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President Bill Clinton brought students on stage from UW-SP to speak about the Thailand Project at the Clinton Global Initiative University in Texas
Clinton acknowledges significance of UW-SP students’ Thailand Project
The Pointer
jspra793@uwsp.edu
Two art students from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point flew to Austin, Texas, this weekend to further expose their Thailand Project at the Clinton Global Initiative University.
Students Joseph Quinnell and Susan Perri, with vice chancellor of student affairs Bob Tomlinson, shared the stage with former President Bill Clinton as their project was featured in front of thousands Friday night.
They were one of four groups chosen to present at the CGI-U, after passing a rigorous application process, because of the commendable ideals encompassed in their project.
“I think it’s a wonderful thing they’re doing,” Clinton said of the Thailand Project. “And again, we wanted them up here to show you that this is an affordable, doable thing that could be replicated on every campus in America.”
Along with Clinton and university students from across the globe, Quinnell and Perri shared the Thailand Project with actress and activist Natalie Portman, documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, CNN’s Paul Begala, NBC’s Luke Russert, Cambodian author and human rights advocate Somaly Mam, author of the New York Times bestseller “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier” Ishmael Beah, and president of San Francisco State University Robert Corrigan.
“This is one of those things that everybody is against and hardly anybody does anything about it,” Clinton said.
As part of the Clinton Foundation, CGI-U facilitates as a networking tool for students who design special projects initiating global change. The exposure could be beneficial to finding support for the Thailand Project.
Although the main hope is to gain awareness for the project, the issue of funding the two Thai students remains.
They need about $16,000 per year for each student to receive their four-year bachelor’s degree, said Quinnell. Currently, their funds will run out by the end of this summer if they don’t raise enough money.
“There’s no state resources going into this,” Tomlinson said. “Every penny that people donate goes to support the two students from Thailand.”
The project has survived off of private gifts and donations since it began.
Quinnell and Perri worked tirelessly for three years persuading international officials on both ends to bring two stateless women with no citizenship and no birth certificates from Thailand to study at UW-SP.
Stateless individuals can be found in many third-world countries around the globe. These often disenfranchised nobodies are highly susceptible to horrible environments like human trafficking, such as sex slavery and exploitative child labor conditions. They are denied health care, education and the ability to travel outside their district.
The project was thought to be impossible by several, but this did not stop Quinnell and Perri from achieving the incomparable as they brought Srinuan “Aor” Saokhamnuan and Fongtip Boonsri to the United States on Aug. 25, 2008.
Fongtip and Aor spend about 20 hours a week in an English as a second language class. Students from previous winterim abroad programs to Thailand volunteer their time to help the women study outside of the classroom.
“It’s a remarkable story about what one student can do,” Tomlinson said. “I’m just proud to be associated with it.”
To provide further awareness, Quinnell and Perri created a winterim study abroad program at UW-SP sending College of Fine Arts and Communication students to Thailand.
“It’s the creative problem solving through being an artist,” Quinnell said. “That’s how we do our work.”
Students traveled to Mai Sai, Thailand, to share their artistic abilities with the young people attending the Development Education Program for Daughters and Communities. It’s a non-government organization that serves to educate and accommodate young girls and boys at risk of human trafficking. It was founded by two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Sompop Jantraka.
“I feel very fortunate about this opportunity to see the world. It changed the way that I live my life here, in America,” said recent attendee Kelsey Madsen. “There’s greater work to be done than just making money … It made me realize all the gifts we have and let go to waste in our society.”
It’s unmistakable that the winterim program has impacted many of the students who have gone abroad contributing their efforts in Thailand.
“I want to go back so bad. I think about it every day,” KatyBeth Austin, another recent attendee, said. “I miss my kids.”
The short-term goals of the Thailand Project are to raise enough money for the two women to continue their college education.
Looking further into the future is “kinda crystal ball gazing right now,” Tomlinson said.
Quinnell and Perri are being encouraged to set up an independent, non-profit organization which will partner with UW-SP.
“If UW-SP wishes to serve as the mother ship [to higher education as humanitarian aid], then we will set up an endowment at the university of over $2 million,” Quinnell said.
This would allow for two students at a time to be constantly attending UW-SP far into the future.
“I don’t want them [Thai students] to be seen as victims. I want them to be seen as the solution. I want people to clearly understand that there is no quick fix for the issue of child prostitution and human trafficking,” Quinnell said. “Our project is a long-term process that’s an investment.”
After they receive their degrees and go back to Thailand, Aor wants to be a spokeswoman for Sompop’s organization and Fongtip wants to counsel victims of human trafficking. They will continue their fight against statelessness and child exploitation from inside their country.
“We are still not good every day as we are in an emergency,” Clinton said at the CGI-U.
Quinnell expressed his continued concern for the urgency of the issues at hand.
“I just want to say the rape of children is an emergency,” said Quinnell.
For more information about the Thailand Project and to help Aor and Fongtip continue their education at UW-SP, visit http://www.thethailandproject.org/ or join the Facebook group: UW-SP Thailand Project.
