January 16, 2011

Proffesor Brown is coming to Fang for a three month research project looking into the activities of Blood Foundation. Here below is a copy of his succesful proposal to the Board of the USQ outlining the scope of his planned research. He's scheduled to be here mid 2011 and we're all looking forward to having him around.

I propose to carry out a study of the work of the Blood Foundation, a small NGO based in Fang in northern Thailand, near the border with Burma [1]. The study will combine NGO ethnography [2] with social impact analysis (SIA) [3], adapting both methods to reflect both the focus on a much smaller NGO than is common in NGO ethnographies [4], and the ongoing nature of the Blood Foundation’s work (which can be contrasted with the more usual location of SIA in the planning process, that is, before a project begins [5]).

The research objectives of the project (which could also be expressed as research questions or hypotheses) are as follows:

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Written by: Ben Bowler - April 14, 2010

The Daylight School opened just a few months back at the beginning of February. It was set up to provide full time non-formal education for the children of Shan migrants living and working on the commercial orange farms located in the mountains along the Burma border in Fang District. These people have come to Thailand illegally, seeking refuge from persecution and oppression living under the Burmese Junta who currently rule their homeland, Shan State, with an iron and bloodied first.

Having no papers and not speaking the local language makes for a highly uncertain life in Thailand. These families must avoid the authorities while trying to eke out an existence doing jobs no one would take for wages and conditions no one else would accept.

For their children, education is essential for any hope of a positive future. Being able to speak, read and write Thai are necessary skills if they are ever to further their education in Thailand and enter a government school. Aside from Thai they also study their native Shan language and culture, this helps to preserve identity and keeps them connected to their heritage.

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Written by: Jamie Hamley - 25 April 2009
During our 3 month stay at Moung Choum school we also worked with the significantly less well off Souncha school, which is primarily inhabited by the Palaung hill tribe.  The obvious lack of funding for this school (despite the well attended class sizes of 30-35) and the consequential dull school daily life faced by pupils-a small field with two worn out football posts, an old torn Takor net, and a couple of flat balls offer little excitement.  This coupled with the old classrooms sitting on this field, whose desks are rotten and uncomfortable, the teachers blackboards dirty and as old as the walls they perch on, show the school to promise little personal or academic development. 

After a couple of months teaching here we decided we needed to do something for these children, who seem all too often left out of trips and fun activities that bless the children at neighboring MoungChoum.

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Written by: Jamie Hamley - 15 April 2009