Aug
29
TBOWH Update- August 2008
Filed Under TBOWH Updates
The Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger (TBOWH) supports dozens of specific ministries around the world. Many of these ministries are designed to help people who are trapped in poverty to become self-supporting in providing their families adequate incomes. The following is the story of one person whose life was dramatically changed by the Upland Holistic Development Project, a ministry in Thailand supported by TBOWH. Jawat’s story has been adapted from a report submitted by CBF field staffer Rick Burnette.
Jawat’s Acre
Jawat Jalo lives in Ban Huai Pong, a community in northern Thailand accessible by a single rutted dirt road. With 74 families, roughly one half of this impoverished hilltribe village is ethnic Red Lahu and the other half Palaung.
Living on the margins of Thai society, many of the residents lack Thai citizenship and other legal documentation. Their statelessness results in numerous hardships such as limited payment for day labor. Without special permission, these residents can’t legally travel outside their home districts, even for work or other business. And without identity cards, Thailand’s hilltribe people are cut off from the country’s national health care service and are denied full access to its education system.
Another challenge for Ban Huai Pong is that the village is located within the Sri Lana National Park. The community’s land claims are tenuous at best, and half of the residents lack access to personal plots of farmland. In order to make living growing crops–one of the few options for income generation–the landless must rent degraded farmland from local ethnic Thais or other tribal groups. With such limited access to resources, many in the community have partnered with the Upland Holistic Development project (UHDP) to improve their circumstances.
UHDP is a Christian non-governmental organization with strong ties to CBF Global Missions and strong support from TBOWH. Such support has enabled the project to offer an array of holistic income-producing ministries to marginalized hilltribe communities related to sustainable agriculture (e.g., agroforestry, backyard farming), citizenship assistance, women’s empowerment, microfinance, and water and sanitation projects.
In 2003 Jawat Jalo had access to about one acre of degraded, steep land situated between his house and a sluggish stream at the bottom of a hill. Since this patch of land was unsuitable for growing traditional cash crops like corn and beans, Jawat decided to plant his own agroforest plot. Since 1999, UHDP has promoted the establishment of bio-diverse agroforest plantings, particularly on steep, degraded land such as Jawat’s. Plantings generally consist of native forest crops, such as rattan and wild pepper, which provide edible, useable, and marketable products. More conventional crops such as banana, tea, coffee, and chili peppers are added to the plots to further supplement family food and income.
Since Jawat introduced the initial agroforest plantings, he has augmented the established trees, shrubs, vines, and herbs with other crops. At first, his yields were just adequate for family consumption, but before long, he and the neighbors who had also adopted the agroforest method had enough to give away and sell in the community. By 2007, it became clear that the combined volume of the area’s agroforest produce was enough to sustain a larger market, and in October Jawat met with dozens of other agroforesters from nearby villages to discuss marketing strategies.
Prior to the meeting, Jawat had begun selling his own agroforest produce at the weekly market in the town of Chiang Dao. Having attracted customers with his specialty produce, Jawat had already made over $100 from his sales. He was on track to sell at least four times that amount within a year’s time–a windfall for a community where a family’s annual income is less than $1,000.
But rather than trying to protect his market turf, Jawat used the community meeting to encourage all of the local agroforesters to sell their produce collectively at the Chiang Dao market. He even offered to coordinate the collection and sale of products each week.
Jawat doesn’t specifically know about the Texas Baptist Offering for World Hunger, the Christian Life Commission, or the Baptist General Convention of Texas. But he and thousands of other neighbors of spread across eighteen marginalized communities in northern Thailand do know UHDP’s team of hilltribe Christians and their willingness to assist them in overcoming poverty in Jesus’ name. And that’s what the TBOWH has made possible–enabling a multitude of Baptists around the world to be the presence of Christ wherever they are.
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