Creating a Successful and Localized Delta Volunteer Program in Thailand

By Ophilia Kuo, DET Volunteer

Bangkok, Thailand, July 29, 2020– In 2015, I attended a five-day training for the Delta Volunteers International program held in Taiwan by the Delta Foundation. Delta Volunteers program began in 2007 in Taiwan and expanded to China before launching in Thailand. The volunteer program aims to promote energy education for grade school students.

My task after training was initiating the project in Thailand. With full support from our former DET president Mr. Dick and the HR department, we were able to launch the DET Volunteers program in 2016. DET Senior Director of Government and Public Affairs Department Youngyut and Nannaphat from HRA helped to set up a booth at the company canteen that helped us recruit around 50 Thai volunteers.

After recruiting our local volunteers, we invited the Delta Foundation who brought experts from Taiwan to teach training seminars at DET. For the next three years, Delta Foundation organized an annual two-day seminar to train our DET volunteers on how to teach the Delta energy education class and then supervise practice lessons at local schools.

The Delta Foundation designs and updates the energy education course every year in Taiwan. Each region helps to tailor the course to their specific needs. At each seminar, one Delta foundation organizer brought one-three Taiwanese subject experts to teach with the help of a Thai translator from North Thailand, who is studying at a Taiwan university with a Delta Foundation scholarship.

Delta’s unique training course, not only teaches science-based energy knowledge, but it also links to our innovative products. For example, our class on electric vehicles shows how green transportation can help to reduce air pollution and our back-to-nature classes teach students different innovative planting techniques and why a more natural lifestyle can help us use less electricity.

Students in our course get plenty of opportunities to develop their own thinking and action skills. For example, one activity lets students design their own greenhouse and then use LEGO bricks to build a model. We also have model car racing and a solar cooking project designed for sunny Thailand.

Thanks to DET HR’s support and dedication of our volunteers, we have successfully pioneered energy education in Thailand. Our program reaches six local schools with DET volunteers going to teach onsite and students coming to visit Delta’s green factory. All the students are especially excited to come to visit DET headquarters and see for themselves the things we are doing to save energy.

The success of DET volunteers encouraged the Delta Foundation to expand the program to the USA and now they plan more expansion to India. At DET, we will continue to follow the curriculum from Delta Volunteers International and send our volunteers to Taiwan for training. We will adjust the global content to apply to Thailand and our volunteer committee will decide specific directions for our local activities.

Finally, we want to express our appreciation to DET’s top management for their constant support and we hope to get more support from our middle management to allow their staff to participate in even more volunteer activities. Thank you all!

About the Author (Guest Contributor)

Ophilia Kuo

After rejoining Delta in 2015, I found CSR projects to be an inspiring task besides my normal role as the secretary to President. I am very happy to witness the launch of our DET volunteers and work with a passionate team to overcome challenges together. It’s been a wonderful experience and I hope the DET Volunteers team grows to become a CSR pioneer in Delta.   

Share