.......It is going to be a "Mother Day" soon. Many families prepare special events and gifts for mothers.
.......I met many mothers along my journey with the IDPs. I do respect them and their motherhoods. They all work hard for the families both in the houses and in plantation areas. Their love and care for their kids are as great as mothers in other parts of the world. They are happy to live their lives and dedicate themselves to their children and families. Even the kids do not have special events and gifts for mothers in the villages, they recognize their mothers.
....... When I was young I remember that we love and respect our mother everyday. It is a simple thing to do and very meaningful. Even sometimes we were too naughty and made her crazy.
........It was really sad and lonely after she passed away. Old women always remind me of her and I do miss her.
..........As a mother I usually wonder how my kids think about me ! Do they miss me when I wander to the villages and other places? Will they think of me when I am not with them ?
........Let's share our best wishes to all mothers of the world....MOTHER....MOTHER....MOTHER. !
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Insufficiency
Education is a mean to shape up and develop man power of the society. Investment in education is a mean to sustainable society. But insufficiency seems to be a challenge at Nato learning centre.
The remote location of the centre is not a good inspiration for teachers. The long and widing road along hilly areas is risky especially during the rainy season with soil erosion, mud and flood. But smiling faces of the satudents always cheers the teachers up after adventurous trips to the centre.
Students at the centre are descendants of Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Hmong, Shan, and Chinese. They study actively in the classes with many questions and many ideas to share. The classes are always full of joy and laughters.
When teachers cannot come they do self study and work together with calssmates to complete the assignments in a small library and search information at a few computers with internet access. The seniors students teach the junoir students and they even go and teach small students at elementary schools nearby.
They also have their own farms of their interests; pigs, chicken, fishes, flowers, fruits, vegetables and coffee. The farms are their skill practicing areas as well as sources of their income. They conduct simple researches to improve the production cycle or solve some problems under the advices of their teachers.
The students live their lives happily under the insufficiency. They utilize and share the limited resources available carefully and never complain of any difficulties at the centre.
Insufficiency may be bitter for many people, but not for the students at Nato Learning Centre.
The remote location of the centre is not a good inspiration for teachers. The long and widing road along hilly areas is risky especially during the rainy season with soil erosion, mud and flood. But smiling faces of the satudents always cheers the teachers up after adventurous trips to the centre.
Students at the centre are descendants of Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Hmong, Shan, and Chinese. They study actively in the classes with many questions and many ideas to share. The classes are always full of joy and laughters.
When teachers cannot come they do self study and work together with calssmates to complete the assignments in a small library and search information at a few computers with internet access. The seniors students teach the junoir students and they even go and teach small students at elementary schools nearby.
They also have their own farms of their interests; pigs, chicken, fishes, flowers, fruits, vegetables and coffee. The farms are their skill practicing areas as well as sources of their income. They conduct simple researches to improve the production cycle or solve some problems under the advices of their teachers.
The students live their lives happily under the insufficiency. They utilize and share the limited resources available carefully and never complain of any difficulties at the centre.
Insufficiency may be bitter for many people, but not for the students at Nato Learning Centre.
Thursday, July 26, 2012
The People Power
My IDPs friends and I used to wonder how the people power help solving the problems in their villages. It was hard to work things out in slient and could not get recognitions from authorities. Year by year along our journey some friends dropped out of our working as they did feel it was hopless and too tired to go on.
Many of the friends from Migrant Laotians also quitted along the way during our working on documentation for Thai citizenships process. It was much easier for them to go under the corruption system to get the citizenship. It was regret, but it was their own choice.
People power may take sometimes, long time or forever to get to our goals. Just keep the beief of its power and trying to move on along this endless journey.
Now we have come to another significant step on the issue of Indigenous People. Our networking completed and sent a shadow report of ICERD to the committee in Geneva. It was good to see the fruitful result of people power where many people come together to work on it.
People Power is nothing when we do not belief it's value in creation of changes for the better!
Many of the friends from Migrant Laotians also quitted along the way during our working on documentation for Thai citizenships process. It was much easier for them to go under the corruption system to get the citizenship. It was regret, but it was their own choice.
People power may take sometimes, long time or forever to get to our goals. Just keep the beief of its power and trying to move on along this endless journey.
Now we have come to another significant step on the issue of Indigenous People. Our networking completed and sent a shadow report of ICERD to the committee in Geneva. It was good to see the fruitful result of people power where many people come together to work on it.
People Power is nothing when we do not belief it's value in creation of changes for the better!
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Missing home...
I love the countryside where I grown up. It is always lovely to watch the hilly areas around home, the green areas with many trees and colorful with flowers.The sounds of birds singings waking me up in the mornings.
It makes me smile whenever I think of my childhood, sitting at the back of a motobike while my father riding home after school. looking at the sky, and the clouds, imagine myself wandering from one cloud to another. Jumping and dancing across the gaps between the clouds, and laying down somewehere look like a bed.
Spending some days in a big city of high technology is not a new experience but feel something missing. Taking MRT to be away from the complexicty of shopping centers. Enjoy myself in a vegetable farm and the charm of the countryside.
My Singaporean friends introduced it as a traditional veggie farm. But I think it is more technology than the farm at home. Similar kinds of veggies but different practices. Farmers here are as kind as farmers at home.
Do not mind the methods of farming but enjoy being in the places similar to home. A simple place but with a recognition that being with nature is the way of sustainable living. Technology may be something we enjoy but it will be changing and effecting environment and our livings in many ways.
Got back to the city late in the evening, walking along the street, imagine the sun set behind the buildings somewhere. Feeling lonely in the crowd. Missing the beautiful sun set at the end of the rice filed and the shy moon rise up in the sky somewhere near the wood at home. .... Yes, missing home !
It makes me smile whenever I think of my childhood, sitting at the back of a motobike while my father riding home after school. looking at the sky, and the clouds, imagine myself wandering from one cloud to another. Jumping and dancing across the gaps between the clouds, and laying down somewehere look like a bed.
Spending some days in a big city of high technology is not a new experience but feel something missing. Taking MRT to be away from the complexicty of shopping centers. Enjoy myself in a vegetable farm and the charm of the countryside.
My Singaporean friends introduced it as a traditional veggie farm. But I think it is more technology than the farm at home. Similar kinds of veggies but different practices. Farmers here are as kind as farmers at home.
Do not mind the methods of farming but enjoy being in the places similar to home. A simple place but with a recognition that being with nature is the way of sustainable living. Technology may be something we enjoy but it will be changing and effecting environment and our livings in many ways.
Got back to the city late in the evening, walking along the street, imagine the sun set behind the buildings somewhere. Feeling lonely in the crowd. Missing the beautiful sun set at the end of the rice filed and the shy moon rise up in the sky somewhere near the wood at home. .... Yes, missing home !
Saturday, July 21, 2012
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.
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.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
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.
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.
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