Hot Season Happenings

We are happy to share several  updates on UPLift Projects in Mae Sot Thailand. The weather has been hot hot hot but has not slowed down our team one bit. This last month has been a very busy and exciting time--leading us to project ventures we've never explored before.  As Mae Sot is an ever-changing, dynamic landscape of Migrant people & the issues that go along with being Migrants, so too are our projects testing adaptability and development.  Among new ventures, are our small business trainings/ support, laying hen pilot project at Irrawaddy School, and a streamlined garden/pig training at Best Friends-42km School. In addition, we've begun working with a rural ethnically Karen community to explore community development projects.  

Small Business Training & Support:
A new endeavor for Khom Loy is offering small business development trainings and support for Migrant women.  Eligible women are "graduates" of our financial literacy training. Those who show initiative and come up with a business plan work with our staff to understand the details and necessities of what it would take to make their plans come to fruition. Together, we conduct market research, risk analysis, savings goals, book-keeping practice, and feasibility studies. Inevitably, some women just have ideas that when well thought out are not sustainable. But, ideas are a start and about 4 ladies have really taken off with their business plans.

While working with the same slum community as before, Paseidan, we found this first round of business trainings to be a lengthy process of planning, training, and waiting. Yet, however long it has taken, the exploration has proven very educational to us in what a successful small business should look like given the circumstances.  Even more, it has lead us to find out who is seriously committed to starting a business and who is not. Using our experience along with business training tools from Peace Corps Thailand and USAID, we have a "work-in-progress" small business training manual for Migrant women. An exciting new venture for Khom Loy, indeed.

Ko Lynn checks and goes through business plan details.

Last week, we were finally able to bring our training and efforts to life with a small capital loan to one woman making ice treats. Along with this capital support, Khom Loy will visit her business once a week for 3 months to check on book-keeping, inventory, savings, and customer service.  A consensus was made on terms of use and responsibilities. At the time of the loan, everyone signed a contract which states that 50% of the initial loan value in Thai Baht will be paid back to Khom Loy in order to generate an ongoing fund for small business support.  This is the concept for all future small business trainees: We will offer a reasonable capital start-up (given the entrepreneur can chip in at least 20%) that of which 50% will be paid back interest free within an allotted amount of time. We are happy to report that the ice treat business has made over 700 Thai Baht in less than 1 week!

The "Ice" Lady serving a 5Baht sweet ice to a local kid.

Signing contracts with Khom Loy to comply with our terms of support.

Our next entrepreneur is looking to open a Burma "Phone Booth" which offers the service of calling Burma with a solid connection CDMA Phone for 4THB/minute.  Since we recently ironed out all the details of this venture and received approval from the Landowners, we will begin implementing this business shortly! Two other business plans, including that of a sewing outsourcer are also in the works.

"Phone booth" build by the woman (below) and her husband. They paid for materials & labor to set it up.

Cho Sang, Burmese Migrant, sits in her new phone booth awaiting the start of her small business.

Laying Hen Pilot at Irrawaddy School:

Our team has long-since been researching low cost laying hen rearing as a school and community project.  We're happy to report that all our research met a culmination this month with Khom Loy's first chicken rearing pilot up and running!  The pilot is being held at Irrawaddy School where we have a strong and successful relationship with the headmaster, teachers, and students.

In a nutshell, we are conducting a controlled study over the course of 3-6 months testing the effectiveness of a homemade fermented food concoction (rice bran, banana stalk, red dirt, sugar, dry cow manure, cracked rice & a pinch of salt) compared to run-of-the mill cracked corn store feed.  Given our research, we believe little or no variation in health, growth, and egg production will take place between two groups of 10 chickens being fed the two different foods.  Our coop is divided into two sections to perform the study.  Egg production will be monitored each day, week, and month along with weight checks every week and health observations.  Both groups will receive cracked egg shells for calcium supplement. Let the laying begin!

Chicken coop building in progress at Irrawaddy School February 26, 2014

Chicken coop completed March 1, 2014

Chickens arrive March 16, 2014!

Chickens enjoy new rice husk beds at Irrawaddy School.

