In June 2018, 12 members of the Wild Boars and their coach became trapped in Tham Luang Nang Non cave in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand for over two weeks. Their ordeal and daring rescue gripped the entire world, and generated much discussion and genuine concern in homes across Australia. 

One evening during a discussion about the boys at home, LanguageLoop CEO Elizabeth Compton’s daughter asked if she could write a letter to the boys and have it translated into Thai. She thought it would be a good idea to see if other kids wanted to write a letter to them as well to offer words of support and encouragement to the boys.

We embraced the idea and put the call out to Aussie kids to send us their letters for free translation into Thai, which we would then send to the boys to show how much the world cared. We were thrilled with the response, and received letters from all over the country including tiny towns such as Murwillumbah in northern NSW, Mukinbudin in WA and Rapid Creek in the Northern Territory.

The letters and their translations were put together into a commemorative book, containing over 300 original letters. Contained below, is just a sample of these letters showing the huge outpouring of support from children, their parents and teachers from all across Australia, as well as the professional translation work of our talented Thai translators.

Connecting people is at the heart of what we do at LanguageLoop every single day. We hope that the book will serve as a reminder of our ability to connect with people here in Australia and overseas by speaking their language.

A printed copy of the commemorative book was sent to the boys in Chiang Rai, the Australian Embassy in Thailand, as well as to The Royal Thai Embassy here in Australia.