Hill Tribe Children: Empowered and Impressive

The Hill Tribe peoples, numbering just over one million out of Thailand’s population of 62 million (as of 1999), have long been marginalized, cultivating the opium poppy as the only means of survival in an alien - and often hostile - environment. Inevitably, the onslaught of materialism engulfed them with a disastrous outcome for the Hill Tribe children, presenting an image of impoverishment, drug abuse, and in many cases, innocent victims of HIV/AIDS. On the initiation of His Majesty the King, in establishing the Royal Projects and, more recently, the collaboration of the Royal Project Foundation (RPF), the National Council for Child and Youth Development (NCCYD) under the Royal Patronage of HRH Crown Princess Sirindhorn and the United Nation’s Children’s Fund (UNICEF), a new life - one of hope and accomplishment - has emerged. Gone is the image of haunted faces, enslaved to drug-addiction and the many vices concomitant with this curse. Pattaya Mail special correspondent Peter Cummins was commissioned by UNICEF to visit some of the Hill Tribe villages close to Chiang Mai last week and reports here for the Mail.

story and photos by Peter Cummins

UNICEF and children’s rights

In accordance with its obligations to protect ALL children EVERYWHERE, UNICEF is constantly exploring ways and means to protect children and ensure their rights which, under the articles of the “Convention of the Rights of the Child” include the right to participate in matters which affect them. The plight of Thailand’s Hill Tribe children, particularly, is highly relevant to UNICEF’s mandate.

Hmong girl Supaporn (20) stands proudly in front of her ‘cabbage patch’ at the Royal Nong Hoi Project

Just last week, in fact, UNICEF went to some Hill Tribe areas outside Chiang Mai, specifically the Ban Nong Hoi Royal Development Center, to discuss progress with the children and young adults there. They positively exuded enthusiasm, confidence and a self-reliance which did not end at the village steps. Quite the contrary; they discussed animatedly the status of their own cash crops, the competition as to who was the most successful farmer/marketeer and - with much laughter and good humour - who amongst them had not “done so well” over the past few months.

Nong Hoi Centre

A microcosm of the success of the Hilltribe Youth Career and Leadership Development Project (HYCLPD) is the Nong Hoi Development Centre, located in the Nong Hoi Village, Tambon Mae Raem, Mae Rim District, some 40 km from Chiang Mai. It is a remarkably beautiful area of approximately 13,000 rai, comprising thickly wooded areas juxtaposed to cultivated plots alternately clinging to the hillsides and dropping into the valleys, spread between two watersheds above the Ping River.

The entrance to Nong Hoi: a gateway to new life - the Royal Nonghoi Project

Being 1,200 m above sea level, the climate is ideal for temperate fruits and vegetables which, like the people in the area, thrive on the somewhat rarefied air and the misty surroundings.

Chairman of the Nong Hoi Youth Group is 22-year-old Yongyuth who obviously revels in his leadership responsibilities and sets the example for the newer and younger members of the group. Yongyuth liaises with the village chief and the Royal Project Director to formulate programmes, assist his tribal siblings to select an appropriate occupation and monitor progress through meetings with network counterparts from other villages. Yongyuth is one of 280 hilltribe youth who are participating in the Hilltribe Youth Project supported under UNICEF’s Child Protection Programme.

A group of the Nong Hoi Networkers: youth leaders Yongyuth (second left) and Moorakit (left) set a fine example for their peer group at the village

Each young participant can submit a request to start a particular income-generating activity after one full week of life-skills and leadership training,

Yongyuth, with only an ‘informal education’ up to the equivalent of grade nine, has reaped immense benefit from his crops, marketed through the Royal Projects outlets, and has thus been able to contribute much to the welfare of all in the village. Growing and marketing rose apples and spinach, the money thereby earned is ploughed back into the community funds from which an individual can draw to follow a pursuit - agricultural or otherwise - that has been approved by the Project.

Empowerment

UNICEF, which works through the National Council for Child and Youth Development (NCCYD) for the benefit of the Hill Tribe children, is especially concerned with the girls whose vulnerability to exploitation and abuse is only too evident. Girls are selected to join the agricultural activities only if the family approves and then they are trained to be able to participate fully in the village’s agricultural pursuits and, in the process, gain self-respect and confidence, allowing them to avoid the pitfalls waiting to ensnare them.

Hmong children in the Nong Hoi School playground: now there is a future

Among UNICEF’s aims are the empowerment of more girls – not forgetting the boys, of course – through family and the community network. The training is not only to help the young people to become confident, productive and proud but – and more importantly – to teach them to be highly aware of and thus eschew the evils and temptations of an alternate life leading to degradation, drug abuse and HIV/AIDS.

Three cheerful, vibrant Hmong girls, led by their ‘mentor’ Supaporn, joined the discussions at Nong Hoi. Supaporn was proud of her very own “cabbage patch”. But she has contributed much more than a cash crop to help the community; she has been the inspiration to bring her siblings into the village mainstream and join fully the activities.

From there, each girl will be a catalyst to bringing in more of the girls of the village, saving them, in turn, from the possible awful alternatives.

