How Samujana Villas is supporting the Ko Samui community affected by coronavirus
The team at Samujana Villas on Ko Samui have been busy supplying food and water to members of the local community affected by the coronavirus crisis
With just seven confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ko Samui, this tiny Thai island has so far been spared the mass loss of life many other destinations have not been so fortunate to evade. However, the Ko Samui community, which is completely reliant on a booming tourism industry, is in danger of becoming the pandemic’s collateral damage.
Residents employed at hotels and resorts, restaurants and tourist attractions have lost – and are still losing – their jobs with the flow of tourist arrivals currently cut off by a ban on all international passenger flights to Thailand.
PROVIDING SUPPORT IN THE STORM
Samujana Villas, a resort with 23 luxury lodgings on Ko Samui’s north-east coast, has been forced to close its doors to new arrivals but Covid-19 has not robbed its staff members of their hospitable nature.
John Dopere, the resort’s general manager, has led an initiative providing unemployed locals with hundreds of hot meals and bottles of water.
“Many of our team members have families in Ko Samui and many of them have lost their jobs, so the village chief and I decided to offer help to the community,” he says.
“We love to help – we started providing 150 portions and now, three weeks later, we are offering nearly 300 portions.”
The meals consist of chicken and pork with fried rice and are prepared by Samujana’s in-house chefs. The team is also cooking child-friendly meals for the younger members of the community and giving out cupboard staples such as eggs, dried noodles, rice and tins of sardines.
“Many voluntary food distribution services have been stopped by the government because people weren’t respecting social distancing rules, but people know we can help them now because of word of mouth,” explains Dopere.
He has also managed the process of supplying food boxes, water and even face shields to the local hospital on the island.
“Ko Samui is a very small community and everyone is helping everyone – we have become more like a family.”
PLANS IN PLACE
Thanks to a suggestion from one of his resort workers, Dopere has plans to visit the Samui Elephant Sanctuary to see if he’s able to provide food and support to the employees caring for the elephants there during this pandemic.
The general manager also has a strategy in place for once travel recommences to ensure Samujana Villas’ first visitors feel safe and comfortable in their holiday accommodation, explaining that each villa (ranging from three to eight bedrooms) will have its own manager and can have food delivered to the door in a socially distanced manner.
“It’s important for the industry to work together and for us to work closely with our travel agents to come up with a recovery plan,” says Dopere.
“We hope people will have the desire to travel after lockdown and return to Ko Samui as soon as possible.”
Recommended For You
Most read features
Competitions
Upcoming events
Place of registration: England and Wales.
Company number 08723341.
Registered address: 6th Floor, 2 London Wall Place, London EC2Y 5AU
