Overview:
Our partners work in the hill country of Thailand near the borders of Laos and Myanmar. The ethnic minority hill tribes live where cultivation of the opium poppy and drug abuse has contributed to families living in poverty for generations. This project seeks to improve the health of villagers by providing access to clean water and sanitation facilities in ten villages over three years. Poor water and sanitation is one of the factors that keeps these families in poverty due to ill health, especially amongst the children. Clean water provides a life-changing transformation.
What we like about it:
Through empowerment, raising the standard of living and building awareness of a changing society, we can encourage the long-term integration of the tribal groups into economic and social mainstreams so that families can become permanently settled and economically stable. In addition, project personnel will continue to follow-up for three years after completion of the project. If other needs are identified, such as schools, health clinics, micro-loans and coffee production, our partners will help facilitate this process. Villagers will have buy-in by providing labour and sharing in the expense of materials and supplies. All villagers will receive training.
Budget: Year 3 – $60,000. This is a 3-year project which totals $148,000. Year 3 funding includes village water systems for four villages (stream catchment, storage tank, cement pvc pipe, cement/sand/rock/charcoal filtration), bathrooms and gardens for the families and training.
The Need:
Hill tribes receive less educational opportunities, suffer poor health, and earn lower incomes than other groups in Thailand with most living below the poverty line. Most hill tribes were traditional opium users, which aggravated the problem of opium poppy cultivation. This has diversified into other drugs. Hill tribes want an alternative way of generating incomes and better opportunities to enter Thai society in a more sustainable way.
Life Change:
