Friday, June 27, 2008
Thursday, June 26, 2008
First Survey
Yesterday Chulalongkorn team went to Lamhin Community. We spent about 4 hours talking to Aree (the leader of Lamhin) and walking around. The purpose was to get the big picture of the community. This is what we learnt from the first survey.
The drawing above is the rough map of the Lamhin Community.
It has about 30 households and a population of about 200 people.
(we will get exact figures in the later stage).
Our bridge will be on top of Lamhin Canal (5-6 meters wide) connecting Lamhin community to Riebvaree 17 Road.
Aree informed us about her plan of building a road in front of the community (the red road in the map) along the canal after the bridge is built.
She told us she would write a proposal to government asking for money to build the road, which should be easy after they got the bridge. The road will allow cars to go to almost any parts of the community.
So if we have time and raise enough money, we can even build the road for them. That ‘s something we can think about. But even if we are not capable of doing so, the bridge itself will do the community a lot of good.
The next step is to talk to people in the community and also Minburi district officers.
On the coming Sunday, 9 people of Chula team will be
divided into three groups to get more information from people in the community. The goal is to find out
1. How many percents of people want the bridge to be built?
2. How (exactly) the bridge is going benefit them, in terms of individually?
3. Can the bridge create conflicts? If yes, In what ways?
4. How many people in the community are willing to help us building the bridge?
So if you have any particular questions you want us to ask the people, send them to our email.
Chula Team
lamhin.chula@gmail.com
Here we go!
Hey everyone! It seems like the basic plan that the Chula team worked out with Ploy had the essential elements in it, but we need to take another look at the timing. Here is an overview with some minor edits from the last post. Please comment with suggestions!
Phase 1 - Surveying and Fundraising (1-2 months: June - July)
Chula+CASE team collects more detailed information from Lam Hin community. This information needs to be clearly documented and translated for Esther and anyone else who wants to help write grant proposals for funding. Fundraising will be ongoing, since we can use as much money as we can get!
Phase 2 - Bridge Design + Cost Calculations (1-2 months: August - September)
CASE leads team consisting of local architects/engineers and students from Chula or other Bangkok universities. It would be great for MIT students to be involved, but we will have to work out how to communicate.
Phase 3 - Legal Issues (2-4 weeks?: October)
Probably either Chula or CASE will have to contact local government and confirm permission to build on the land. This should happen as soon as we have finished the bridge design.
Phase 4 - Community Organization and Awareness (1 month: November)
MIT, Chula and CASE recruit students, Lam Hin community members, local professionals, anyone who want to help build.
Phase 5 - Construction (1 month: January)
MIT, Chula, CASE and community members build a new bridge for Lam Hin!
That version of the timeline doesn't even include December, which gives us a little room to breathe. Let's be flexible as we start to work things for real...
Now for the interactive part =P Drop a comment to let us know if...
Phase 1 - Surveying and Fundraising (1-2 months: June - July)
Chula+CASE team collects more detailed information from Lam Hin community. This information needs to be clearly documented and translated for Esther and anyone else who wants to help write grant proposals for funding. Fundraising will be ongoing, since we can use as much money as we can get!
Phase 2 - Bridge Design + Cost Calculations (1-2 months: August - September)
CASE leads team consisting of local architects/engineers and students from Chula or other Bangkok universities. It would be great for MIT students to be involved, but we will have to work out how to communicate.
Phase 3 - Legal Issues (2-4 weeks?: October)
Probably either Chula or CASE will have to contact local government and confirm permission to build on the land. This should happen as soon as we have finished the bridge design.
Phase 4 - Community Organization and Awareness (1 month: November)
MIT, Chula and CASE recruit students, Lam Hin community members, local professionals, anyone who want to help build.
Phase 5 - Construction (1 month: January)
MIT, Chula, CASE and community members build a new bridge for Lam Hin!
That version of the timeline doesn't even include December, which gives us a little room to breathe. Let's be flexible as we start to work things for real...
Now for the interactive part =P Drop a comment to let us know if...
- you have suggestions/concerns about the timeline
- you want to be added to the blog
- you want access to our Google Calendar, which will eventually have all the dates and deadlines that we need to communicate across the teams
- you want to help with fundraising and writing grants (we have a lead already, due on August 1st!)
- you know about any other grants or scholarships that we can apply for.
I heard from Big that the Chula team visited Lam Hin today. An update with more information about the community as well as pictures should be coming soon. Stay tuned!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
First Steps
Here is the first update from the Chulalongkorn team.
Thian, Pim, Big, and Non (MIT) talked to Ploy (CASE) yesterday and she seemed very interested in helping us on the bridge project. She is interested in working with us and she even said that she can get some architects and engineers to work on this project.
It was a good two hour talk and we worked out a rough plan as follows.
1. Collect general information (2 months)
Chulalongkorn team would go to the site area to talk to Lam Hin people to get the general information. We will answer the questions of who would mostly from the bridge, a single person or the community as a whole? Would the bridge by any chance create conflicts within the community? and etc.
So basically during this process, we would make sure there are no problems that would be arise from the existence of the bridge.
