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| Update 46 |  |
April 2008 |
| www.andamandiscoveries.com | ||
We would firstly like to wish a Happy belated Songkran (Thai New Year) to all of our past clients, donors and all other readers!
Born from the success of Andaman Discoveries’ work over the past few years, we're making progress towards creating a regional network with 18 other like-minded organisations: this month saw the beginning of the North Andaman Community Tourism network (N-ACT) at a meeting in Bangkok. Aiming to further develop our capacities and understanding of the work of other people in Thailand, this network will be a chance to come together, share ideas, and strengthen the capabilities of all involved.
Our community projects this month included interviewing over 100 students that we sponsor for school scholarships. In addition, our community-based village projects are continuing and progressing weekly. There was plently of outside support for the communities in various areas including training, marketing, and intra-village networking. One of Andaman Discoveries' primary goals is to help empower communities, and these are satisfying examples of our aims being achieved.
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Project Summaries Click on a headline to jump to the story:
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Community Empowerment After Training: "I've a new idea to open a garage in our village. There are many broken bikes in Ban Talae Nok that need to be fixed and now we can do it ourselves without having to take the bikes into town." Mr Somchai Vijit Bike Repair Trainee, Ban Talae Nok |
1. Interviews For School Scholarship Students - 125 Children Supported In Their Studies
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A picture from Juntima Privaj aged 15, as a thank you to her donor. |
Thanks to our school scholarship programme, last year a total of 10 students graduated from high school in villages along the Andaman Coast. In the last few weeks we have interviewed 125 students who we are currently sponsoring for their school scholarships this year, in nine different villages along the Andaman Coast that were affected by the tsunami. Students range from six years old in kindergarten to 20 years old in high school. The aim was to see how these students are progressing in their studies. We are pleased to announce that all of these students are studying hard and achieving good grades in their studies. Students have all drawn pictures of their favourite things to give to their donors as a thank you for allowing them to have this opportunity. This year we are supporting a student from Bak Jok village on Ko Prathong who is attending Rajapat University in Surathani to study Tourism Management. We are pleased also that she is progressing well with her work.
2. Bike Repair Training - Forward Thinking
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| Moh Hum Mard Vijit and Somchai Vijit hard at work putting to practice what they have learnt. |
Andaman Discoveries was delighted to receive funding for eight bicycles as part of the Tourism and Biodiversity Fund IUCN Netherlands. We were even more delighted when Struan Robertson, of our partner organization Spice Roads, offered to assist us in purchasing the bikes and delivering them to us from Bangkok. Struan was concerned that the bikes would be left unused if nobody in the village was able to repair them, as we have seen happen with a lot of donated equipment such as bikes and computers since the tsunami. "I just didn’t want the bikes to be shiny and new for six months and then abandoned because they had broken," explained Struan. To ensure this didn’t happen, Struan kindly trained father and son, Mr Moh Hum Mard Vijit and Mr Somchai Vijit from Ban Talae Nok for four days at their office in Bangkok. "I’ve got a lot of experience from this class and now I know that it’s more difficult to fix a bike with gears than a normal bike," explained Mr Moh Hum Mard Vijit. "I used to think it would be easy to do but after going to Bangkok I know how complicated it is." The workshop also made the villagers think ahead for future projects; "I’ve a new idea to open a garage in our village," said Mr Somchai Vijit; "there are many broken bikes in Ban Talae Nok that need to be fixed and now we can do it ourselves without having to take the bikes into town."
3. A New Channel For The Women's Soap Group - Thai Craft Come To Help
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| The Thai Craft Group ready to venture into Tung Nang Dam. |
With sustainability always having been the aim of the work of Andaman Discoveries, the villagers were thankful for a visit from a group from Thai Craft, a mix of fair trade experts from different organisations around the globe. After consulting with the women’s soap group on their needs and aims, and combining it with their own abilities and outlets for selling products, the expert group has designed some new creations for the women to make in order to be sold at the Thai Craft fairs in Bangkok. Changes to the products include new scents and new shapes, including the festive Christmas tree soap which is hoped to be a hit with the international market! This extra support with the marketing of handicrafts will hopefully raise the sales of the women’s group, meaning a more sustainable income for all their hard work.
4. Second Youth Environmental Camp - Ban Talae Nok Children Get Scientific!
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| Youths plot their transect maps according to the measurements previously taken. |
The Youth Group of Ban Tale Nok had their second environmental camp, this time with more work and more science involved! Mrs Jaruwan Kaewmahanin of Mangrove Action Project (MAP) spent the weekend teaching the youths how to research and create a transect map. The camp carried out two types of transect mapping. The first was forest and community, which shows the overview of natural resources and describes the location and distribution of resources, the landscape and main land uses. The second was mangrove transect, which is specific on mangrove biodiversity.
