Hilltribes of Northern Thailand

Up in the mountain of 500-1500m high, approximately 750 thousand people of more than 10 tribes including Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Hmong, Yao, Karen, are living. Many of those have migrated here from Southern China, Myammer, Laos within this 1-2 centuries. Each tribe has its own language as well as its own distinctive dress made with extraordinary high craft skill. They have been preserving their traditional cultures and the sense of the world by moving their village every 2-3, or 12-13 years based on the cycle of the slash-and-burn cultivation.

However, their life is beginning to be threatened today.
Due to the Thai Government's Forest preservation policy, logging and slash-and-burn farming is banned, which made tribal people settle down and is resulting loss of their base of life from the root. They are no longer able to move around freely seeking the fertile land, and forced to cultivate within the limited area repeatedly. That lead to tremendous decline of the crops they produce, and to increase the amount, they will have to depend on expensive fertiliser and toxic pesticide. Even their staple fare rice, many villages fail to produce enough to meet their own sufficiency, and people suffer from the poverty. Cultivating, once their only cash crops, opium, is strictly controlled by the authority recent years, and many are arrested.

On the other hand, young people, because of the temptation of cash and material cultures with rapid development and modernisation of the Thailand herself, flew out to Bangkok and Chiang Mai as labour, nevertheless, lacking proper Thai language education, they receive discrimination and often work in deteriorated environment with lower wages. Also, there are some cases that groups take away those young girls and deceive them into prostitution.
Village population declined, community ties became weakened, and those who lost their hopes became addicted to opium and heroin, and stimulant. The number of people, arrested for addiction and selling, is increasing at rapid rate. Parents sells away their daughters for little debts as prostitutes. Often the case, those daughters come back to the village with HIV/AIDS.

WHAT IS SAKURA PROJECT?

SAKURA PROJECT supports education of the children ,among these hilltribes, who are likely to be the sacrifice of the society.

Recent years, The Government of Thailand drives new policy to recognise hilltribes who have been settled within Thailand as a Thai national, and build primary schools even in the mountain and provide education in Thai language. However, the problem of budget, human resources, and transportation, compared to the children in general, environment is not met satisfaction. There still are villages without primary schools, and many schools suffer from lack of teachers. In Thailand, students are entitled to the compulsory education until the end of junior school, however, there are very few junior schools in the mountain that is easily accessible. Children in the mountain, regardless of their future, will have stronger relations with Thai society, and thus the basic education and educational career is indispensable. Nonetheless, for those annual revenue is less than 10000 Baht ($240 USD), it is just impossible to send their children to town to stay and attend school. In spite of the right to the compulsory education, many cannot even graduate from primary schools.

SAKURA PROJECT since 1991, with the cooperation of people from Japan, established scholarship scheme and supports education for hilltribes. We operates three hostels SUMIRE Hostel, Himawari Hostel, and SHIRAYURI Hostel within the property of United Village School (private primary, and secondary school) in Nam Lat, Chiang Rai, and 147 children are living together and attend primary, junior, and technical schools nearby.