Best Friends School Garden Training:
About a month ago, we were approached by a Spanish Organization called Colabora Birmania asking us to conduct a garden training at a school they support.  42km or Best Friends School is located exactly 42km from Mae Sot near the hills of Pho Prah. Unlike other schools we have worked with, Best Friends already has an expansive garden and 10 pigs. When we surveyed the school, we noted their unique situation--somewhere in between a full-fledged garden/pig project with a need for ample TLC. We found the garden overcrowded with eggplant & under-tended; the pigs in small concrete beds clearly needed more space to roam & more controlled sanitation.   Since we already met our capacity for funding garden projects this year, CB offered to fund a training & collaboration to help improve their garden & pig rearing.

With a lot less time than we normally do for school gardens, we set out creating a new training using bits and pieces of relevant information from both our garden & pig training.  The outcome was a 4-day training schedule for students and teachers--something we've never done before in such a short amount of time.  Over the course of 2 weekends (March 1 & 2 and March 15 & 16) our team delivered the training, setting the pace for a more sustainable, successful agriculture project. But, we're not done there.  Phase 2 of this collaboration will require our team to lead teachers and parents at 42km in repairing and improving the school pigpens using natural farming methods.

Over 50 boarding students & 5 teachers attended the gardening training.

Making biochar with 42km school children

Children broke-up into groups on the last day & replanted nursery plants on our Big Planting Day

TPC Land Corn Harvest--Simplifying land plots: 

In July, it will be 1 year since we begun farming 2.5 Rai of land next to Teacher Prep College (TPC) on land belonging to Global Neighbors. Throughout the last 9 months, our team has made great strides in remediating very nutrient-poor soil (had previously been a corn crop sprayed heavily with pesticides & grass killer). Granted, it is a slow process to grow things given the circumstances.

We've recently given this long and arduous process (of developing the plots) a lot of thought.  (Refer to the map & details from when we first started this farm project from back in July--see post: http://uplift-khomloy.blogspot.com/search?q=TPC+Land+Map). Keeping in mind the goal of maintaining a natural and sustainable model, we have begun to shift our focus.  Basically this means from growing crops to maximize space (i.e. the 3 sisters) to growing crops to sustain pig and chicken food and also meet the demands of local people's taste. It turns out okra and morning glory are much better sellers than corn and beans. Therefore, in the months to come we will be simplifying the plot setup to reflect the dietary needs of animals we raise, along with suppling vegetables desirable to the local market. We will also proceed with 1 plot testing of SRI--system of rice intensification.

Khom Loy Pumpkin Patch!

Homegrown corn for pig feed

Update on School Gardens:

With the school year coming to an end this week, so too are the last harvests of the '13-'14 school year for our 4 garden schools.  By the end of February, conditions turned incredibly dry which required ample watering and overall attention to the gardens. Though, through the challenges of hot season approaching, children and teachers have shown a lot of effort and payoff (fresh veggies!) in gardening activities.

Before the school year ends, our Agricultural Officer, Sai Aung Tun went and visited each school to meet with headmaster and teacher for contingency garden planning.  When school begins again in May, we'll hit the ground running with refresher garden trainings and activities--ensuring responsibilities carry over into the upcoming school year. In addition, Sai will also conduct extra trainings in composting (school wide) and seed saving.

Okra budding at Rocky Mountain 1 School Garden

Rocky Mountain 1 School Garden Beds & Sack Gardening

Rocky Mountain 1 School Garden Beds & Sack Gardening

Coriander container garden at Wide Horizon School

Students choose what to plant next at Irrawaddy School

Financial Literacy Training January 2014

Financial literacy training participants make a wish while sending off khom loys  (lanterns).

As promised in our last post, we have many pictures and updates from our 2014 Financial Literacy Training with 24 Wide Horizon's Students & an additional 47 women  and 1 man from the factory community called Paseidan where we completed urban gardening. Between both Wide Horizons and community women, our team has now trained 72 people on Financial Literacy in the last 3 weeks. 
(FYI: Wide Horizons (WH) = The local community development vocational school we work with:  https://www.facebook.com/widehorizonsmaesot?ref=ts&fref=ts)

Some may recall this is our third year to deliver financial literacy trainings.  This project originally stemmed from our 2011 UPLift Initiative project funded by Project Inspire after winning the the runner-up prize of 10,000USD to launch the project.  See a post from the financial literacy training's inception here. 

Current Training
The training requires at least 5 half days of participants time. 

