by Diana Schaffter, WI Adjunct Faculty
In June, 2021. six youth in Thailand joined the Wilmette Institute course Foundations for Relationships, which helps youth deepen their understanding on relationships and how they can best prepare themselves for marriage. This course involved meeting for two hours weekly for 10 weeks. Two foreign friends from Thailand also served as faculty for this international course, which allowed for additional discussions on the subject in Thailand. The course is highly complementary to the Bahá’í-inspired Ruhi Study Series Book 12: Family and the Community, which focuses on practical aspects of relationships and how to put the Bahá’í teachings into practice. The Thai youth who attended this online course decided that there should be a similar kind of course in the Thai language for Thai youth.
Thai Language Course on Marriage Preparation
In the follow-up to the Wilmette Institute course, friends worked together to translate materials on relationships and marriage, and developed a Thai language course with eight modules. This course can be offered in an in-person workshop setting or using the “café” style format used for Song Café and Story Café, a Thai initiative where people meet online for an hour a week and participants take turns facilitating sessions. The materials are being made available for anyone to use.
A two-day youth workshop was recently held in Bangkok, facilitated by one of the youth who had attended the Wilmette Institute course. A portion of the workshop used the newly translated materials based on the Wilmette Institute course. The youth attending the Bangkok workshop felt that these materials should also be shared with other Thai youth to help them to better prepare themselves for marriage.
There are future plans for an online weekly marriage preparation course in Thai for youth.
