Hill Tribe Villages of Northern Thailand

I guess it was about halfway up the mountain atop my elephant that I realized that I was no longer in Kansas. I am traveling with a group of my University of San Francisco students this week, and our goal today was to reach a tribal Acha village high in the Thai mountains. The roads are impassable, and in the extreme heat I feared we might lose half of the students (and more likely the professor!) to heat stroke. So we rode elephants. Remarkable how these enormous beasts are so adept at keeping their balance and placing their feet in the right place.

The hill tribe people are the most trafficked native population in Thailand. They live on the edge of sustenance, with agriculture and animal grazing a marginal source of family income. Our partner here in the hill tribe area is called The Mirror Foundation, founded nearly two decades ago by a group of Thai university students. We will be collaborating with them to bring education to primary schools, using theater and music to share the signs of trafficking behavior. We also will start marketing in our Freedom Stores some of the products that they make in the villages.

When our elephant caravan reached the top of the mountain, we met a village of about 200 people. The school barely has enough resources to survive, and one teacher tries to tend to 51 children of all ages. It takes only $3600 to pay the salary of a teacher for an entire year and give him/her the supplies needed for classroom teaching. Can you imagine the impact on so many children’s lives, only for $3600 year?!

Our guide from the Mirror Foundation laments that teenagers see no future in the hill tribe villages. They go to the city looking for work, and there traffickers seek the advantage. Undermining trafficking means bringing justice, economic justice as well as legal justice. Where there is no justice, the poor will be exploited. Every day, everywhere.

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Barbara Lucas
Posts: 3

slavery
Reply #3 on : Sun August 17, 2008, 20:06:49

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I visited Thailand for the first time this past Jan. After attending a christian festival the previous year I first heard of this epidemic of human trafficking. We visited the RED Light district in Bangkok and I saw first hand these young girls who were forced into selling their bodies. I felt so powerless. I just know there has to something I can do to help stop this. This year when i attended Soul Fest in NH I purchased the book "Not for sale" I was horrified by the stories. Again I am sitting here thinking there has to be something significant to help stop this human carnage. I am a registered Nurse and have a large audience of coworkers. I wear a braclet from ChildVoice that I also got at the christian festival. I have been wearing it for a full year (I never take it off) This starts questions at work about what the bracelot means. My coworkers are shocked by the stories I share and I think they tend to deny that the problem is so large.
let me know what to do to reach my over 2,000 colleagues better.
With love of the saviour Jesus Christ,
Mrs. Barb Lucas RN, BSN

Alice
Posts: 3

how to contact
Reply #2 on : Wed July 23, 2008, 17:04:38

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Hi,
I am a front line worker in Canada. We operate a shelter for battered women and children. We have worked with women that are prostituted and or trafficked. I am looking for contact with other women frontline workers in NGO or women’s organizations that are working directly with prostituted or trafficked women. Can you direct me on who I can contact in Thailand, Burma, the Mekong region?
I really appreciate any help that you can provide.
Thank you,
Alice

Barry Green (Santa Cruz, CA)
Posts: 3

Hill Tribe Travels
Reply #1 on : Mon May 26, 2008, 17:57:44

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Safe journey to you and your students David. Looking forward to the Freedom Store products too!