Day1 Full Market Session: The market session is set up to simulate spending in real life.  The session is run in such a way that reflects how Migrants spend money and make use of time. For the next 4 days, participants complete 1 market session at the end of training topics. Participants are each given 5 tokens and 1 unit of food meant to represent real money, then given the following information:

1. Each day the market session is set up according to times of day: morning, afternoon & evening.  
2. For morning, afternoon & evening, time will be broken down to 30 second intervals, 5 intervals for each time of day ( So, 15 thirty-second intervals in total, about 7 minutes).
3. Participants must spend tokens on housing rental, food, and transportation (walk, bicycle, or motorbike). This is required. If, for instance, a person decides not to skip a meal/not spend money on food, they will earn less from working because of their weakened condition.  
4. Everyone has a chance to earn money by choosing to work at the factory or finding day labor--they can earn up to 2 tokens for 1 time period of work. 
5. Time can only be used doing 1 thing at a time--working, preparing meals, eating 3 meals/day, sleeping, & choosing transportation all affect how time is spent. 
6. With their tokens, participants must rent housing (non-optional), decide on transportation: walk (takes more time), bike (less time, more money), or motorbike (no time, more money) and purchase food.  
7. Each participant chooses when and how they spend their time/money.  After necessities are covered, they have a chance to purchase real 'luxury' items from our marketplace--such as snacks, tupperware, additional cooking utensils, cleaning supplies, flashlights, tools, etc. and keep for themselves.

Along with completing market sessions at the end of theory training, we use many different creative mediums to achieve various objectives for days 2-5.  These mediums consist of learning games, role play, real-life scenario analysis, acting, group activities, presentation using flip chart & participant presentations. 

Day 2 Goals & Money Beliefs: By the end of day 2, participants will be able to... 

• Define and give examples of short, medium and long term goals.
• Have identified one short term & one medium term financial goal.
• Identified community beliefs that prevent them from achieving their goals.
• Create a weekly and monthly budget for their household. 

Day 3 Define Savings & Making a Savings Plan: By the end of day 3, women will...

• Define household income and expenses.
• Define savings and its different uses.
  Make a realistic personal savings plan. 

Day 4 Household Budgeting: By the end of day 4, participants will be able to...

• Describe several reasons for keeping a budget plan, and what can happen when there is no personal budget.
• Describe the 5 steps for creating a budget plan
• Create a daily budget plan for the Market Session

Day 5 Time Management/Time as a Value:  By the end of day 5, participants will...

• Make a daily activity schedule and seasonal calendar to identify free time and plan for possible free time in the future.

In addition to financial literacy training, Wide Horizon students are given 2 full days of "Training the Trainer" presentation in order to fully prepare them to be trainers in the community.

Khom Loy's Ko Lynn presents to WH students about financial literacy.

A WH student presents on household budgeting with Ko Lynn.

WH students listen for market session instructions.

WH students purchase food and transportation during their market session.

Heidi delivering training of the trainer materials to WH students. 

WH student present on time management at Paseidan.

A WH student presents on budgeting.

Participants are provided note-taking materials.

One participant presents a savings plan.

Women choose working options during the market session.

NEXT STEPS:

INCOME GENERATION/SAVINGS GROUPS
We have used this training in the past as a launching pad to setup small enterprise income generation and community savings groups with varying degrees of success.  Given lessons learned, we will try it again more assertively this year. Each participant was given 3 weeks to think of ways they can make & save more money. Whether is be combining supplemental incomes to create a savings group, selling  vegetables, setting up a small tea shop, selling sticky rice treats using a motorcycle cart, making handicrafts, etc.  It's completely up to them.  After 3 weeks, Team UPlift will return to begin "phase 2" of the financial literacy training: small business & further savings planning.

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP
Along the lines of continuing to empower woman, we will support 5 community women who already completed garden trainings to deliver the same training to an additional 10-20 women who are still interested in household gardening.  Since they have been through several trainings with Khom Loy and Wide Horizons already, many women have emerged with natural leadership abilities.

2013 Year End Review & January 2014 Updates

Happy New Year 2014! We hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season. Many wishes for a prosperous New Year from our team at UPLift. As it has been a while since our last update, we will include December outcomes as well as recent activities in this post. 

