Mae Sot School Gardens--Update

Potatoes, greens and roselle intercropping at Shwe Tar Zin school

Khom Loy has recently been working on another round of migrant school garden projects in Mae Sot, Thailand, starting with Shwe Tar Zin school (for full photo album of Shwe Tar Zin's garden, click here).

The UPLift Garden program, supported by Thai Children's Trust, is designed to make a lot out of a little--in other words, using a small amount of land and limited resources to yield large amounts of healthy, nutritious vegetables for migrant students living in and around Mae Sot.  After running two successful pilots last dry season, we are back to talking to and collaborating with motivated schools.

Shwe Tar Zin, our first expansion school, consists mostly of Arakanese staff and students.  Arakan State is on the western side of Burma, on the border with Bangladesh.  Most of these families came to Thailand after Cyclone Nargis wreaked havoc on the Burmese coastline in 2008.

A lesson learned from our pilot projects was that ownership and creativity actually increase when only a small amount of land is used.  In this case, Shwe Tar Zin's staff and principal are doing a great job of fitting in a diverse and nutritious array of vegetables--including red potatoes from Arakan State!

Check out the pictures below to see the difference that one month makes.  By the end of January this garden will be in full bloom!

Mid-November, to...

...Mid-December!

November Monthly Report

Some reflection on last month, and a sneak peak of what's coming during the holidays!

Pig Project

This pilot project uses natural farming techniques that significantly lower the costs of animal rearing, by using fermented banana stalk as feed and using other fermented inputs that improve health and digestion, particularly nutritional intake.

We finally purchased 5 pigs of a mixed breed (mix-sai paan) on Nov 4^th.  We are testing this breed of pigs to see if a 100-day natural feed schedule provided by Ajan Suthat (our technical advisor on this project) will result in a weight of 90-100kg with this type of pig.  So far they have been healthy and active, but have not been eating the full amount of store feed provided by the schedule.

Banana feed was introduced in small amounts to the pig diet in late-November.  As time continues banana feed will increase until it reaches 50% of the overall feed amount.

We are continuing our search for white Duroc breed pigs.  The farm assistant at Good Morning School is soon to have a litter of piglets available, and we will attempt to purchase these if possible.

School Garden Program

It will be recalled that this program started in 2010 with 2 pilot schools, and we are now rolling the program out to another 4 schools with the aid of funding from Vitol/Thai Children’s Trust.

UPLift staff doing some surveying at Nya Li Ah Ta migrant school, Tak, Thailand.

Shwe Tar Zin, the first school project of this cold season, has continued its garden program on schedule.  After a few more incremental training sessions with the staff there, we will present a student training.

Nya Li Ah Ta and Maw Thaw Lu , 2 other migrant schools, have experienced a delay while we are discussing the garden project and its process with staff at the BMWEC school network (which coordinates donor activities among migrant learning centers).  We hope to begin these projects as soon as possible.

A return trip to the migrant school New Blood to discuss the ideal garden project (using existing land and efficient water usage as opposed to renting land further away from the school) will occur in December.

We have decided to wait on projects at Heavenly Home, Dominican and Pyi Chit schools until a more suitable date next year.  All three have existing constraints (soil quality, land availability, construction) that are being dealt with currently.

Finally, Mark and Nobel had useful meetings with Spinning Top and Mae Tao Clinic, organizations that are interested in sharing ideas and resources for empowering schools with food security needs.  We will be continuing to meet with them to discuss possible ways in which to create both an agricultural NGO network and to continue the migrant school NGO network meetings that Khom Loy has hosted this year.

Black Soldier Fly (BSF) production unit

BSF production is of great interest to us as the larvae, which can be produced with food waste, are very high in calories and make ideal fish food.

After working with staff from Partners Relief and Development in Mae Sot, our staff member Kaw Maw Taw was able to construct our first BSF unit, which cost under 280 baht (USD$9).  He delivered it along with an introductory training to Principal David from Agape school, who is currently testing it to see if BSFs can be harvested in Agape’s area.

Project Inspire Landfill Project

Project Inspire, a women’s empowerment program founded by UN Women and Mastercard, recently awarded Khom Loy Foundation and Room To Grow Foundation a financial literacy project grant to continue their existing success in assisting women living in a landfill community near Mae Sot, Thailand.

