We appreciate you checking in with us this month and we’ve got two big announcements to share from Bangkok. The first is that there’s a piece of equipment we’ve needed for quite some time and it’s finally arrived. We’ll give you a hint, it’s not a giant oven, or some expensive “must-have” kitchen gadget.
From Your Hood to Ours
If you’ve been following our story, a few months back we renovated a run down house to be a kitchen space with the help of funding from Bangkok Patana School. The new space allowed for use to have more room to host the swarming children of the neighborhood, who all seem interested in cooking at once. However, even after painting, replacing the floor, and knocking out a wall, the new space still wasn’t much of a kitchen.
That’s because doing more cooking in large groups was nearly impossible to do safely with the little to no airflow in the building. In Thailand, most kitchens are powered by portable gas burners which can be dangerous to use with out safety precautions, including having good ventilation. This also meant when we made traditional chili filled Thai dishes, we didn’t have to do much before everyone in the room was coughing and choking on the spiced filled air which couldn’t escape the room.
The good news is we have just installed a custom made exhaust hood into the room. We should have done this a few months ago, but honestly there had been several delays in making the hood happen. We appealed to private donors and to foundations offering grants, but none of the parties were interested in the not so flashy upgrade to our kitchen. Instead we used funding from your efforts to fund cooking classes this year, and spent about $500 to install a new ventilation hood. The new hood will not only improve the safety of our students, but because it is large enough to accommodate more than one burner, it will also open up greater possibilities for our cooking curriculum in the future.
Securing our Bridge to You
The other big safety upgrade is a bit technical, as we’ve just installed an SSL certificate to encrypt our website. To put it in laymen’s terms, we’ve improved the security of our site to be sure your information is safe. This means whether you’re making a donation, booking a cooking class in Bangkok, or just purchasing a t-shirt, all your information is transmitted safely and securely.
The added encryption to our website also opens up more possibilities in the future as we grow. For example, the added security may expedite further development of online teaching resources, and fundraising products for our own mini-marketplace. And more importantly, it means you can give not only with Paypal, but with any credit card you want, without fretting about being exposed to fraud.
We’re steadily building towards ambitious goals to connect better with you and improve the lives of our students and their families here in Thailand. Thank you for joining us on this journey and stick with us as we grow, and strive to conquer our most ambitious and challenging year yet!
This December Courageous Kitchen celebrates a year as an official charity! With such a turbulent year behind us, we’re more excited than ever to be doing fulfilling, important work in communities so often overlooked. With that said we want to tell you about our latest partnership with two great organization based in Bangkok.
In recent months we have been connected with Share Soap, an organization collecting unused toiletries, and Support the Girls, another group collecting donations of bras and feminine products. That means this year the primary thing under the Courageous Kitchen Christmas tree is soap, toothpaste, sanitary pads, and bras!
A photo posted by The Courageous Kitchen (@courageouskitchen) on
If you’re thinking, “Who the heck wants soap for Christmas?!” then thankfully you’re like most of us who don’t have to decide between feeding our families and personal hygiene. While most anyone would expect to see some toys under the tree, we’re instead thankful for our new found partner organizations who are helping us spread dignity and self confidence to the vulnerable women we work with of all ages.
We’ll be giving out the remaining donations this coming weekend and having our year end Christmas Eve class. The occasion calls for a big meal for our students and their families, being thankful for the year that’s past, and looking forward anticipating more great things in 2017. Thank you for your support this past year and if you’re a newcomer to our project, please get in contact about helping a family or even reserving a seat in our new cooking class!
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
PS – US Citizens don’t forget to claim your donations on your taxes in the coming year! If you’ve given $250 or more, let us know and we’ll happily provide a donor acknowledgement form for you to submit along with your returns.
We’re excited to announce the latest Courageous Kitchen documentary called Urban Refugee: Bangkok. The 12 minute film debuted recently on youtube and we hope you’ll watch below and share with friends:
The film was directed and shot by Tara Milutis a talented American filmmaker. She helps explain the plight of urban refugees and asylum seekers in Bangkok, in their own words. Each of the narratives is assisted by members of the community who have been actively working to aid this vulnerable group of people. The video also introduces views to the work of the Courageous Kitchen, especially in the lives of children who don’t have typical access to education, live in broken homes, and who are not eating enough nutritious food. The goal of the film is to inspire, educate, and challenge people to get involved. Please do take the time to leave a comment and let us know what you think!
Common Questions About the Video:
I had no idea this was happening, how can I help?
You can help further the mission by donating to our project, especially by creating a recurring donation. When you click the donate button there are options where you can choose to donate, no matter how large or small the gift. Beyond giving financially, following along on our facebook page, while sharing our activities with friends is a contribution we don’t take for granted.
Finally for people who will be traveling to Thailand and hoping to get involved please be aware most of our volunteer opportunities go to people who are in the country long term. Although there are not many short term opportunities, do make sure you follow our facebook page for events and other happenings where you may participate.
Is this a Christian ministry?
Courageous Kitchen is a non religious, non political public charity. The classification of our organization means we neither discriminate among the people we help, nor the volunteers who help us, based on religious or political affiliation.
While we do enjoy good relationships with some churches and faith based organizations, we do not receive any regular financial contributions from these institutions.
Is it possible to donate clothes?
No, we are not currently accepting any clothing donations. We do encourage people interested in giving their clothes to find another local charity who can accept these in-kind gifts. If you are in Thailand, one such organization is called Second Chance Bangkok. For other locations around the world, please check with the local refugee organizations in your community.
The Courageous Kitchen is a charity that believes the heat and fast paced nature of kitchens can forge leaders and build strong teams. The kitchen is a hands on classroom and our kitchen education includes basic cooking, food safety, and nutrition for disadvantaged youth. We also provide support for students to learn other invaluable skills such as English and math.
In this quick update Dwight shares the progress on creating a new classroom for the students. For the past year and a half most of the cooking sessions have been happening in a cramped cooking space, with at times over 40 students. However, we’ve been working recently to upgrade a new space so it can be used as a classroom. This has meant doing some renovations such as raising the floor, redoing plumbing, painting, and a lot of cleaning. There were also funds to outfit the space with tables and shelves to make it more organized and conducive to teaching.
Big thank you to the Year 2 students at Bangkok Patana School and everyone else who has been supporting us!
P.S. Please mark the date August 19th, when we will debut a new documentary about our work in Bangkok. The video will be about 10 minutes and will talk more in depth about the situation and the importance of getting aid to the community we’re serving, especially the food, housing, and educational support we’re working hard to provide.
It’s still early in the days of Courageous Kitchen and we really appreciate everyone helping to let people know about the important work we’re doing in Bangkok.
For this week’s popup event in New York, Dwight made a special thank you video (sidenote: apologies for the sweaty appearance, it really is burning up in Bangkok at the moment!) to both introduce the charity and thank everyone who has put in so much work in his absence.
Special thank you to Christy Innouvong, part of the Courageous Kitchen team who has put in so many hours to make this happen. Also special thanks to the I Eat Lao Food team and everyone who attended, ate, and gave!