1. KLDF Farm at TPC/ Agricultural Training Center

Teacher Preparation College or TPC is a 9-month teacher training program for Burmese teachers (from within Burma & who will return back to various communities throughout Burma) located on land owned by the Canadian Organization, Global Neighbors. KLDF continues to develop 2.5 rai of farmland near TPC while concurrently training TPC students on natural farming practices.

December Outcomes

• In early December, we welcomed Global Neighbors (www.gnci.ca) Staff along with 20 engineering student volunteers from Satskathewan Canada to tour our land and learn about the training center in-progress. 
• KLDF friends from Vancouver, Nina & John Cassils joined us at TPC as well as many of our other project sites.
• Our team made our first round of rice husk biochar with great success!
• U Tin Yu, our farm manager completed preparation of plots 1-4 using materials produced entirely from our farm—homemade biochar, indigenous microorganisms and pig manure compost from our pigpens. 

Current/Future Activities

• Farm development for Khom Loy is coming along nicely.  Our first sweet potato harvest is in-progress with Wide Horizon Students. 
• Operation planting is underway! Corn and pumpkins are in the ground (only beans remain) for our 3-sisters plot.
•  Our farm manager will plant Morning Glory this week in plot 5 which will serve as part of the pigs diet in the future.
• As we outlined in our land plan, plots 1-4 will serve as living demonstrations as well as research and development for efficiency garden methods used at Migrant Schools and in Urban Communities. Plot 1 which displays vertical gardening (beans & various gourds) was planted this week as well.

Khom Loy's Program Managers for UPlift (Heidi) & Montessori (Damaris) lead visitors to the farm. 

Leading our group of visitors through the TPC garden to the KLDF farm in December 2013.

Before: Engineering students tour KLDF's farm--corn just planted, 1 week 

After: Khom Loy's farm at TPC--6 weeks after planting corn for the 3 sisters crop plot 

UPlift Staff making rice husk hill bio char--the apparatus in the middle burns from the inside-out.

Harvesting sweet potatoes at our farm--first harvest ever! 

Beautiful organic sweet potatoes--January 19, 2014.

2. Natural Farming Pig Rearing (NFPR) Project

As we wrap up with our first round of 10 mixed breed pigs (5 left to sell), Project UPlift looks to refiine making/using locally available lower cost pig feed from 100% natural resources without use of commercial feed whatsoever. This time around, we will test breeding our own pigs while simultaneously buying local mixed breed pigs to weigh the costs and benefits of buying vs. breeding. Also, our goal is to expand our experience of rearing pigs to breeding pigs/birthing to add to our training process & passing on knowledge.

December Outcomes

• In mid-December we had our first pig sale (ever!) to a local meat distributor for 5000 Baht (about 150 USD).  Since then, our pigs have fattened up quite a bit and we have been able to sell 3 more for 5,500 Baht (about 170 USD) apiece.
• By the end of December, we completed the last round of trainings with TPC students.  Now have all 80 students trained on natural farming pig rearing and sustainable agriculture.
• In-process of fixing pigpen 3 from rainy season damages.

Current/Future Activities

• We anticipate selling our remaining 5 pigs by Feb. 2014 for no less than 5,500 Baht.
• The remaining black mixed breed sow will be bred with a White Duroc male pig. belonging to a local breeder in late January/early February 2014.
• We will purchase an additional 5 mixed breed piglets for round 2 pig rearing in February 2014. 
• As we gain more experience in natural pig rearing, we are thinking of ways we can expand our project to a 'pass on the gift' model wherein we teach students/ families how to use the natural farming method then give them pigs of their own to raise. 

Feed time for pigs. 3 of 4 pictured have been sold as of January 21, 2014. 

U Tin Yu delivers the last round of natural farming pig training with TPC students.

3. School Garden Projects '13-'14 (4 Schools)

UPlift's School Garden Project allow students in Migrant Schools to learn the skills necessary to build and maintain a successful organic garden which allows for greater food security and practical knowledge students can carry with them throughout their lives. 