2. Bridge design (1-2 months)
At this point, architects and engineers would be working with the community in designing the bridge. Since people in the community probably know more about their own area better than outsiders, we would need to work with them to figure out where the bridge should located, what size it should be, what materials should be used, etc.
During this process, we hopefully will get the actual design of the bridge and also find out how much the bridge would actually cost.
We are thinking of getting architecture students from Chula or other universities to do a workshop with CASE in designing a bridge as well. So I would say this would also be a good time for MIT students to come to Thailand to work on the bridge design. Non told me that MIT students will have a fall break during October. So do you think it would be possible to plan some kind workshop between MIT and CASE. Or if October is not a good time, when should it be?
3. Legal Issues (2 weeks)
Because the bridge will be connected the public road, we have to ask permission from the district to build the bridge.
4. Preparation (1 month)
We will try to get people in the community and also Chula students volunteer to help building the bridge. One month should be enough to do the work.
5. Construction; should be during January
We heard that all MIT students have a four weeks off during January. So I think January would be an appropriate time to start building the bridge. Esther told me that she wants to come during January. Tim might be coming as well.
The fund raising process would begin after we get a concrete design of the bridge.
So It would leave us roughly about two months to get the fund before January.
So for MIT students, can you help us answering these questions.
1. Would it be possible to set up an MIT team to come to Thailand to work on this project? If yes, in what form? a class doing a workshop or individuals? Are you interested to come? When would be the appropriate time for you to come to Thailand? According to our rough plan, we think the good time for you to come would be during October (bridge designing process) and January (Bridge building process). But it is still a very rough plan and can still be changed.
2. Non told us about organization at MIT called UROP. Do you think it would be possible to get UROP or other organization (may be private sector) to sponsor this project.
Esther will represent the MIT group. She and Tim were in the group observing Lam Hin during the MIT-Chula workshop, so if you have any further questions, they might be able to answer those.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t be hesitated to make any comment on this blog or contact us via email. From now on, this blog will be the main channel of communication between Chulalongkorn and MIT people, we will keep you update via this site.
For those of you who did not participated in MIT-Chula workshop but would like to help either by providing us human resources or financial resources, you are more than welcome.
Let ‘s make a difference for the Lam Hin community.
Chulalongkorn Team
lamhin.chula@gmail.com
Thian, Pim, Big, and Non (MIT) talked to Ploy (CASE) yesterday and she seemed very interested in helping us on the bridge project. She is interested in working with us and she even said that she can get some architects and engineers to work on this project.
It was a good two hour talk and we worked out a rough plan as follows.
1. Collect general information (2 months)
Chulalongkorn team would go to the site area to talk to Lam Hin people to get the general information. We will answer the questions of who would mostly from the bridge, a single person or the community as a whole? Would the bridge by any chance create conflicts within the community? and etc.
So basically during this process, we would make sure there are no problems that would be arise from the existence of the bridge.
2. Bridge design (1-2 months)
At this point, architects and engineers would be working with the community in designing the bridge. Since people in the community probably know more about their own area better than outsiders, we would need to work with them to figure out where the bridge should located, what size it should be, what materials should be used, etc.
During this process, we hopefully will get the actual design of the bridge and also find out how much the bridge would actually cost.
We are thinking of getting architecture students from Chula or other universities to do a workshop with CASE in designing a bridge as well. So I would say this would also be a good time for MIT students to come to Thailand to work on the bridge design. Non told me that MIT students will have a fall break during October. So do you think it would be possible to plan some kind workshop between MIT and CASE. Or if October is not a good time, when should it be?
3. Legal Issues (2 weeks)
Because the bridge will be connected the public road, we have to ask permission from the district to build the bridge.
4. Preparation (1 month)
We will try to get people in the community and also Chula students volunteer to help building the bridge. One month should be enough to do the work.
5. Construction; should be during January
We heard that all MIT students have a four weeks off during January. So I think January would be an appropriate time to start building the bridge. Esther told me that she wants to come during January. Tim might be coming as well.
The fund raising process would begin after we get a concrete design of the bridge.
So It would leave us roughly about two months to get the fund before January.
So for MIT students, can you help us answering these questions.
1. Would it be possible to set up an MIT team to come to Thailand to work on this project? If yes, in what form? a class doing a workshop or individuals? Are you interested to come? When would be the appropriate time for you to come to Thailand? According to our rough plan, we think the good time for you to come would be during October (bridge designing process) and January (Bridge building process). But it is still a very rough plan and can still be changed.
2. Non told us about organization at MIT called UROP. Do you think it would be possible to get UROP or other organization (may be private sector) to sponsor this project.
Esther will represent the MIT group. She and Tim were in the group observing Lam Hin during the MIT-Chula workshop, so if you have any further questions, they might be able to answer those.
If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t be hesitated to make any comment on this blog or contact us via email. From now on, this blog will be the main channel of communication between Chulalongkorn and MIT people, we will keep you update via this site.
For those of you who did not participated in MIT-Chula workshop but would like to help either by providing us human resources or financial resources, you are more than welcome.
Let ‘s make a difference for the Lam Hin community.
Chulalongkorn Team
lamhin.chula@gmail.com
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