To Every Breather Wins Outstanding Social Project Award
Congratulations to the Bangkok University student team who received the Outstanding Social Project Award for participating in the “Rakkaew Project”
Congratulations to the Bangkok University student team who received the Outstanding Social Project Award for participating in the “Rakkaew Project,” a national event showcasing sustainable development projects by students in 2024. Rakkaew Project aims to leverage knowledge to create sustainable benefits for Thai communities and society. The event was held at Samyan Mitrtown.
The “To Every Breather” project won the Outstanding Project Award. This project helps people in society have a space to express their inner thoughts and opens up opportunities to talk with strangers. The project received a commemorative plaque and 10,000 baht in funding to further develop the project’s success in the future.
To Every Breather…
The “To Every Breather” project originated from the personal experience of Petch Petchhathai, the project founder, who understands the feelings of people who have never been listened to before. “We all must have had times when we wanted to express feelings that were bottled up inside, but there was no one available to listen to us or make us feel truly comfortable sharing, even with our close ones, because of mutual expectations. Sometimes this leads to feelings of loneliness. So the idea arose that if we could talk to strangers who have no expectations of us, it might be an interesting solution.”
With this personal experience, Petch began to recognize a common problem that most people share: the lack of a “Listening Space” in society. She started looking for friends interested in the activity and invited them to be part of creating this small space to create a listening area for everyone.
A Small Space for Everyone
The members of “To Every Breather” joined this project hoping to open a small space for people to get to know their team’s project better and to let people facing the problem of lacking someone to listen to them know that there are still people trying and recognizing the importance of this space. “Participating in this project allowed us to set up a booth to promote our activities at Samyan Mitrtown Shopping Center. This time, we organized a new form of activity where interested participants drew questions from a gacha machine. These questions were psychological questions designed to encourage reflection or questioning of one’s past life. These questions are often ones we forget or never think to ask ourselves, such as “What small things make you happy?”, “What would you like to tell your loved ones if you weren’t here tomorrow?”, “How would you like your loved ones to remember you?” After receiving the drawn question, participants had to write their answer and hang it on a string we prepared. As other people passed by, they could read our stories, like passing on feelings to others.”
Saving Hearts, Healing Hearts Through Letters
Getting a question and writing the answer makes us stop, think, and review that question to write it out in letters. It’s like talking to ourselves about questions we’ve never asked or thought to ask ourselves before. Not only do we write it out, but by tying our answers to a string for passersby to read, it’s like a form of communication with strangers we’ve never met before. But those messages become a point of connection, linking our experiences to theirs.
In addition to the activity booth, there was also a project presentation on stage in front of the committee. “We divided our work team into two groups. The first team was responsible for the gacha machine activity, while the other team presented on stage. We opened with a simple question that often gets a rushed answer: ‘How are you today?’ Most of the time, we immediately hear the response, ‘I’m fine…’ Asking this question was meant to set the mood for the committee to better understand our project – that we believe society is driven by people, so people need to be healthy both physically and mentally, ready to face and fight the various problems in our world. When people are good, society will be good as well.”
From Us, To Every Breather
After the activity ended, we met many people, both those who understood and those who didn’t understand our activities. “When we tried the activity, we found that the results differed across age groups. For example, teenagers found this activity more accessible and were more open to this kind of thing compared to adults or the elderly, who were the opposite. They might not understand why we needed to do this activity, why others needed to know about their personal matters, why they had to express themselves for strangers to see. So we need to find other methods or activities that can reach people of all genders and ages, which we expect to be new approaches that we will develop in the future.”
Being part of an activity and being part of a society that helps push for sustainability, especially regarding “people,” which is crucial for making our world sustainable, is important because the “To Every Breather” team believes that “Understanding is the best medicine for treating feelings of loneliness, and when people are not lonely, they will have a better quality of life and be inspired to create things that benefit society.”
To Every Breather Project Team Members, Bangkok University Students
- Pethathai Pangphasert
- Saowalak Tatasuk
- Pityada Teedee
- Phasathorn Maka
- Montawat Anuchaiwong
- Wongphuthares Khemkhang
- Rawisara Muenwong
- Itthipon Popee
- Pattarawin Porsom
To Every Breather Project Advisors
1. Montira Suksandee Head of Talent Development Department
2. Sarawut Samniangdee Instructor of Talent Development Department
Interested in being part of the To Every Breather project Contact us on Instagram: To Every Breather