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Published on November 27, 2007

Although it is late at night, Srinuan Wongtrakoon, a teacher at Ban Samkha School in Lampang province, is still busy in the school's computer room.

Instead of going home to relax and rest, Srinuan, 52, prefers to spend her nights teaching and helping the people of her small village to search for market prices of agricultural goods on the Internet.

Although she is just a primary school teacher in a very small community, the people of Ban Samkha regard Srinuan as the person who has taught them to be self-reliant.

Almost three decades ago, Srinuan dedicated her life to working for the community where she was born, bringing the people a better way of life. As a teacher, she uses her experience and knowledge to give her students more learning skills.

"I've never felt tired," she says. "And I've never felt discouraged, although sometimes, all the work is really tough."

Due in large part to Srinuan's efforts, Ban Samkha has become a model rural village, where information and communications technologies, computers and the Internet have become a part of the way of life. The local people and their children have learned to use information technology to constructively develop their knowledge.

From a poor village with low income and heavy debts, Ban Samkha has become self-reliant. Livelihoods have improved and local farming has become sustainable. Srinuan's efforts lie behind many of the achievements, and she feels proud every time she sees an improvement in the community.

"I saw all the problems in the community when I was young," she recalls. "We had to struggle to survive. We never made ends meet at all."

Despite growing up on the land, Srinuan had dreams of her own. Instead of becoming a farmer, she wanted to be a teacher and help develop her community.

She won a scholarship, and this helped her to gain a bachelor's degree from Lampang Rajabhat University and then a master's degree in business administration from Lampang's Yonok University.

Finally, her dream came true, and in 1979, Srinuan returned to Ban Samkha to teach English at the village school. But it wasn't until 18 years later that she found real inspiration. She had an opportunity to learn about new information technology at a seminar arranged by the Northern Region Non-Formal Education Office, and the notion that the technology could be an answer to her community's problems took root.

Srinuan was the only one of 70 teachers from 35 schools in Lampang who followed up on that seminar. She asked the director of the non-formal education office to bring her students and people from Ban Samkha to Lampang city to be trained in the use of computers and the Internet.

"We all spent 10 days on that course," she says. "We learned new things about technology and the Internet and I realised that it was really useful."

Still, Srinuan's road was not a rosy one. In Ban Samkha, the people resisted the idea of bringing computers to the village because they thought the Internet would be a bad influence on their children. She spent a lot of effort overcoming that perception.

Eventually, her perseverance was rewarded. The first group of personal computers and an Internet connection came as a donation to the community from the Siam Cement Group and the Thaicom Foundation. Immediately, the people and children of Ban Samkha found they could access large amounts of information.

"When using the Internet, the children found more enjoyment in learning. They learned to search for more knowledge by themselves. They could also see a lot of things they had never seen before and this helped them improve their learning skills though 'learning by doing'.

"At the same time, they used the Internet to find information about agriculture for their parents. And with all these benefits, people began to change their minds and accept the new technology," Srinuan says.

This created more open-mindedness about learning, and while the community gradually improved itself, it received support from near and far. Help came from the Suksapattana Foundation, and from the Thaicom Foundation, the Non-Formal Education Commission, the Siam Cement Group, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre and, importantly, from the distant Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the US, to establish a sustainable life-long learning system for the people and children of Ban Samkha.

Suksapattana Foundation chairman Paron Israsena na Ayutthaya says Srinuan is a teacher capable of turning a new learning concept into a reality.

"She is really a community leader, especially to bring the Internet to her community," he says. "While we played a part as a facilitator, Srinuan was the key person to stimulate people and children in the community to adopt and adjust themselves to cope with the new technology."

Despite all the achievements in the Ban Samkha community, Srinuan sees no end to her work. She still has her students, and there is much to be done in the village.

Every day, from early morning until late evening, her familiar figure, dressed in plain country clothes, is seen hurrying here and there around the village, attending to community jobs.

And while much of her life has been devoted her community, her soldier husband Chai has been there to play the role of househusband, caring for their two children and attending to the household chores. Srinuan normally spends more than 10 hours outside the home every day.

Chai admits there were times - particularly during the children's teenage years - when he had to make a special effort to help them understand their mother's mission, and why she had to work all day and often into the night.

"If we want to see her, we know that we can find her at the school, especially in the computer room. Late one night last year, I went out to find her. She was in the computer room, helping people to use the Internet," he says.

As she advances into her 50s, Srinuan has begun to think more about her health. It's not that she fears falling ill. She is concerned to maintain her strength so she can go on helping the community.

In a way, Srinuan's 25-year-old daughter Phonnabphan is following in her mother's footsteps. She is a teacher at the Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning in Bangkok, which focuses on helping students gain knowledge through practical experience, by using a variety of resources and technology to support their problem-solving abilities, creativity and self-reliance.

Phonnabphan admits that as a youngster she did not understand why her mother was so committed to her work. She has since recognised her mother's achievements and this has not only made her very proud, but has also helped her to realise the importance of working for the benefit of other people.

"In one's life, it's really good if you can spend part of your life for others, and not only for yourself. My mother has shown me that she is doing great things," she says.

Asina Pornwasin

 The Nation