Celebrating motherhood

August 12^th is mothers’ day in Thailand. This date is chosen because it is the queen’s birthday, and it is a nationally celebrated public holiday. This year Monday 11^th has been given as a national holiday as well – part of the new military government’s drive to boost the economy and bring “happiness to the people” - so the country is enjoying a four day weekend.

On Friday we attended the mothers’ day celebrations at one of the centres. It was a real family occasion with mums and dads and lots of cute baby brothers and sisters.

 

Some of the girls did a delightful dance that they had been diligently practising all week, all dressed up in bright blue, the colour of the queen.  

Sadly, one of the dancers was overcome by the occasion and spent most of the morning sobbing in her mother’s arms. This meant the dancing troupe was one performer short, so the teacher grabbed a little boy at the last minute to stand in for her so her partner would not be alone. He rose to the occasion without a murmur and did a great job, but his partner did not look best pleased with the new arrangement!

After the dancing, the children took turns to pay respect to their mums, kneeling in front of them and presenting them with ceremonial flowers before being given a big hug and cuddle. All very moving!

 

As with any such event here, the morning ended with everyone sitting down to eat together, before the families all headed home.  It was a delightful occasion, a real celebration of family relationships and the role of mothers.

That evening, I came across a story from the BBC about a woman in India who swam a kilometre across a monsoon-swollen river in her ninth month of pregnancy so that she could have the chance to give birth in a hospital rather than at her isolated rural home. After a morning celebrating motherhood, I began thinking about the millions of women worldwide for whom simply becoming a mother is a life-threatening prospect.
 

Every day, roughly 800 women die from preventable causes relating to pregnancy and childbirth, with 99% of these deaths occurring in developing countries. The 2014 Millennium Development Goals Report indicates that Goal 5, which addresses reduction in maternal mortality and the achievement of universal access to reproductive health by 2015, is the furthest of all the goals from being reached.

Most maternal deaths are preventable. A crucial part of the strategy to reduce maternal mortality is ensuring that every baby is delivered with the assistance of a skilled health attendant - doctor, midwife or nurse - who has the skills and training to prevent or treat potentially life-threatening complications. Despite progress made in recent decades, in 2012 40 million births in developing regions were not attended by skilled health personnel, with over 32 million of these births occurring in rural areas.

VSO are making a significant contribution to improving these statistics by their programmes to train midwives in developing countries. In this short film, Lilian - a midwife in a small village in Malawi - talks about the training she received from a VSO volunteer midwife, and her tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfilment at being able to save the lives of mothers and babies in her community.

Lilian with VSO volunteer Beth and a happy mother and baby

Benefits and Risks

The centres that we work with follow a national curriculum of weekly topics with the children. (The topics themselves are not inappropriate, but the idea that 3 year old children learn in weekly chunks according to a set schedule strikes me as bizarre, to say the least. But that's an aside.)
At the beginning of the project I asked my coordinator to translate the summary topic webs for each topic so we could have an idea what they were studying and help them find more appropriate ways of exploring the ideas and concepts involved. A recurring theme throughout the topics seems to be "Benefits and risks" - e.g. benefits of fruit and vegetables - they are very good for you and have lots of vitamins; risks of fruit and vegetables - if you eat too many you'll end up spending too much time in the toilet!
When it came to translating the topic about the seasons, each season had its particular benefits - hot season: you can dry your clothes quickly; rainy season: you can grow crops etc., but when it came to risks it didn't seem to matter which season it was, the main risk was that you might get ill.
When I lived in Italy, I fought long and hard against the idea that illness was caused by changes in the weather. But here I am finding myself surrounded by the same ideas, and I am slowly beginning to cave in. So it was that when I started getting a sore throat at the weekend I mused "Ah, that's probably because it's rainy season. It'll be the fluctuation between rain and sunshine." (Though thinking about it, that can't be right, or in the UK everyone would be permanently ill!)
I spent the entire weekend waiting for the sore throat to materialise into a full-blown cold, but it didn't. Neither did it get any better, and by this morning I was in considerable pain with it. Peering into the back of my throat with a torch I discovered that my tonsils were very swollen and a peculiar shade of pinky-yellow.
I reluctantly threw on my poncho and set off on my motorbike in the rain to the hospital. They went through the usual routine of weighing, taking blood pressure and temperature. (The scales announced that I am now a mere 49.1kg, clothed. Anyone wishing to lose weight, I can recommend the following approach:

