Buddha-Kasetra schools were founded

Buddha-Kasetra schools were founded—at Nongho in Chiangmai,
at Khunyuam in Maehongsorn, and at Nonmuang in Korat—and the
number of school children and teachers keeps growing.
The Buddha-Kasetra communities are especially concerned with
the issue of the exploitation of women and children. These communities
have campaigned to protect women’s and children’s rights and to
alert people to the problems of prostitution and child abuse in northern
Thailand. At the Buddha-Kasetra school at Nongho, the school for
female students, girls and young women from poor, marginal family
backgrounds are admitted to the school for education and occupational
training as well as instruction in Buddhist ethics. The school employs
six teachers, all female except the principal, Phasakorn Kandej, and
eighty-six female students range in age from thirteen to eighteen. If
these students were not admitted to the school, it is likely that most of
them would have resorted to prostitution.
The Buddha-Kasetra Foundation was founded in Chiangmai in
1989, with Phra Chaiyot as coordinator of all its schools and activities.
The foundation has its own printing press, publishing a monthly newspaper,
as well as a number of books on Buddhism and social issues.
The foundation has been trying to alleviate the causes of social ills by
working with the poor and the unfortunate in a Buddhist-based community
context, as well as by training young men and women to be
leaders of their own communities in rural Thailand. Although the number
is still limited, Buddhist-based communities like Buddha-Kasetra
are important in their own right and serve as examples of a new vision
of a more humane, cooperative, and service-oriented way of life.