Hilltribe literacy is well below the general Thai population adult literacy rate. Hilltribe middle aged and older people are mostly uneducated; including a widespread lack of ability to speak Thai. It is estimated that less than 30% of hill tribe populations are literate (UNESCO 2007).
Many hilltribe children do not attend school regularly, due to a number of factors. This includes the cost of schooling and materials, the distance from the closest school, lack of birth registration or citizenship, being undocumented, and often being required to work to help support families that struggle to make a living. This includes very young children from age 3 and up. In rural areas this is usually agricultural work. In cities, a popular form of labour is using children to sell flowers in city areas – busy day time locations, and restaurant and bar areas at night. This exposes the children to abuse and exploitation.
Even though I was quite concerned about the education system in Thailand that I have been through my whole life but learning this just wrench my heart.
I am finishing my internship in a month and I’ll be heading back to my school to finish my BA soon. But what massive is, I will be spreading my wings out of the “learning box” and starting my own version of learning and working. I asked my boss if I could take couple days off over Christmas holiday and I proposed my plan to him. I said I wanted to do teaching volunteer in the hilltribe. He even made a joke that I wouldn’t be able to walk miles and miles up in those mountains in the north. Granted, he happily approved my intern leaves with paid. (Thanks boss!)
I found this NGO online, Mirror Foundation, where they focus on development of education for hilltribe children and project combat trafficking in women and children in the northern part of Thailand, Myanmar, and southern Laos. I decided to make a contact and asked if I could join their field trip. Luckily, I was accepted to the one week program. Here I come children!
Let’s the journey begin!
688 km, 1hr by an airplane or 9 hr by a car. Which one would you choose? Me? Hitchhiking. Have you ever traveled on the back of the truck for 8 hours? My first time hitchhiking with others 3 stranger backpackers. Was I scared? Nope, but I was shaking and couldn’t quite sleep at all because it was freezingly cold and I didn’t prepared enough for it. It was 100km/hr speed and the driver made only 2 stops and we managed to get to Chiang Rai in 8 hours. First experience on hitchhiking, S U P E R.
But I’m only half way to the school. The staff at the foundation was waiting for me in the city of Chiang Rai and picked me up to their office which was about an hour ride. Getting there, I supposed I must be extremely tired and I should try to catch up for some sleep but the scenery in the north was so stunningly beautiful. Those big green mountains stood so high in front of me miles and miles. Looking thought the mirror with infinite green fields and giant tree staring at me as if they were greeting me all the way to the office. I was humbled and grateful for the mother earth.
Arrived in the office, I made friends with the staff and several international volunteers from Japan and America. Resting my butt from sitting too much and pumping coffee fuel in my blood and got ready to go. The objective of this trip was to survey and investigate where we could help this school, the teachers, the students and the villagers, filled a hold and created sustainable development plan. Survey trip also meant resupply as well. Food, medical and school supplies were always shortage in many schools in hill tribes. At zero hour we rushed loading the supplies and foods to the back of the truck and left the office. We still have a long way to go. Dirt steep hills and long river were awaiting.
There’s the beginning line in The Great Gatsby that I really like said, “Whenever you feel critizing anyone, just remember that all people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had”
This reminded me of how am I lucky to be able to enjoy my school experience, all standard facilities are there for me whenever I need.Though I always complain about the education system I’ve been put in but then I should not criticize for what I had been given at the standard level. There are numbers of schools in remote area in Thailand that are facing much more serious problems.
Heading to the school, we drove mountains to mountains, sloping and zigzagging. I felt like riding a rollercoster but only it’s a real life one, for half an hour. We parked the trucks where the road ended and started to load the supplies in the backpacks and started walking because there was no proper road to go into neither the village nor the school.
Almost there, Here we were arriving at the Mea Kok river. We took a long tail for about almost an hour ride. It was the most excitedly enjoyable yet peaceful boat ride. I breathed in all those fresh air from the mother earth and just be one with it. How thankful I was be surrounded with those big green mountains along the river.
We made it!
I was pretty sure everyone wasn’t tired at all after seeing all those smiling faces. Those big innocent eyes. Those tiny little one standing and waiting for us. It’s hard to explain how wonderful it was.
What I have learned.
We spent a week there at the school. And for the record, there were no phone signal or electricity. We cooked food from the wood fire. We drank water from the rain barrel. We slept on the floor. Just like a typical life of the students here.
Most days we walked houses to houses in the hill tribe to collect and research as much and accurate information as we could. We also took some young group of the students to do the field trip with us to reach to those remote houses that were isolate from the community. On the way, a student told me that every Friday he would leave school early and walked across the mountain for 2 hours to go back home and helped his family do the farming. And Mondays early morning, he would walked back to school and stayed at the school during the weekdays. I asked him how long did he had been walking back and forth. The answer was just so sad. He had been doing this for years. His mother didn’t want him to go to school and just helped in the farming. He was so determined and dedicated. But after all these times, he also considered giving up school and worked at his family’s farm full time….
One afternoon, we did the group activity with the students in diverse ages. We sat in circle and let everyone told their stories. Any stories. I took initiative telling my personal story and tried to ease the students to feel comfortable to speak out about themselves.
A young girl who sat next to me started to tell us about how much she enjoyed being in the school. There was a young shy boy started telling us about his family. He was about 9 or 10. He lived with his grandparent since his mother was working in a big city. And his father… “My father worked for a drug dealer. He drove the car back and forth between Myanmar and Thailand border, transporting the illegal drug. One day, my father’s friend came to our home and told us that my father was shot in the head at the border.”
There were so much I had learned from this volunteer trip. So much gratitude. So much fun. And so much tears. And some storied I’ve been told, I would like to keep it in my precious memory and look forward to contribute more into our society with my two little hands.
Let’s the journey begin..
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