1. Go to live in a country where you don't get on with the food - too spicy and meat-based for a delicate-stomached pescatarian such as myself
2. Discover you have IBS and cut out a whole load more things from your diet in a desperate bid to identify the trigger foods
3. Settle on a completely bland, innocuous and utterly boring but relatively "safe" diet, and take in all your trousers for the nth time.

Here endeth the digression)

The doctor spoke fairly good English. He asked about my symptoms - how long had I had the sore throat? Did I have a runny nose? No. Any congestion? No. Any cough? No. Just this horribly painful sore throat. He then peered in with torch and lolly-stick and announced what I had suspected, that I had tonsillitis. I came away with a week's supply of antibiotics plus two different medicines for relief of cough and congestion, despite the absence of any such symptoms. They do like to prescribe generously here!
I have spent a quiet day at home and will probably do the same tomorrow, just to knock it on the head. I don't want to go spreading germs to the little kiddies, even though they probably gave it to me in the first place! Benefits and risks of working with young children....

Where there's a will...

Over the last few months I have been working together with a small local community-based organisation on a pilot program aimed at enabling more migrant children of pre-school age to enrol in the Thai education system. Most of the organisations working to support migrant education here on the border concentrate on the older students, and there has been very little attention paid to the early years of schooling. This is why VSO decided to carry out the Early Childhood Development project in the first place, as they recognised this gap in provision for the youngest children.

For migrant children whose families are likely to be here in Thailand long term, the best hope for future integration in society is through successful schooling in the Thai education system. Many migrant children begin their education in migrant learning centres and later attempt to transfer into  Thai schools. One of the biggest challenges for them is attaining the required level of Thai language.

The organisation that I have been collaborating with over the last few months - Migrant Education - supports a number of migrant learning centres in and around Mae Sot. They place particular emphasis on helping the migrant learning centres to prepare students for successful transition into Thai schools.
The pilot program aims to get more migrant children into the Thai system right at the beginning of their schooling. We have been working together with the local Ministry of Interior education department in one of the sub-district areas where I am doing my project to explore ways to increase the capacity of the two child-care and development centres to enrol more migrant children over the next few years.

As is to be expected when working with government departments, the whole process is taking rather longer than we anticipated, and we are still ironing out the final details of the working agreement. We are also very conscious of the great uncertainty surrounding the future for migrants due to the recent political changes here in Thailand. It is far from clear whether migrant children will continue to be permitted the level of access to education in the Thai system that they were granted under the Education for All policy.

Nevertheless, we are persisting, driven by a firm belief in the power of education to bring about lasting and positive change. This is a belief that has been echoed by many voices in recent weeks. As the Millennium Development Goals are drawing to a close, there seems to be a flurry of attention given to goals not yet reached. Currently, 58 million children worldwide remain out of school, and Unesco recently gave a very pessimistic prediction about the possibility of achieving the key MD goal of universal primary education by 2015.

However, despite this bleak outlook, there are many examples of countries, each facing their own particular challenges, that have shown the political will to bring about change. In Ghana, the number of children enrolled in school increased from 2.4 million in 1999 to 4.1 million last year, as a result of a doubling in spending on education. Other actions taken by governments around the world to increase enrolment levels include a drive in Morocco to support ethnic and linguistic minorities by introducing the teaching of the local language in primary schools; the abolition of school fees in Burundi; and the introduction of a new curriculum in Vietnam focused on disadvantaged pupils. (See The Guardian - Global Development- Thursday 26 June 2014).
Of course, just getting children into school is only a first step. Measures also need to be taken to ensure that they are able to continue their schooling, and that the education that is provided is of a quality that will provide them with the skills and knowledge that they need to succeed in life.

