World
(2009-05-29)
COLUMBIA, MO
(KBIA) -
Fourteen emerging community leaders from Thailand are in Columbia to learn about community service and volunteerism. It's part of the Global Leader Exchange Program that's funded by the U.S. State Department. The Thais will be observing volunteer organizations in Columbia for the next week. Director Sandy Hodge says it's a collaborative learning experience."The importance is it broadens their horizons in the areas of community service and volunteerism but it also gives us a lot of very interesting information about how things work in Thailand and actually some of things that we might be doing differently here or we could be doing differently here that are effective in Thailand."
The Thai visitors today toured the Central Missouri Humane Society.
Thailand does not have animal shelters. Through an interpreter, Praphat Pathumratworakun says the Humane Society's youth volunteers showed him community service is all about compassion.
"I've seen diversity in cultures in many aspects but they share something in common that is the tendency to put community interests first rather than a personal interest."
Columbia has participated in the citizen exchange program with Thailand for over 20 years.
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