tuk-Tuk is open to all students interested in learning more about Thailand and its culture, according to Chariyawattanarut.
"We want to make sure that the group is not just for Thai students," he said. "The idea is that we will find a small group of people who have an interest in Thai culture."
If successfully recognized by the College, the organization will "open a channel for cultural exchange" among students and other members of the Dartmouth community, Chariyawattanarut said.