December Outcomes

• Irrawaddy Flower Garden: Students constructed 5 garden beds & 5 mounds along with a new garden fence in late December 2013.  Just this last week students learned how to make banana stalk planting pots with Sai Aung. 
• Rocky Mountain 1 School: Located in a hard to reach jungle hill region near an open rock quarry--students were fortunate to have a local supply of bamboo which allowed students to build 5 new bamboo beds in late December 2013.  
• Light School: Having finished the 10-module garden training in early December, KLDF delivered top soil, coconut husk (mulch), bamboo & garden fencing. In the meantime, students set to work building the fence and garden mounds. 
• Wide Horizons School: In December, students broke into 4 groups with 4 different areas to compete for the most successful gardens. Their gardens are in full swing and most groups have already harvested the first round of mustard greens and coriander. 

Current/Future Activities

• Our Agriculture Officer/Trainer, Sai Aung continues to visit each school weekly to provide support and additional assistance with maintaining gardens. 
• Once garden beds are up and running, students will begin sack and container gardens.
• We are currently working with Irrawaddy School to make watering easier by installing a pulley and lever to the nearby well. 

Students at Light School prepare bamboo for a garden fence, Dec. 29, 2013.

Rocky Mountain 1 School students practice making natural insect repellant in December  2013.

2 of 6 new bamboo garden beds at Rocky Mountain School, Dec. 29, 2013.

Sai Aung at Irrawaddy Flower Garden School with 10 newly constructed mound beds, Jan. 20, 2014.

Irrawaddy students weeding & watering their gardens after class, Jan. 22, 2013

4. Food Security and Economic Development for Migrant Women

A new(er) venture for Khom Loy's UPLift Initiative is increasing food security for urban poor.  For the last 5 months, we've been building a relationship with women living near a factory called Paseidan.  We are happy to report an overwhelming success of 2 training sessions resulting in 20 household gardens in "full bloom". With hope to expand, we will continue working with this group for the 3rd year of financial literacy training for women and further food security/income generation pilots.  Stay tuned for more! Pictures are forthcoming. 

December Outcomes

• The factory community we have been working with received 3 visitors in December and another round of photographer visitors in January 2014.
• In early December, our team finished round 2 of household garden pilots. We had to be increasingly resourceful with even more limited space.  Many of the round 2 trainees opted for bottle and sack gardens while others will try using their houses as a trellis to grow pumpkins, gourds, and beans.  Overall the enthusiasm was inspiring and our team worked diligently—through a rainstorm on Sunday—to finish round 2 garden pilots.
• Women took on the gardens entirely by themselves and expanded upon what we taught--producing way more than we had anticipated.     

Upcoming...Financial Literacy Training

• We are now in the 3rd year of delivering financial literacy trainings to Burmese migrant women which was initiated by seed money from Project Inspire in 2011.  
• During the week of January 6-10, UPlift Staff completed training of trainer modules with Wide Horizon Students.  
• Next week Khom Loy staff will supervise Wide Horizons students delivering the financial literacy training to women at the Paseidan migrant community--we estimate around 50 women to be in attendance. More on this very soon! 

5. KLDF & UPLIFT News

Visit to Local NGO: 

On December 17 & 18, our team visited the Border Green Energy Team (BGET/ www.bget.org)  nonprofit just meters from Karen State in Burma. Over the course of 2 days, we learned about BGET’s exciting agro-forestry, sustainable energy practices, and new adobe training center.  Together, we made bio-char from corncobs and helped the BGET team construct a new greenhouse. 

New Connections: 

Through BGET, we made connections with G’yaw G’yaw, a nearby Karen organization specializing in sustainable building using adobe, bamboo and other natural resources. (at: www.gyaw.org) and Aqueous Solutions, Chiang Mai-based nonprofit focusing on biochar water sanitizing technologies & natural, sustainable development (at: www.aqsolutions.org) with hopes to collaborate in the future.

Film:

In mid-January, we were so fortunate to have filmmaker/photographer Renee Rosensteel (http://www.rosensteel.com) and her partner, Bill join us for a few days to shoot footage of our projects in Mae Sot.  Big thank you to Renee and Bill for making this possible!

Newest Member of UPLift Family:  

Our farm manager, U Tin Yu recently celebrated the birth of a baby girl with his wife!  We will have pictures up shortly!

Border Green Energy Team's (BGET) new adobe training center.

Making corn cob bio char with the BGET team just meters from Karen State Burma, Dec. 18 2013

KLDF's UPlift Team helps the BGET Team on building a greenhouse foundation, Dec. 18, 2013.