Wide Horizons students manage a market simulation that stresses budgeting and savings plans

A lot was achieved during November for the PI project.  Khom Loy and Room To Grow provided the first financial literacy training to students from Wide Horizons project management school, who will in turn serve as trainers on the landfill in January.  In addition, these Wide Horizons students delivered a practice training to students from another post-10 school in order to gain experience and practice training skills as discussed by Jen from Room To Grow.

One group of Wide Horizons students will also attempt to deliver one or all of these trainings to a group of migrant women living in Mae Pa community with whom they are currently spending time with.

Break The Silence (BTS)—Child Protection Program

Originally designed by Stairway Foundation in the Philippines, BTS uses animations and capacity building to strengthen organizations that work in areas where children have a high risk of sexual abuse and trafficking. Funded by ADM Capital Foundation, Khom Loy has been assisting with planning and implementation for regional trainings in Thailand.

A youth singing contest and theater on World Children's day, organized by Burma ACT and HREIB

In November we continued the conversation with local contacts about setting up a permanent child protection initiative in Mae Sot, Thailand.  This would improve access to knowledge for organizations who work directly with children or with at-risk migrant communities.  We will post updates as this activity progresses.

On November 20 (World Children’s Day), Mark visited a play performed by United Act, a theatric group that focuses on spreading awareness of social issues.  Members of United Act attended a BTS introductory training in August, and adapted some of its concepts into its newest play covering the issue of human trafficking.

Trips

Mark attended an INSEAD Social Entrepreneurship Program in Singapore from 28 November to 2 December.  The course provided courses and case studies on innovation, team-building, managing social enterprises and financing social ventures.  As a result, UPLift has improved management skills and abilities, as well as a network of successful social entrepreneurs from other countries.

Visitors

Paul Hancock, Damaris Lynchao and Natchakarn Si Ayutthaya (KLDF staff).

Achievements

·         Successfully completed the financial literacy training at Wide Horizons, which is the most difficult of the project in whole.

·         Bought pigs!  The pigs haven’t died after a month!  Did I mention that we have pigs now?

Challenges

·         Launching garden projects in a timely fashion (pending discussions with BMWEC)

·         Creating staff autonomy (currently being addressed with skills learned from INSEAD program, as well as input from Paul Hancock)

Next Month’s Activities

• Monitoring BSF pilot at Agape School
• Continuing research on evaporation reduction for BHSOH school water reservoir
• Researching and setting up “duck litter” project @ Hway Ka Loke school (when possible)
• Surveying garden schools: New Blood (second visit), Heavenly Home (to discuss steps needed before beginning project next year)
• Supporting Wide Horizons staff and students for a possible financial literacy training opportunity in Mae Pa community
• Initial location/demographic survey of landfill community to determine 5 training areas
• Continue to look for suitable land
• Visiting Global Neighbors to discuss use of land for banana farm/pilot projects
• Researching the state of food waste disposal in Mae Sot, as well as determining which entity is responsible for transporting waste in the area
• Launch a December ag school network meeting

Project Inspire Diary--Parts I And II

The UPLift Initiative, having recently been awarded the Best Financial Literacy Project grant by Project Inspire, has been participating in a separate blog to discuss progress thus far!

Part I, which explains the first month of the project, can be found here.

Part II, a description of our financial literacy modules in action, is here.

New Pigs, New Project Idea

The newest additions to  UPLift

On Wednesday Kaw Maw Taw (who works on the UPLift agriculture projects as a field officer) located and purchased five pigs, thus beginning the rearing phase of the Pig/Compost Project at Hway Ka Loke School in Mae Sot, Thailand.

The pigs are of mixed breed ("mix-sai-paan" in Thai), and are between 1 and 1.5 months old.  The initial weight estimate is at 10 kilograms (22 pounds) per pig.  After an initial week of low feed amounts, we will begin testing a high-protein diet that uses a mixture of store feed, fermented banana stalk and liquid microorganisms.  The amount of banana stalk used increases as the pigs age, reducing the cost input needed for food while giving the pigs added nutrients and improved health.

