In Thailand its rarely what you know that gets you ahead… its WHO you know. Warm Heart has made connections in the local government and we have people on our board who are able to connect up with the people, programs and facilities we need in order to complete whatever project we happen to be workin on that the moment.
For me, the project is working with youth in the Phrao area who have been caught with drugs or abusing alcohol. 99% of these kids will be adjudicated to a “recovery” program (which compared to the states is a joke) and have to check in with certain teachers at school, a nurse once a week for a drug test at the hospital and one of the local officials. These students do not trust their parents, don’t trust these resources and rarely talk about whats really going on with themselves.
Hand in hand with drugs and drinking is heavy smoking and a lot of unprotected sexual intercourse. Condoms are something that are often too “embarrassing” to use and as a result teen pregnancy and STD’s are running rampant in the northern country side. None of these issues are being addressed and because of the already participating in high risk behavior with drug and alcohol it is almost guaranteed that they're having unprotected sex as well.
There’s little education about any of these issues and many of the people trying to help these kids don’t give them an opportunity to simply talk about what’s going on but rather use the law to keep them in line. Anyone with an a past in addictions or a family member who’s an alcoholic or addict knows how rarely the law works—or if it does how rare it continues to work for the long term. Luckily for us we have a few progressive thinkers who are in prime spots for leadership in Phrao that are invested in the Warm Heart cause.
Mr. Manat is the man to know. If you want to get anything done he knows the most, interacts the most people and is considered the smartest dude in Phrao. He is at ever major ceremony (they love ceremonies around here) for every school, public office and major store that opens in Phrao. He holds some obscure position in the local government building but even PJ (our ever present translator extroadinair) isn’t sure how to explain what Mr. Manat does or what he’s exactly in charge of. Regardless, Mr. Manat has been working with the local teenagers for a while now that have been adjudicated due to drug use and abuse.
In order to get anything done Warm Heart needed to first approach Mr. Manat. This youth program is his baby and the people of this community trust him. Trust, for kids who have been abused by the local legal system is hard to come by in these parts. So that’s what we did on Tuesday. We sat down with Mr. Manat and talked about what we hoped to address and how we hoped to address it. He was polite if not indifferent. They seemed pleasant and I sensed a stand offishness about this American girl who doesn’t speak thai trying to help kids not do drugs.
I looked over at PJ and said “Can you tell them that I have a lot of experience working with people who have done drugs in the past. Tell them that I’ve helped them stay away from drugs and know some ways that we can help the kids stay away from them too.” PJ dutifully translated and as he was saying it Mr. Manat’s eyes lit up. I wasn’t some hopeful American with no training and no understanding of what these kids had been through. I knew what I was doing (regardless of my horrible thai) and I understood what needed to be done.
He quickly launched into Thai about needing to gain their trust, starting fun things for them to do as well and to talking to each one individually so that we can understand what they need. He spoke of how we need to become “their neighbor and friend” not just “the law”. I have to tell you, for a Thai man who is elderly these are INSANE concepts. I couldn’t believe that he had such a grasp on what these kids were really needing: someone who cared enough to listen. He quickly told PJ he would get us access so when they do home visits we can go with them and that we’d start with a smaller group (I found out later that “small” is 30… which is not small!!). All of a sudden we are working with the top leader in youth drug rehabilitation in northern Thailand. Now, lets be honest… there isn’t much competition but tomorrow we’re going to a training as he teaches staff from Chiang Rai and Mai Sai on how to interact with youth without involving the law. He will teach them how to be their neighbor instead of their authority: A novel concept for such an authority driven society.
I broached the idea of talking about life issues in groups and allowing students to voice what might be bothering them each day or each time our program met… he seemed confused by this-- how could them talking to each other help them? Yet he remained open to the idea that something different might actually work. All in all, the meeting went amazingly well. He even directed us to the specific teacher at the high school who taught most of these particular kids and asked us to go speak with her to gain support and find out what else the kids might be doing or participating in that was harmful. She is STOKED about the program and is more than willing to help survey the students to see what other issues they may have as well.
We are laying the foundation for something good and life changing. Perhaps the youth will look at our attempts as insane and laugh us out of Phrao. But something tells me that if we treat these kids like our equals or as Mr. Manat says “our neighbor” and give them the love and attention they’ve desperately needed—we will and can create change in this little corner of the world. There is a solution and hell does indeed have an exit-- now if we can just show it to them we'll be in business.
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