Youth volunteers check the crops

One of the boys in the group had not been so successful and his approved project of pig husbandry had failed. The pig died. “He tried to save money by cutting down on pig food,” one of the girls giggled. Yongyuth, a true leader, rescued his unfortunate prot้g้ who now farms zucchini and pumpkin - “very well”, said Yongyuth.

Another of the boys, Morakot, Yongyuth’s committee member, was very happy with his lot. At the neighbouring village of Mae Sa Mai, Morakot has a “black” chicken farm, pointing out with a grin, that due to the beliefs of some people, the black chicken brings a better market price. He is also embarking on a fish-farming project.

What an incredible difference NCCYD has made to the lives of these young people. Like Yongyuth, Supaporn is very proud of her achievements and is looking to improve the lot of even more of the village girls.

Royal Project and UNICEF staff join the youth volunteers for an overview of the Project

UNICEF, which monitors the progress in each of the 35 villages in the network, looks to continue support when this present phase finishes at the end of this year.

The advancement of the young people is not just limited to agriculture, however. There are opportunities for training in local crafts and other skills, as well as further education but, UNICEF notes, there is a dire lack of information. Although any one of the children and young adults has access to the Project Director for guidance and assistance, there is virtually no printed information available to the youngsters.

Crops for cash

Experimental hydroponic crops at Nong Hoi

Fancy a yellow sweet pepper? A cabbage? Some spinach? Or, perhaps, a black chicken - reputed, by some groups, to have medicinal value? What about a head of crisp, green lettuce for that fresh salad you were wanting to prepare? And you can throw in some equally fresh tomatoes, Chinese celery, carrot and radish and spice it all up with a few herbs. The merchandise is so fresh that you can almost smell the earth of the hill stations around Chiang Mai where the produce was grown, and feel the cool, invigorating mountain mists which nurtured them.

These items are produced at Ban Nong Hoi and Ban Mae Sa Mai, which are but two of the Royal Project Foundation’s 35 centres established in the northern areas around Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lumphun, Mae Hong Son and Phayao.

The Royal Development Projects

It was in 1969 when His Majesty the King, vitally concerned about the addiction to and the cultivation of opium by the Hill Tribes, initiated the Royal Development Project, established with his own personal funds. The King was fully aware of their plight and that their slash-and-burn agricultural practice was de-foresting vast areas and destroying the watersheds of the north; its destructive side-effects spelled disaster to the Tribes themselves, as well as the environment and the fragile ecology.

The “black chicken” farm

Keenly observing this dilemma, H.M. the King established the Royal Project Foundation, acting himself as the Honorary President, with HSH Prince Bhisadej Rajani as chairman of nine appointed committees, the prime aim being, “To help the Hill Tribes help themselves.”

Under the dynamic direction of H.M. the King’s close associate, M.C. Bhisadej Rajani, the Royal Project’s development centres, in just over three decades, have added four research stations and now incorporate 295 villages, comprising 14,000 households totalling some 85,000 farmers.

Coming down for a rest after work on the hillside

As this correspondent observed last week, the forests have re-grown and the erstwhile bald hills are now covered in luxurious foliage and flora. A huge number of cash crops, such as those mentioned above, have replaced the opium poppy as the Hill Tribes’ livelihood. So successful have been the Royal Projects, in fact, that in 1998 they were accredited with the “Magsaysay Award for International Understanding” and the “Thai Expo Award” for attaining to the, “Highest quality standard of Thai goods for export.”

Regardless of the success of the Royal Projects, however, there was an alarming disaffection among Hill Tribe children who were being subjected - and in many cases, succumbing - to bad influences, direct by-products of the onslaught of materialism: drug abuse, anti-social tendencies, inappropriate sexual behaviour. “Easy money” from hordes exploiting the children has further corrupted the traditional Hill Tribe way of life.

Examining the “fish-farm” at Mae Sa Ma

As a result, many young people fled to the nearby “big” cities, there to fall victims of exploitation, of abuse, drugs and HIV/AIDS. This exodus had another pejorative effect: it was depriving the people themselves of the young human resources so essential to developing and sustaining the precarious and fragile communities.

From this, in early 1999, the Royal Project Foundation (RPF), the National Council for Child and Youth Development and UNICEF joined forces to establish the “Network of Hilltribe Youth Volunteers”, designed to be, “A learning process for self-reliance and social participation of Hilltribe youth”. These three main supporters who contribute financial, technical and human resources are joined at various relevant stages by government agencies, non-governmental organizations, community leaders, youth groups and staff of the Royal Project Centres who all contribute appropriate expertise.

The Nong Hoi station from the opposite hilltop

Now, entering the latter stage of the most successful first phase, from December 1999 to December 2001, this project is building the capacity of Hilltribe youth living in the operating areas of the Royal project’s 35 centres.

The first step was to select and train youth volunteers, support their career development activities and establish the network. Some 300 Hill Tribe and other young people in the highland areas have now been trained to be self-reliant and mobilize other youth groups in the network.

Through this impressive empowerment of youth, some 74,000 tribes people from 280 villages are now becoming the beneficiaries of this.

For the youth themselves, the former degradation and exploitation through drugs and other evils are now but evaporated smoke from some distant “pipe dream”!

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Updated by Chinnaporn Sungwanlek, assisted by Boonsiri Suansuk.
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