A ford at Natoe.... way to a better life

We spent two weeks building a crossing at Natoe Learning Centre. It was really a great time to see people from different cultures of Akha, Lahu, Shan, Chinese, Lisu, Kalor, Canadian and Australian working together. It is not just a ford but we belief that a small positive change we created can make a better future for all.

the first pour

starting the first pour

Crossing in to Natoe Jan 2012

Building a coffer dam

Day 1 Keeping the causeway open

Steel fixing

Stripping forms

the bucket line
 

the team
 

the final pour

 

the finish product
 

water for life
 

Lahu New Year at Pong Hai

We were invited  to join Lahu  New Year ceremony  in Pong Hai village. It was  a little sad that we could not join them due to our tight schedule at work.

We look at a photo of Lahu New Year ceremony at Pong Hai in 2006.  It brings back a memory of  happiness and  the beauty of Lahu culture, Ja Kue dancing and Lahu music. 

We are happy our IDPs friends keep their traditional practices. Hope we will be able to visit them soon.

INTERSECTION AHEAD !

On November 26, 2012 the journey of stateless students came into a turning point. The Ministry of Interior annouced its order to issue Thai citizenship for stateless people who lived in or entered  to Thailand within  18 January  1995.

Many of the stateless students who were born in Thailand are under the qualifications  stated in the order. We were happy for this great opportunity.

We set up a forum with our network to prepare for the application processes. We discussed, how to apply, when should we go, what should we take together with the application, who will be our references, and how to keep the record  of our applications. Many things in detail to discuss to ensure they can access to the application processes  effectively.

It is not difficult to prepare evidences, documents and references for the application. We hope to get good and effective services officers.  We hope to come back and meet each other again next week to learn and share the experiences of the applications at our hometowns.

Our journey comes to the intersection and many challengings are waiting. After we pass this step we will be able to work for the others who have the problems of being stateless we onced experienced.

Intersection ahead !

Human rights and laws enforcement

Along the journey with the IDPs and stateless students, we learnt that it was hard to work on  human rights.  The realization of human rights relies on relationship of the rights holder and duty bearers  which  always lead to double standards.

Meeting with a  policy maker and a law professor on stateless students gave us new idea and challenge.  We learnt that it may not be effective to work on human rights advocacy through education, researches, networking, etc. It might be good to work on capacity buildings and  empower people but we also needed to work on laws enforcements through various mechanisms.

There are many mechanisms to support the accessibility of human rights at local,  national and international levels.  Then the stateless students may have to work harder. Besides learning of nationallity laws and regulations, set up a working group and a stateless club, we need to utilize the machanisms to be ducumented as Thai. 

Human rights and laws enforcement..... How to access to the effective mechanisms !

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Young Power .....

Usually the voices of stateless people are unheard and their plights are unseen. The stateless students then decided  to speak out their needs and start taking actions to solve the problems.

Learning of nationality laws and regulations from "A  mobile classroom for stateless people" make them confident to declare their basic human rights under the Thai Constitution and laws. They wanted to move forward to be documented as Thai citizen.

They formed up a club entitled " Kon Run Mai Sai Jai Sun Chat"(New generation care for nationalty). They set up the structure, objectives and operational plan of the club. It was good to see the young people sharings and smilings during the day.  We know there will be many lessons for these young people to learn and many challenges to face after this first step thay take.

The young power looks very great and beautiful to us...... "We are proud of you and we will  support you whenever you need us...." we told them

Rice...the way of life

I see  beautiful golden rice fields along the road to my work.  It is good  to see the rice field  from the beginning until the time of harvesting. It is also very good to breath and smell the rice while walking along the field.

Harvesting time has come and the farmers will earn after their hard working in the field.  Some farmers already select seedstock for next year crop. They walk through the rice field to find the best ear of rice from different locations in the filed. Then they dry the seedstocks under the sun. They have different ways to dry the seedstocks which is very intersting to see.

Rice plays very important role to the way of life of Thai people. We have rice as the main course and many of our traditions and ceremonies linked to the belief on rice.

Rice...the way of life

Rights holders ... Duty holders !

Consequence of the stateless students workshop at NLC. Some students learnt that they are qualified under particular laws and regulations to be documented as Thai. This is a happy news for all of us.

They went to the officers with required documents as evidences to apply their citizenships, but they faced many challanges. No information, suggestions and certain dates were informed to them about  when their applications will be proved.

Some of  them could not hand in the applications. They only got a piece of paper stated  the appointments of application in next year or the year after. The officers did not wrtie down the date of issued in the appointment paper.

Some who were lucky to hand in applications faced another challenge.  It  legally states that the officers must complete the process  within 105 days to inform the applicants of the results. But the stateless students mentioned that they have been waiting for  some 150 days, 365 days and more.  They went to ask the officers about the results of their applications, the answer was "WAIT".

Each  second  is  very meaningful for the stateless students to live their lives. It means the enjoyment of basic human rights. Why make it so complex and difficult ?

 The mandate of  duty holders are to protect, respect and fulfill  human rights of the rights holder. On the other hand they also  have the same mandate for themselves. Rights holders and duty holders are all human being !

" ...All human being are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood..."