Activities involved the measuring and observation of their surrounding environment, data plotting and presentation of outcomes. “We have never done anything like this before,” explained Andaman Discoveries’ in-village staff, Ladda Arjharn (Pink). “Exploring 200m through the forest, showed us the varieties within nature, which we never realised until now.” The children took great interest in this project and came up with some impressive results. At the end of the camp, each group presented their findings to family and friends in the village, for which there was a very good turn out. The maps have now been put on the wall of the community center for everybody to learn from and will also be used as a material to explain for the youths who come from the city to visit next time. “The environmental preservation training helped the youth to have a more continuous and enthusiastic working process,” continued Pink. “No one knows from the time he is born, how everything is supposed to be done. This is one reason why we need to train our youth. To know is still not enough. There also needs to be hard work and co-operation from other people, in order to complete the tasks in hand.”
5. North Andaman Community Tourism Network - Bangkok Brainstorming
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| N-ACT is composed of 18 organisations with the aim of exchanging knowledge, accessing resources, and coordinating work with community based tourism. |
Andaman Discoveries participated in the North Andaman Community Tourism Network (N-ACT) meeting in Bangkok on 30 April. N-ACT is composed of 18 organizations, including practitioners of sustainable tourism development, communities engaged in sustainable tourism activities, government agencies (involved in tourism development) and sustainable tourism businesses. It was founded by Bodhi Garrett, as a direct result of the continuing efforts and achievements of Andaman Discoveries.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Thailand is facilitating the development of the N-ACT to exchange knowledge, access resources, and coordinate work. Bodhi Garrett, as IUCN’s lead Consultant (also founder of Andaman Discoveries), was governing the debate, accompanied by Co-Director of Andaman Discoveries, Thanmrong Chophusri (Pi Tui), and new intern Nicolas Brontoux. The aim of the network is to serve as a forum for cooperation, capacity building, and promotion that will lead to direct benefit for communities. This common understanding will allow the exchange of knowledge to share the best practices and see how the results can be used to benefit community-level effort. Representatives from the 18 organisations were present at the meeting which acted as a spring board for future plans for the network. “It was great to see so many worthwhile and important organizations all in the same room working towards the same target and creating synergies,” said Nicolas, our new internee. “It is a great chance for me to help make an ethical change. North Andaman is a region of great environmental diversity and outstanding natural beauty, and if N-ACT can help us to bring responsible tourists in the region and share good practices, I will invest myself 200 per cent. It would be such a pity for non eco-conscious promoters to arrive and reap benefits from the communities’ territory.”
Andaman Discoveries wants to play an active role in the network. We can learn from other organisations’ previous mistakes. Thus, it will help us to make our eco-tourism more successful and sustainable in the North Andaman region.
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| Mariyah Hanjit, one of the 18 students who passed the computer course collects her graduation certificate. |
6. Hats Off To The Computer Training Students - Graduation Day Comes Around
Out of the 20 people who participated in the computer training that our long-term volunteer, Dick Bond, was teaching last month, 18 passed the course. The month long course took the students through from the basics of turning a computer on, to using Microsoft Word and Excel. The students received their graduation certificates on the 11 April. We would like to congratulate all students for taking part in this programme.
7. Intra-Village Networking At Ban Talae Nok - Villagers Join Hands With Another Homestay Group
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| Ban Talae Nok and Muang Kluang homestay and tourism groups discuss the prospects of the future. |
The Ban Talae Nok Tourism group is connecting with other community tourism networks in order to find more ways to cooperate, and through this, finding more ways to improve the communities’ tourism. A meeting with the Muslim Homestay group of Muang Kluang was an opportunity to exchange opinions about marketing and ways to improve tourism for both communities, by promoting and connecting the tourism attractions and activities of each other’s community. The aim is to give the tourists a larger choice of attractions to boost the numbers who come into the village. Villagers are currently working on preparing and offering homestay and eco-tours in the two villages as a combined tour. On the same day, Mr Nid Ouitekeng, the Chairman of Ranong Tourism Association, came to visit the Ban Talae Nok Tourism group. The group used this opportunity to introduce the background and overall activities of the community to Mr Ouitekeng. As a result, Mr Ouitekeng has promised to promote this area’s Tourism (including in Ban Talae Nok) at Muangthong Thanee Fair in Bangkok. This is fantastic news for the village as this is one of the biggest fairs in Thailand.
