We were approached by a doctor who wished to travel round hill tribe villages giving medical treatment. We supported him financially and with the help of generous friends raised USD12,000 to provide drugs and his subsistence. We have also arranged for hill tribe people to attend a hospital in Chiang Rai and for 2 girls with cleft lips to be treated under a program run by the YMCA.
During the first half of 2004, the doctor treated over 3,000 patients in a travelling village clinic. As the doctor’s services are no longer available, we are using the funding to help treat the many infections frequently contracted by a group of HIV-positive hilltribe orphans.
We wanted to investigate the reasons why few hilltribe schoolchildren went on to vocational training. Although we thought there was a lack of training places available, after research in a number of local schools, we found that there was, in fact, a surplus of training places, and the reasons for lack of take-up were more complicated, and included a lack or role-models, parental and peer-group pressure, lack of knowledge about opportunities and a lack of access to finance.
We are working on some proposals to launch a future project to address these issues.
- Teaching 21 village women to use forest plants to make brooms, which they can then sell
- Building community toilets for 3 villages which did not have enough toilets
- Providing books, food and other equipment for village kindergartens
- Helping a family obtain redress after a new-born baby died in hospital apparently as a result of negligence
- Teaching English to hill tribe tour-guides
- Arranging trips for orphans of parents who have died of AIDS
- Collecting clothes and toys in Europe for distribution to villages and orphanages
Our fish project
Preparing to build toilets
brick making