Wat Komneeyakhet School consists of four classroom buildings, a multipurpose building, a canteen (cafeteria), a multipurpose field and a volleyball court. Student enrolment is at 449 (243 boys, 206 girls) distributed in three levels: kindergarten, primary school (Grades 1-6), and lower secondary (Grades 7-9). The school has 20 teachers, headed by school principal Mr. Suchat Wangwiset.

On December 26, 2004, Wat Komneeyakhet School and numerous other schools in villages along the Andaman Coast of Thailand were swept up by the tsunami. In February 2005, AsiaPacificEd director Namji Steinemann visited the Thailand's Andaman Coast with AsiaPacificEd teachers from Thailand, Chumpon and Pairat Paankate, to determine the schools that would be supported under the Schools-Helping-Schools Initiative. Here are her observations:

"[Wat Komneeyakhet School] suffered only minor physical damage, but other losses were noted below. The school lost 27 students to the tsunami, 55 of its students lost one or both parents, and the families made homeless by the tsunami now live at the Ban Pak Weep or Ban Ban Niang tsunami shelters nearby. According to Mr. Suchat, the school principal, and many others we talked to, the real need for help are the families of these students, most of whom have lost their livelihood. In the case of families of this school, many [had] worked for resorts or sold goods to tourists, etc. Only a small percentage were involved with the fishing industry. Now that many of these resorts have closed indefinitely, they are out of jobs and have no prospects other than working for the Thai government, earning 175 baht a day (less than $5) helping rebuild houses, schools, etc. Suggestions have been made by Mr. Suchat and others that parents and families be helped/retrained to find permanent work."

Here are some images from her visit:

Thanks to donations from Schools-Helping-Schools, 60 elementary students at Komneeyakhet School can now commute to school from housing on brand-new bicycles. In addition, Schools-Helping-Schools provided Wat Komneeyakhet students with a scanner, two printers and two UPS/surge protectors for their computer lab.

Partnered with Wat Komneeyakhet School is Nauset Regional High School in Massachusetts, and Olympic High School in North Carolina, and Punahou School in Honolulu. AsiaPacificEd teachers Mimi Butts (Nauset High School) and Sheila Lester (Olympic High School), both participants in our 2004 Southeast Asia Institute, and 2005 Travel Seminar, helped students raised funds fro tsunami relief in each of these schools. Sheila and Mimi visited Wat Komneeyakhet School in July 2005 with AsiapPacificEd's 2005 Travel Seminar group. Here are images of AsiaPacificEd teachers' 2005 visit to Wat Komneeyakhet School:

Exchange of student letters and artwork between Wat Komneeyakhet School and Punahou School took place in May 2005. Thai teacher Nora Phuwarat's students sent the following artwork to Punahou School.

In exchange, 5th and 6th graders at Punahou School sent murals and crayons to Wat Komneeyakhet (read more about the exchange here).