Beginning in December 2012, Jehovah’s Witnesses in Thailand conducted a special campaign to help students succeed in school. Twenty adult Witnesses visited schools in the Bangkok area. They met with the supervisor of each school and made available to teachers and pupils the October 2012 issue of Awake! containing a cover series entitled “How to Succeed at School.”

This campaign was successful, and the Witnesses expanded it to the entire country. Over the following year and a half, they contacted 830 schools and found that students and teachers were so eager to receive this issue of Awake! that three reprints were needed to fill all the requests. The initial order for the October 2012 issue of Awake! was for some 30,000 copies. However, the subject has been so popular that more than 650,000 copies of the magazine have been distributed!

School administrators and teachers were quick to recognize the value of Awake! One teacher said, “The magazine will help our students have a closer relationship with their families and have good goals to work toward.” Some schools incorporated the material into their regular class curriculum. Others used the magazine for class reading exercises. In one school, students were assigned to write reports based on material from the magazine, and those who submitted the best entries were awarded prizes.

One female student appreciated the article “Winning the War Against Obesity in the Young” contained in this magazine. She explained that obesity is becoming a common problem and that her friends feel uncomfortable talking to others about it. She said, “Thank you for providing advice that is so understandable and easy to apply.”

Parents too have appreciated the material. One mother expressed her thanks for the magazine to Witnesses who visited her at home, saying, “It has useful keys to help my daughter to do better in school.”

Mr. Pichai Petratyotin, a spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Thailand, said: “Awake! highlights the time-tested wisdom found in the Bible, which truly benefits people today. Jehovah’s Witnesses believe strongly in the value of education, so we were happy to make this issue available to everyone, without charge.”