I am very conscious that the work that I am involved with is the tiniest of tiny drops in the ocean of the problem to be tackled. However, the examples of the countries above illustrate what can be achieved when the political will is there. Unesco's director general, Irina Bokova, called on others to learn from the experiences of countries like Burundi and Ghana: "Real progress is possible and we owe it to children to pursue it."

School Trip

This weekend is the Buddhist Lent festival, and today the children at the centre we are working with this week went to the temple to celebrate, together with the local school and many other members of the community.

All dressed up and ready to go!

We set off at 9.00 and walked the few yards down the road to the temple. No one else had arrived, as the rest of the gathering were first processing around the village with music and floats, so we sat down to wait... and wait.... and wait. The children amused themselves by running around the open space of the temple and climbing on the furniture, as 3-year old children will.

Arriving at the temple

They sat down quietly for a few minutes at least!

 

These chairs were great for climbing on

 

Around 10.00 the teacher in me began to think "These children are all going to start needing the toilet soon. I hope we don't get lots of little puddles on the temple floor..." By 10.30 there was still no sign of anything happening, so a decision was made to take the children back to the centre and give them an early lunch and then return when the procession arrived.

The children duly had their lunch, we sang our entire repertoire of songs with the ukulele and they sat down to watch TV while the teachers had some lunch, before the procession finally appeared at mid-day going down the road past the centre.

We all trooped back to the temple to join the ceremony, which is one of bringing gifts of money and food to the temple. It also seems to involve spectacularly large candles.

 

 Something happening at last!

 

 The arrival of the giant candle

 

The leaves of these decorative "trees" are bank notes.  Visually creative giving!

It was not an especially long ceremony, but one little girl did fall asleep, and who can blame her - that is their usual routine after lunch!

Getting back into the swing of things

In the middle of my film-making efforts, my computer started playing up. I think it was finding the whole process as stressful as I was. I even encountered the dreaded Blue Screen of Death for the first time, followed later by a message I had not seen before: "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown." Having been through a rather rocky patch over the last month or so, with high levels of stress and anxiety and occasional moments when I was ready to pack it all in and come home, I think I can now say that I have recovered from my unexpected shutdown. My computer also seems to be back to normal!

Having left the teachers in peace during the month of May so that they could settle the new children in, we resumed our normal rounds of visits in June. At some centres we were encouraged to see that they were continuing to apply some of the ideas that we had shared, even after the school break in April. At others, progress seemed to have slipped back, and we felt as if we were starting again.

On Saturday we held our third workshop for all the teachers. This one focused on curriculum planning, physical development and creative activities. As usual, it was all very hands on, and teachers found themselves hopping around like frogs and being creative with potato printing, in between planning practical activities for curriculum delivery.

The creative activities session was designed to encourage teachers to see the value in allowing children to experiment with materials and be genuinely creative, rather than controlling the activity to such an extent that all children produce an identical piece of work, which tends to be the usual approach:

A fine example of what we are trying to encourage them NOT to do!

We discussed the importance of helping children to grow up to be independent thinkers and problem-solvers, and the role of creative activities in developing these skills and attitudes, before letting the teachers loose on a whole variety of materials with no specific instructions other than to be creative. I was quite impressed, given their usual tendency to be very formulaic in their approach to any creative challenge. They seemed to be taking the message on board. We'll see what happens in the classroom...

 

The workshop all went very well and according to plan, but I was glad to see it over as I was rather under the weather with some sort of stomach upset. I got through the day courtesy of Paracetamol and Loperamide, and collapsed gratefully into bed for the rest of the evening once I got home.

Making a Difference

The deed is done! It came very close to costing me a nervous breakdown, and I do not see a blossoming career as a film-maker ahead of me, but I finally finished putting together the film of my work here, and in time for Refugee Week in the UK.

