KIS supports the community action component of the IB Programmes and believes that children can learn and develop through actively participating in community service activities. These experiences, which are largely, but not exclusively integrated into the curriculum, help to foster the development of a sense of caring for others. Self-evaluation encourages students to reflect on the benefits of the activities to themselves, and to those they are helping.

Projects

KIS has, over the years, organised many activities to support charities and NGO's. They include:

• running charity drives for Moo Baan Dek and Phanom Thuan Orphanage School in Kanchanaburi
• spending time with hearing impaired students
• volunteering time to work with the children at Saeng Sawang Foundation
• donating items to Soroptimist International Project "Hands Across Borders" to support children at the border village of Sampovloun in Cambodia
• supporting the Thailand Burma Border Children's Art Project to help introduce art into the curriculum of the migrant schools scattered along the Thai Burmese border
• raising money for Art for All as part of an MYP Personal Project
• delivering food and other supplies to Father Joe Maier's Mercy Center in Klong Toey and helping make a Christmas party possible
• hosting arts and crafts sales for charity
• collecting goods for ELPIS Centre for Burmese children in refuge camps
• personal initiatives such as writing a book and donating the proceeds to a tsunami victim
• participation in the two BNH Hospital "Bed Push" charity events held in 2004 and 2005 and contributing almost B200,000 towards Thai charities
• providing aid for international disasters
• Rama 9 - Right to Play

Ongoing Support

Charity doesn't end with a single donation. At KIS there are a number of ongoing projects.

Tsunami Aid

One of the most significant initiatives relates to the December 2004 Tsunami that devastated southern Thailand. In March 2005, KIS FEST, a fund raising concert held on the school soccer field, helped to raise an astounding Baht 1.7 million, enabling KIS to support two very worthy projects, Child Watch Safe House in Phuket and the Thai Red Cross Learning through Healing trauma centres in Khao Lak. Work with Learning through Healing continues to this day, with regular visits to the centres, where students, staff and parents play games, do workshops and create arts and crafts with the children.

Animal welfare

There are other continuing community projects at KIS. Our students support animal welfare by raising funds for Soi Cat and Dog Rescue (SCAD), an organization that takes care of strays and implements spaying and neutering programs.

Environment

Students help the environment together with Plant-A-Tree-Today Foundation (PATT). The foundation set up a tree nursery at KIS where, every year, students germinate seeds. A year later, as the seeds have grown into trees, PATT and KIS plant them in Thai parks and forests.

Through a collaborative project with their counterparts at KIS affiliate school, Washington International, Grade 7 students participate in a project known as the 20:20 Programme, which aims at increasing awareness of, and taking action on, water pollution.

Children

Ongoing support is also extended to Rama 9 Daycare Centre. The Primary Student Council frequently visits the centre to play and sing with the children and to distribute supplies and toys. In 2008 the Rama 9 Daycare Centre was one of 13 organisations supported by students as part of the action component of the 2008 PYP Exhibition The students researched the needs of each of these 13 centres and arranged for these needs to be met. They organized a huge benefit dinner which raised 150,000 Baht for these foundations. The project culminated in a Children's Fun Day at KIS in April 2008 where 300 underprivileged children from the centres spent a day of fun, food and friendship at KIS. KIS continues to support several of these facilities.

KIS 10th Anniversary Activities

KIS decided to celebrate the milestone of the school's 10th anniversary in 2008-2009 by helping a day care center in the vicinity of the school. The school raised well over its target of 500,000 Baht to contribute to a new building for the center and to provide the center's teachers with training. KIS started up a fund to support building plans on donated land and there are regular student visits to the center as part of the IB CAS requirement.