Development
Chiang Rai is situated in the North of Thailand, in a piece of land called Gold Triangle. A great mountainous area where villages of Burmese, Laotians and Chinese refugees are half-hidden in the forest. The northern tribal minorities, the so called “tribes of the mountains”, are still semi-nomadic groups without personal documents nor land deeds and some of them are not even recorded to the registry office. In general, they are not educated and do not speak Thai, but only their own dialects. In 1993, in the Sri Vichian village, the Camillians opened a hosting centre: The Camillian Social Center of Chiang Rai (CSC), which aims at providing education and schooling for tribal children so that they can learn to manage their lives and improve their life conditions.
At the CSC we are developing an agricultural project addressed to disabled and non-disabled children who belong to tribes of the mountains. Through agricultural and farming activities, following an informal method of learning, children and young people involved in the project can acquire new agricultural skills and techniques. At the same time, they can learn how to manage the income for the sale of cattle, which will be used to purchase food and school stuff, to carry out sport activities or will be invested in the plantations for the future sustainability of the hosted children. In this way, we are creating a virtuous cycle that everyone can benefit from. PRO.SA foundation is supporting the expenses for the renovation of a pig house and a chicken pen, for the purchase of fish-farming equipment and for the plantation of different fruit plants, which are necessary to start the activities.
We hope that the communities around will follow a similar path so that children can develop basic skills to do a job.