8. New Ideas For Waste Collection - Eco Is The Aim!
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| The youth group members happily clean up their village before making their recycled models. |
Creativity has once again shone through during the youth group’s waste collection time. Instead of using black plastic bags to gather the rubbish, Andaman Discoveries staff, Pi Tui has encouraged the children to use fish nets. “Fish nets can be used for a longer period of time," said Pi Tui. "They are also repairable, meaning they can be used again and again, resulting in less harm to the environment than plastic bin bags.” The children try each week to fill more fish nets than the week before, reducing the amount of waste within the community. According to village project coordinators and Andaman Discoveries staff, the youths’ awareness of recycling and the importance of waste management has clearly increased during the running of this project. Matter that cannot be reused is handed over to the rubbish men, whereas objects which can be are sold to help increase the savings of the children. That which can be recycled is turned into objects with new value. In addition to all this, villagers are beginning to think that tourists would enjoy making recyclable models with the group when they come into the village. “Amazingly, there are so many things, for decorations, souvenirs, clothes, hats, that can be made from waste material,” said one of the youth group members. “This includes pieces of paper, things made of plastic, and many others.“ Indeed the more the children practice model making with the recyclable material they have found, the prouder they are to be helping so much within their precious community.
9. Weekly Action In The Community Centre - If Only The Walls Had Eyes!
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| The children make use of the community center, making their recycled models each week. |
As always, weekly and monthly activities have been continuing in the community centre during the month of April. The children of the village are making good use of this space for the making of their recycled models and other youth group activities. They have also been busy here sorting the waste they have collected and making their recycling models. Exciting also is the meeting the informal education group had in order to welcome the Inspector of the Education Ministry, Dr. Roongruang Sukhapirom, and the Ranong Education committee who visited on the 23rd of this month. The Women’s Soap Group has also been using the center to make their products one to two times a week. Between the 29 April and 1 May, moderators from the Agriculture and Industry Department of Bangkok, came to the center also to enhance this group’s skills with the aim of making the project more sustainable. Being a month full of guests, the Chairman of Ranong Tourism Association also came to visit the community, the meeting for which was also held in the center.
10. Killing Two Birds With One Stone - Guide Book And Newspaper Exposure In One!
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| Daughter of the family, Lucy, runs into the sea with her new friends. |
Writing about family travel in Thailand for the guidebook, Frommers, in the UK, as well as the travel section of the Sunday Times, a successful British newspaper, was the main aim of Jack Barker (UK) who arrived in Ban Talae Nok along with his wife and two children, Lucy and Will. The family spent five days in village getting to know the people and participating in a variety of activities including mangrove planting, batik painting and the soap workshop. “An excellent experience!” commented father of the family, Jack Barker. “And probably the best food we’ll have in our three weeks in Thailand!” One particular highlight was the evening that the family spent on the beach with other children from the village. It was a perfect example of the cultural emersion and sharing that we hope people gain from their time with us. We are also very grateful for the visit of this family and their help in spreading the word of Andaman Discoveries.
11. Andaman Discoveries is The Star of Thai News - A Feature Piece is Filmed
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| Emily Gilbert, one of our volunteer staff being interviewed about the batik workshop. |
On their way driving along the Andaman Coast from Bangkok to Phuket, a film crew for the Thailand Public Broadcasting Service made a stop-off at Ban Talae Nok as a part of a feature slot for the television programme, Morning News Hour. With the aim of raising awareness to people of various environmental issues along this region, the crew spent one and a half days in the village interviewing villagers and Andaman Discoveries staff on the projects running and the environmental and cultural issues that arise in doing so. The programme was aired in the morning of the 3 May, with Andaman Discoveries showing in a five minute feature slot. This broadcast was planned to coincide with a major environmental event in Phuket, whereby old aeroplanes were to be dropped into the ocean to form an artificial coral reef. However, due to the tragic event of the cyclone hitting Burma during that time, this event has been postponed until next month.
12. New Additions To Our Marketing and Development - French/Dutch Couple Join Our Team
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| Nicolas and Renske settle into Thai life. |
This month we have been joined in the office by two new internees, Nicolas Brontoux (France) and Renske Bijl (Netherlands). Nicolas has come to complete four months as a part of his training for his Masters in Economics of Sport and Tourism at the University of Pierre Menez in Grenoble, France; and we are grateful that his girlfriend, Renske, with a background in management and economics, has come to accompany him! The two have previously worked together in France and India and will be using their past tourism and marketing experience to help Emily and Mimi with the promotion and development of Andaman Discoveries. “I’m really excited about starting these four months with Andaman Discoveries,” said Renske. “I’m impressed with their work so far and hope that I can make a positive contribution to continue what they have achieved.”
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Andaman Discoveries is North Andaman Tsunami Relief’s commitment to long-term sustainable development.
Copyright 2008 Andaman Discoveries