The Refugee Week theme this year is "Different Pasts, Shared Future". With 50% of the world's refugees reported to be children and young people, Refugee Week is focusing on these young people, who demonstrate such resilience and determination in building a new future for themselves in the UK, and who will play an important and positive role in shaping future society.

I was struck by the echoes of my own reflections on the impact of the VSO Early Childhood project here in helping migrant children, through education, to take up a strong position and make a positive contribution to society as they grow up.

Those of you in the UK can make a difference by getting involved with Refugee Week events in your area, or by visiting the "Simple Acts" website and completing a Simple Act of Welcome, which will help change the way refugees are perceived and bring about positive change in your local community.

But first, grab some popcorn, sit back and enjoy viewing "Making a Difference"!

 

I agree with Nick

I know it is terribly unfashionable these days to be seen to be in agreement with anything that Nick Clegg says. However, I am going to stick my neck out and say that when it comes to the importance of vigorously defending the UK's commitment to international development aid, I wholeheartedly agree with the comments he made in a recent speech.

When economic times are tough, it is very easy to get drawn in by the argument that Britain has enough of its own problems, without spending money to support development in other parts of the world. The real eye-opening moment for me came seven years ago when I joined a team from a small Italian NGO as a volunteer on a project working with children and families in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We visited the homes of some of the families being supported by the project; tiny, one-room shacks not much bigger that a garden shed, cobbled together from whatever materials could be found and completely inadequate when it came to keeping out the rain. The entire family would live together in this one room, with no access to any type of washing, cooking or toilet facilities.

I kept a little diary of my thoughts and observations while I was there, and I can still vividly remember sitting on my bed in the little guesthouse where we were staying, struggling to put into words the emotions that were swirling round in my head. I realised that the only difference between me and the families that I had visited was where we happened to have been born. I had benefited from all the opportunities that come from growing up in a prosperous and politically stable country, and yet I realised that there was nothing about me that made me any more deserving of those opportunities than these children and their families.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that we are all born free and equal in dignity and rights. Fine words in theory, but in reality the geographical accident of our birth means that for many people trying to access the most basic of those rights is a lifelong struggle. I was nevertheless struck by the dignity of these people, and by the care, dedication and compassion of the staff of the local community based organisation that worked with the families to provide whatever support they could.

When I returned to Italy, I can remember being moved to indignant anger by the advertising campaign of a company selling electrical goods that had chosen the strapline "It's Your Right". I wanted to take a paintbrush to the hoardings on the metro and scrawl in huge letters "NO! Clean drinking water - that's a right. Access to basic education and healthcare - that's a right. The latest cinema-sized flat screen TV is not a right; it's a luxury!!"

I am not suggesting that we should not aspire to improving our own standard of living, or enjoy the benefits that come from living in a prosperous, developed country. However, I do think that perhaps we need to re-assess our perspective before asserting that, as a country, we have too many of our own problems to be able to lend a hand to those truly struggling against the odds.

The VSO project that I am working on here aims to improve the prospects for young migrant children growing up in Thailand by supporting them to make a really strong start to their education. Being successful in their education will be the key that will help them to break out from the marginalisation and poverty of the past and take up a strong and positive role in society in the future.

As a result of recent changes in Burma, many of the NGOs and other agencies that have been working on the border to support refugees and migrants are now moving to work within Burma instead. NGOs of course depend on funding from donors, and the pot is not bottomless. As donors shift their emphasis to Burma, the support for refugees and migrants in Thailand is gradually drying up. However, the reality for many refugees and migrants is that they have no safe home to return to and they will need to remain here in Thailand for years to come. A recent article published by Karen News highlights the concerns expressed by many organisations working on the border that deep cuts in international development aid mean that refugees are coming under pressure to return to Burma before it is really safe for them to do so.

Given the growing antipathy towards migrants that seems to be taking hold in the UK, I suppose I am being particularly optimistic to think that people will be moved by the plight of migrants to another country halfway round the world, but then that is the whole point of my argument. It doesn't matter where in the world people may find themselves - every human being is equally deserving of the same rights and opportunities and we should do whatever we can to make that a reality.