A water project at Nato

The Natoe Learning Centre(NLC) is an initiative of the Royal Princess.  The centre is located in theTambon  Mae Salong Nai, Mae Fah Luang District, some ninety kilometres from the city of Chiang Rai, near the border with Burma. 

 The learning centre offers certificate and diploma level courses in agriculture to students in the catchment area who would otherwise not have the opportunity to continue with their education after seconadry schools.  The area is mostly inhabited by ethnic hill tribe peoples who are most at risk of exploitation when they venture in to larger centres seeking employment.

It is already five years of NLC operation. We have the first batch of certiificate and diploma graduants who greatly success in their jobs and furthur studies. The ones who get jobs send  money back to their parents which is a great impact to the villagers on their perception of education. They send more of their children to Nato, even before that they usually asked their children to quit from school and work with them in the plantation areas of upland rice and corn. Some children were asked to work as labours in the cities as sources of income for the families.

NLC is lack of water due to the earth quake and land slide and one pupming system is not functioned.  So there was some discusions among Nato staff and our team. We surveyed the possibilty to draw hill water system to NLC.

Fortunately there is a village named Pong Hai located at a higher level and near NLC. The villagers there have a high recognition of NLC in education, shape up  and developing their children. They agreed to share their hill water to NLC.We will have to line PVC down from the village to NLC forr some 2.5 kilometers and we have to build sediment tanke at a smakk hilll behind NLC. Another challenge  of our journey !

We have not statrted the water project yet as all materials have to be prepared for the constructions. This hill water system will be  working together among the  villagers, the parents of the students, the students and teachers at NLC and our foundation team.  A small workshop of hill water system and an interesting outdoor classroom for all of us.

Huai Wad 2012

Huai wad village was involuntary relocation from their homeland under the government policies on war of drug and  Tham Pha Tai National Park in 2003. The Lahu at Huai wad faced many difficulties  to live their life in the new place. Poor soil and lack of water and sources of income generation were the main challenges.

Have been working together there for some  10 years. We saw  some babies grown up before our eyes. They were the young kids working actively with us on water projects in 2010. Such a great thing!

We visited Huai Wad in April 2012, feel good to be back with many smiling faces of our Lahu frends again. Some familiar faces disappeared as some passed away and some moved to other villages.  The young kids grown up to be guys and girls.

It was a good and happy time to meet them and discuss with them again after some months of  busy works  which keep us lost contact with them.

Our friends stop growing rice as they can earn more from corn. They buy rice from local people in the villages nearby. They open new land more and more for corn plantation to get more and more money. Many trees were cut down  many new houses were build and there were many new small trucks in the village. Also they built fences around their houses. They stop thinking about set up hill water to the village. The head of the village metioned to us that "The hill water is for hill people, we are now people in town so we better look for electricity and tap water".

The journey of  IDPs oat Huai Wad  is going to a turning point. The future is based on what they priactice and decide today. Still a long way to go and more to learn.