ABOUT MUDITA TRUST As a child of a Bangkok businessman in the early Fifties, Mudita was shocked at the sight of small girls begging on the city streets. They were the children of prostitutes, girls who had been lured from country villages by middlemen on a promise of factory work. Earnings would be sent home to desperate relatives, the victims of massive bombing. Mudita vowed to help such girls. Forty years later, after a successful career in management for Laura Ashley and as a restaurateur in London and at the Hamilton Arms in Stedham, West Sussex, she formed the Mudita Trust. The aim of the Trust is to help prevent child prostitution in Thailand. The message is simple. Education enables young people to make better -informed decisions about their future. The State does not provide free secondary education for girls in Thailand, so when a highly respected nun asked Mudita for help in funding the first free convent boarding school in the country, Mudita readily accepted. The school in Rachaburi province has been the main focus of the Trust's efforts for the past 12 years. Girls from some of the poorest rural villages are offered places following discussions between nuns and the village elders. It costs £200 per year to educate each child. They stay five years, from the age of 11 to 16, learning Maths, Thai, English, Science and Buddhism- the 5 main subjects necessary for further education. In year 2003, Mudita has taken the girls' education a stage further. After leaving school at 16, they will now be given the opportunity to study with Mudita and a team of helpers for a further three months. This course, entitled 'Ready for Life' is to be held at Mudita's own Thai home in Chiang Mai and taught on an individual basis. Each girl is encouraged to speak conversational Central Thai and English and given the life skills to help them find a proper job. It is Mudita's hope that, in seeing the girls through the most vulnerable years of their lives, they will have no desire to go into prostitution. Trust funds are also contributing to the realisation of a number of other projects. In the North of Thailand, a new school project at Doi Tung is benefiting from the Trust's input in the form of teaching staff, materials and facilities. The education of the indigenous hill tribe children for whom the school provides has traditionally been under-resourced. Teaching staff are difficult to find. Mudita actively recruits volunteers as well as funding certain capital investments in the projects. Mudita's work in Thailand has attracted the attention of the Thai authorities. It is interesting to note that some are now encouraged to meet Mudita's financial commitment in such projects. This may, in the long term, bring more self-sufficiency and better prospects for the Thai young people the Trust seeks to aid. The Amazing Thailand Festival held at Secretts Farm joins other events held locally at the Hamilton Arms to raise the necessary funds to continue this work. It is anticipated that around £60,000 will be raised from Amazing Thailand 2007.