One Phuket brings community together to make a difference

Published - 24 June 2022, Friday
  • One Phuket

I've been feeling very emotional about the huge challenges facing humanity recently, especially in the developing world, where the struggle is very real.

People are starving. Human slavery is on the rise. There are no jobs. Suicide rates are up. Desperation too. The longer this pandemic goes on, the harder it is for those struggling the most! And then Gary Crause sent me the video of One Phuket

Another Day in Paradise today. We participated in the community part, to support this amazing effort. But if you have a look, you'll see we have so much musical talent on this island, and they are all struggling to make ends meet, and yet this community has not stopped working to do what they can do to help those even in more need. I can't tell you how much I admire them and it definitely put my emotions over the edge today. Yes I admit to tearing up. I still am writing this.

If you are in Phuket and want your kids to learn music, please reach out to Phuket Academy of Performing Arts - Music Lessons - a business hammered by this crisis, and yet what do they do? Give back. Gary and Debbie Taylor Crause are amazing humans. Gary is also a producer, and he can sort out your audio books, original recordings, podcast music and more - you don't even have to be here, he can do it remotely. Support them. They deserve it and I love them. Check out Legend Music - Recording Studio​​​​​​​.

When the song is available for sale, I'll share it. A small way to help our work in Phuket. The donation details are also available at the end of the recording for One Phuket. Dig deep. We've got a lot of people to help here.

Big love to everyone and keep the faith. I am surrounded by people doing beautiful work, and going above and beyond. There is a lot of beauty in this world xxxxxx

https://www.youtube.com/watch...

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Andrea

  • 25 comments
  • CONTRIBUTOR
RATED 8 / 8

Hi everyone, One Phuket have 1,300 life bag requests, but do not have enough donations yet to cover it! Can you dig deep and donate today? Here's the information for Phuket residents. International transfer details in a below post, but we will be sharing a QR code soon to make it even easier. Let's do this and show our community what #OnePhuket really means xxxx

Phuket friends, if you can donate to One Phuket, we're hoping to get enough to cover 1,300 life bags tomorrow, but we need more funds to cover the cost. Can you help? Sign up and make a monthly contribution if you can. This will be necessary until at least October 2021, if not longer xxxx

Andrea

  • 25 comments
  • CONTRIBUTOR
RATED 8 / 8

Hello everyone, I wanted to provide an update on where we are with One Phuket. The beginning is always complex, but we are working hard to hit the ground running.

Our first job has been to understand the scale of need, especially around food poverty in Phuket, its surrounding Islands and in Phang Nga too. While exact numbers are extremely challenging to get right, we believe up to 400,000 people are struggling to get enough food to eat. Speaking with the people on the ground, doing the work to help as many as they can, one thing is certain - for every food drop happening, there are many more in need.

Both 5 Star Marine and Sutai are doing amazing work, as are many other organizations, and at One Phuket, we have agreed to work in partnership with 5 Star and Sutai, to ensure we are enhancing the work they are doing and getting more bags of food packed to help those who need it.

Early next week, we will hopefully be able to get a bank account sorted out, so we can start calling for donations. It is our commitment to be fully transparent with monthly statements published, so everyone knows we are above board. These funds will initially focus on buying food and establishing a process to pack bags and they will be distributed through 5 Star and Sutai. Details on all of this are coming. Please give us a little more time to ensure we get this right.

Beyond this initial priority, we have another group discussing establishing community farms across the Island, to help ensure people can feed themselves. This will be a very important stage two for One Phuket and is being planned in partnership with the local community.

We are also working with Scholars of Sustenance (SOS) in Phuket, who are struggling to stay afloat in this environment. SOS rescue and serve surplus food, and because the hotel and restaurant industry has been so badly impacted by the economic fall-out, they are struggling to keep going. They do such important work and our team is creating a plan to help support them. You can learn about SOS here https://www.scholarsofsustenance.org/...

We are also having deeper conversations around recycling and how we can help get this moving in a more efficient way, as well as job creation off the back of this – again, in partnership with the local community. We do not want to take away anyone’s livelihoods unintentionally. Mental health is also an issue sub groups are addressing.

Most importantly, ensuring people have enough food to eat is the starting point. Within the next week, please stay tuned for what you can do to help. As we move forward, we will be looking to expand our team, so if any of the areas above are interesting, please reach out. We will share names of people leading the teams and we are keen to get bigger groups focused in each area. We will also need regular and committed volunteers. This will take all of us, but it will also bring our entire community together.

One Phuket is what we need right now. We look forward to your support, encouragement and ideas xxxxxx #OnePhuket

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