to exemplary villages and cities. Charity Under Somdet Chuang's supervision, Wat Paknam has established the Luang Por Wat Paknam Foundation, aimed at charity for educational projects, construction, and charity. Led largely by meditation mae chi, the foundation also supports education for monastics. Moreover, it has helped people hit by the 2011 floods in Thailand and Somdet Chuang has traveled to offer charity to the affected areas of the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, in cooperation with the organization Hands 4 Nepal. Wat Paknam has organized a number of activities to promote and support public health. Since 1973, Wat Paknam has organized three-monthly blood donations at the temple, in cooperation with the Red Cross and the National Blood Donation Center. The idea was developed by Phrakhru Chai Kittisaro, assistant to Somdet Chuang. Somdet Chuang made the project well known by persuading people throughout the country to donate blood. Wat Paknam received three prizes for their contributions to blood donation, from Princess Soamsavali and Princess Sirindhorn (the latter as chairman of the Red Cross), and from Supreme Patriarch Phra Yanasangworn. From 2005 onward, people could also register for organ, tissue, bone and eye donation. Phrakhru Chai has described the donations as a higher form of practicing goodness (). the blood donations were still held frequently. Wat Paknam also organizes free health check-ups for the local community. In 2013, local policy makers developed a plan to build a hospital in Don Muang, Bangkok, named the "Luang Por Wat Paknam Hospital". It is built on property of Wat Paknam. the area was still being rented, and negotiations with tenants were in progress. International presence With regard to international activities, in Somdet Chuang's words, he "continued upon the work of the previous abbot, (...) Luang Pu Sodh Wat Paknam". In the time of Luang Pu Sodh, the temple ordained several monks coming from the United Kingdom, and maintained relations with Japanese Buddhists, especially from the Shingon tradition. Under Somdet Chuang, the temple has ordained people from other nationalities than Thai, both monks and mae chi. Moreover, Wat Paknam has established seven branch centers, both in Thailand and outside of Thailand, in the United States, New York, Los Angeles, Michigan and Philadelphia; and in New Zealand, India and Japan as well. The temples in the United States, some of which are former Christian churches, have been founded from 1984 onward. The temples attract Thai people, as well