Meanwhile, Kaw Maw Taw has been learning about raising black soldier fly larvae, a very inexpensive and consistent source of protein for feeding fish and chickens.  Partners' Relief and Development, a collaborating organization, has built a larvae "house" and is successfully breeding the larvae by mixing their food waste and other organic materials every day.  The larvae consume this waste very rapidly, and upon reaching full maturation climb out of a pipe in the unit and are ready to be fed to fish at Partner's farm site in Mae Sot.

Larvae "house" at Partners farm site

Black soldier fly larvae

Since we have surveyed numerous Burmese migrant schools with fish projects, our new goal is to learn the process of building and maintaining these units, and then sharing this technology with interested schools.  During the upcoming week Kaw Maw Taw will be building our first unit.   

October Monthly Report

Rainy season is over! Here is a review of our activities in October--

Pig Project

With rainy season ending mid-month we were able to complete several stages of the project, including completion of the pig pen (filled the litter back to a level that eliminated flooding) and finishing the liquid indigenous microorganisms (IMOs).  The search for appropriate white pigs of Du Loc breed turned out to be quite difficult…the best source we found ended up to have a disease that, when combined with the deep-litter project, results in high rates of fatality for the pigs.  Because of this, we are now buying a small batch of black pigs to test the feed regimen on, since black pigs are less susceptible to disease and more popular among Burmese and Karen.  When another batch of white pigs become available (Nov/Dec) we will raise them side by side in the pen and make a comparative study using the same feeds.

School Garden Project

Mark and Kaw Maw Taw surveyed three schools: Shwe Tar Zin, Bwe Ka Lar and Heavenly Home.  Shwe Tar Zin is by far the best fit, and we have begun the planning phase of the project with principal and staff.  We are visiting Heavenly Home again this week to speak with the female manager.

Landfill Income Generation Projects

Very positive news from the vegetable project as Mya Thin has turned a month of growing into a great batch of produce (see photos here).  An initial 500 baht of seed funding has already yielded 400 baht of income, and there are still 3-4 months of production for the crop.

Project Inspire Landfill Project

Mark and staff from Room To Grow Foundation have been finalizing the Project Inspire Social Entrepreneurship program that we earned a $10,000 grant for in August.  The plan will involve training Burmese post-10 students @ Wide Horizons (WH) Project Management School on how to deliver financial literacy modules to women and girls living on the landfill.  We will then follow up with the ten most creative and motivated of these women to create small social entrepreneurships that improve household income as well as quality of life on the landfill.  The funding arrives first week of November, and the project will last until December 2012.

Khom Loy Foundation Video

Antony Reick, a filmmaker who is volunteering to make a promotional video for Khom Loy, visited Mae Sot with Bruce Kennedy (a KLDF board member) to take some footage about our projects here, including the landfill project, garden project, pig project and Montessori expansion project.  After editing and adding narration, the video is nearly finished.

Break The Silence (BTS) Child Trafficking Initiative Activities

• Met with Doug from Partners to discuss progress on the Shan Red Leaves Falling video (now finished voiceovers, currently editing)
• Met with Myo Min to discuss updates for BTS Mae Sot

Trips

·         Upland Holistic Development Project—spoke with staff and manager (Tui) about pig rearing, banana planting and low-cost feeds.

·         Partners Mae Sot Farm—discussed their experiences raising black pigs in a deep-litter, black soldier flies, and water systems for a pig pen.

·         Partners Chiang Mai (BTS checkup, mentioned in BTS section above)

·         Fang Valley Network Meeting--Mark attended the Fang Valley Network meeting on October 29, at which he shared ideas and project activities with other groups in attendance.

A container used for rearing Black Soldier Fly Larvae, a great source of inexpesnive protein for animal rearing.

Visitors

·         Antony Reick/Bruce Kennedy (2 days)

·         Montessori Staff (3 days)

·         Paul/Norm (2 days)

