Gigi Nemrod (Director/Co-Founder)
Gigi Nemrod is French. She is the director and Co-Founder of The Paintbrush Foundation (previously Khlong Toey Music Program), a non-profit organization established in October 2012 in Bangkok with the aim of creating positive social change through music and arts. Inspired by the Playing for Change (PFC) movement and related Playing For Change Foundation (PFCF), the Paintbrush team began by arranging free music lessons once a week for underprivileged kids in the Khlong Toey slum community. Soon after, PFCF offered its support, and in June 2013, Paintbrush became the 9th music program to be officially endorsed by the Playing For Change Foundation. Fast forward nine years later, the Paintbrush foundation is open 5 days a week, and teach western music, Thai classical music, visual arts and English to about 70 children.
With over 100,000 inhabitants spread over a densely populated swathe of Southern Bangkok, the Khlong Toey slum is the largest of its community in Thailand. The area was initially developed in the early 20th century around an enormous slaughterhouse, and is now home to Bangkok’s primary shipping port along the Chao Phraya River. Many of the children who grow up here face daily challenges relating to poverty, domestic violence, teenage pregnancy, drug addiction and alcoholism, just to name a few. Though loving families support and encourage some, a large percentage of children from the Khlong Toey slum encounter obstacles that a child should never have to face.
Please visit their website to find out more: The Paintbrush Foundation