Background to the Area

Before the Tsunami the area of Khao Lak, in which the Step Ahead Training Centre is based, had a growing tourist industry alongside the well established local fishing businesses. The 26 December Tsunami had a devastating impact on this area, with vast areas totally destroyed. It is estimated that over 10,000 people were killed in this area with thousands more losing homes, livelihoods, jobs and possessions. Some people have lost nearly all of their family and in one village (Nam Kem) only 18% of the population survived.

Since this tragedy steady progress has been made to build new homes and rebuild larger buildings. A number of people remain in temporary housing villages, however many have now been re-housed. The imminent start of the tourist season has brought new hope of greater economic development in the area and many hotels have been working very hard in order to reopen for this time. Large numbers, however, still remain unemployed and the huge level of loss is still very evident.

Background to the project

The project was set up by Step Ahead Director John Quinley who lived in the Phang Nga region for six years prior to moving to his current home in Bangkok. The vision behind the project is to bring hope to the people by enabling them to develop their core employability skills in areas such as English, German, Hospitality and Computers.

The first 3 months of the project were spent renovating the building, which was itself very badly damaged. The centre was officially opened in May 2005 with over 200 people having registered for the different free training courses in General and Hospitality English, Computers and German, as well as short courses, such as Italian cooking, hosted by teams of volunteers.

Currently over 300 people have passed through the centre, with many going on to obtain jobs in hotels or other local businesses.

Recent Developments

The most recent addition to the centre has been the opening of the Step Ahead Café. The vision behind this initiative is for Step Ahead to be a place of community as well as training: the Café being a good way to facilitate this. It is now up and running, and has seen students, local people, Tsunami volunteers and the occasional tourist relaxing and drinking coffees, smoothies and shakes and eating the delicious cakes produced by the local people who work here with us – all of whom have themselves been hugely impacted by the Tsunami.

Organisational Structure and Funding

With John and his wife Kim here in Thailand as YWAM missionaries, the Step Ahead Training Centre, alongside its parent organisation: Step Ahead MicroEnterprise Development, run by John in Bangkok, forms part of YWAM Relief and Development. It is also forms part of the work of We Love Thailand, which is the Christian Umbrella group formed in response to the Tsunami that oversees many of the Christian projects in this area. The main sources of funding have come through Operation Blessing and New Life Advance, who have committed themselves to support the project in its initial year providing for the refurbishment costs, purchase of necessary equipment (computers, kitchen appliances, furniture and transportation) employment of local Thai staff and ongoing running costs for the centre. There is not provision within this funding for supporting overseas volunteers.

Future plans and visions

Initially we had three volunteer English teachers, one volunteer German teacher and paid Thai teachers for Computers and Hospitality. We now have just one full time English teacher, myself, and Benz, our administrator who also teaches Beginner’s English classes, involved in teaching. Our most immediate hope and plan is, therefore, that we might increase this team again and as such begin to re-expand our work in the centre and also out into different communities through the organisation of Satellite teaching. We would also like to extend the work of the café, which is currently just open during in the day, in order to facilitate special evening events, such as film and music nights. The hope is that through this we might also be able to hold events in which people have the opportunity to hear more about our faith, through music, drama, films and talks.