Achievements

·         Completed pig pen/IMOs

·         Helped complete KLDF video

·         Kaw Maw Taw starting to take Garden Project responsibility

Challenges

·         Finding appropriate pigs to purchase for project

·         Coordinating time commitments between multiple projects

·         Finding suitable land for use w/ landfill families and farming pilots

Next Month’s Activities

• Black Soldier Fly Workshop for Kaw Maw Taw @ Partners Farm
• Setting up Black Soldier Fly pilot @ Sky Blue School
• Supporting an additional 100 banana trees @ BHSOH School (using new planting method learned from UHDP)
• Purchasing black pigs, testing speed of growth on high-protein diet
• Researching and setting up “duck litter” project @ Hway Ka Loke school
• Surveying garden schools: Maw Thaw Lu, Nya Li Ha Ta, Heavenly Home (second visit), New Blood (second visit), Dominican
• Implementing garden project @ Shwe Tar Zin, 2 other schools pending survey
• Coordinating a BTS visit to Mae Sai for visiting local organizations there
• BTS meeting with Room to Grow and Burma Border Projects to discuss child protection activities in Mae Sot
• Beginning Project Inspire program by training Wide Horizons students 7Nov-16Nov
• Visiting Mae Jo University, Partners Farm Chiang Mai, ECHO organization, and frog-rearing project in Chiang Mai
• Visiting Global Neighbors to discuss use of land for banana farm/pilot projects
• Attending Social Entrepreneurship Training @ INSEAD Singapore campus 28Nov-2Dec

Flood Update

Flooding in Central Thailand (picture from CNNGo.com)

Thailand has been in the news recently as some of the strongest flooding in the past 40 years has been occurring.

While our work area in Mae Sot has not been hit directly, there are some concerning factors to consider for the near future, especially for migrant schools on the Thai/Burmese border:

• With such a large area of agricultural production marred by the flooding, food prices have begun to rise sharply.  This includes rice, vegetables, meat, and other staple foods.  Migrant schools already struggling to find funding for school meals will find it considerably more difficult over the next year.
• Agricultural inputs like animal feed and garden supplies will also increase in price.
• Migrants who work at factories in Central Thailand and Bangkok have been returning to Burma via Mae Sot over the past week.  Some of these workers have family in Mae Sot and decide to stay, which could increase the # of students and overall migrants in the area.

Thailand has been struck by large-scale flooding for two years straight now.  If this trend is to continue, UPLift's goal of assisting migrant schools to become more self-reliant for food and funding is becoming a priority.

We have plans to work with schools on eight new garden projects and additional animal rearing projects over the next year.  It is our hope that these students, teachers and schools benefit by having a more stable environment for food production; ultimately, children having sound educations and full bellies is well worth it.

Women's Entrepreneurship Program Set to Begin

We are very happy to announce that the UPLift Project is now beginning its program to set up small businesses with female entrepreneurs living in poverty.

As mentioned on previous posts, Khom Loy teamed up with Room To Grow Foundation to compete in "Project Inspire", a contest set up by UN Women (Singapore) and Mastercard to address women's empowerment and entrepreneurship.  As a result of our efforts we received a US$10,000 grant to begin a Financial Literacy program with impoverished women living in a landfill community on the Thai/Burmese border!

Since having planned for a project to cost US$25,000 and last two years did not match with our grant, we have spent the time after the contest to improve and adjust our project in order to provide maximum benefit to women in need at a lower cost, while still maintaining all of our original objectives.

The old project idea involved opening a Women's Resource Center near the landfill where women could generate daily income while receiving financial literacy and life skills trainings.  Through these trainings, UPLift would then  choose ten high motivated and inspiring women, and help each set up a small social enterprise that could provide them with increased income while simultaneously addressing social needs on the landfill.  In addition, we added the goal of having 15 young girls having the financial freedom to attend a nearby migrant school.

The new project idea, while not including land and a center, has much more flexibility, includes double the number of beneficiaries and leaves Mae Sot with a large number of young and capable trainers that can share financial literacy skills with impoverished women in their future communities and jobs.

We will begin by training 24 young adults at a nearby project management school named Wide Horizons on how to become financial literacy trainers themselves.  These individuals are already receiving the education and skills needed to successfully run programs with Burmese and ethnic minority communities, and their capacity to do so will improve after learning more about financial literacy.

Our new project plan spreads knowledge and capacity to a much wider audience!

Our 24 trainers will then work not only with the landfill community, but also a nearby migrant community that they are already working with.  This doubles the # of women receiving these financial literacy skills, and gives UPLift a larger pool of motivated and creative women to work with on small social entrepreneurships.  Finally, the 24 trainers, upon  finishing their work at Wide Horizons, then return to their respective development organizations in Thailand and Burma, where they will have the capacity to design similar programs intended to empower women and improve knowledge.

We are very motivated to begin, and will keep you updated as the project unfolds. Wait until you see the results!