We are currently in the process of starting a boat construction worker-owned cooperative in Thailand's Phang Nga province. The co-op project has evolved due to the desire to formalize the Cape Pakarang Boat Yard project, providing long-term and sustainable jobs to the villagers in and around Cape Pakarang.  The project was founded shortly after the tsunami in an effort to build traditional Thai long-trailed fishing boats to replace the hundreds of boats that were lost in the tsunami.   We are happy to be sending a small team of three individuals to participate in the transformation from the Boat Yard to a worker-owned cooperative.  To learn more about the Boat Yard, please visit the website at www.tsunamiboatproject.com While we were initially planning on also partnering with an NGO in Northern Thailand, to do micro-credit and square-foot garden training with Burmese and Tibetan refugees, we have had to put this project on hold for now due  to political turbulence in Bangkok.  We are hoping to be able to continue this project next year. We have therefore decided to send volunteers back to Khao Lak, Thailand to help with the tsunami reconstruction efforts that we participated in last year as Empowering Nations'  Wave of Hope project. We will be partnering with the Tsunami Volunteer Centre, the organization we have previously labored with. To learn more about these projects, please visit our Wave of Hope site. For more information on the Tsunami Volunteer Centre and the projects our volunteers will be working on this summer, please visit the website at www.tsunamivolunteer.net. We will be sending small teams to Khao Lak throughout the months of May to August.  The minimum time in-country must be at least four weeks. If you would like to be involved in the tsunami reconstruction efforts in Thailand this summer, please contact us at empoweringnations@gmail.com for more information.