Blog de Brenden Sloan

Yesterday I shared my experiences from the first day of our recent Donor Inspiration Tour in Thailand. Below, my reflections continue, covering the last three days of the trip.

While driving back to Chiang Mai from Mae Sot, on the Thai/Burma border, we stopped at Mae Moh Village to learn about villagers’ struggle against a nearby coal-burning power plant. Financed by the Asian Development Bank and completed in 1997 by Electric Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the Mae Moh power plant displaced over 30,000 people, and its sulfur-dioxide emissions led to thousands of severe respiratory infections. We saw first-hand the result of EGAT’S failed involuntary resettlement policy, and talked with local villagers who had lost not only their homes, but also their friends to health-related effects of the plant’s pollution. The villagers remain locked in legal battles and are still awaiting the majority of the $142,000 promised to them by the Thai Provincial Court.

The following morning, after a restful night in Chiang Mai’s Chedi Hotel, we visited the EarthRights School Mekong, where we met the recently arrived class of 2011, played icebreaker games and then gathered in small groups to hear the students’ stories and struggles.  After the previous day’s poignant visit to Mae Moh, our group found solace in the ERSM classrooms, where impassioned and dedicated young leaders build skills to further the fight against such environmental and human rights abuses.

In the afternoon we met with the local staff at ERI’s office, and received presentations on ERI’s Mekong Legal programs, Mekong Alumni Program, and Burma Campaigns.  The presentations helped place ERI’s work in the context of the ever-growing network of earth rights defenders throughout Southeast Asia. 

We concluded the day with another wonderful dinner, this time at the local Whole Earth Restaurant.  The following day was a “day of rest;” . . .

I recently returned to Washington DC from northern Thailand, where I coordinated and led our first Donor Inspiration Tour. During the buildup to the trip I was consumed by logistics, including everything from making hotel reservations and food arrangements to finding bug spray and rain ponchos for all our participants.  It took awhile for me to realize that, just like the rest of the participants on our pilot tour, this was my first time ever seeing ERI’s local work in the Mekong Region. I had no idea how much I personally would be impacted by finally meeting my colleagues who work tirelessly to improve the lives of all those in the Mekong Region, and by being exposed to the challenges they face.

The adventure started with a scenic drive through the beautiful rolling mountains of Northern Thailand, to the Thai/Burma border town of Mae Sot. Mae Sot is home to hundreds of thousands of Burmese migrants and refugees, many of them displaced or evicted from their homes to make way for international development projects, or chased away by violent military conflicts inside Burma.

In Mae Sot, our group first met with the incredible Dr. Cynthia Maung, an ethnic Karen who fled Burma in 1989 and established the Mae Tao medical clinic, which treats more than 75,000 undocumented refugees and migrants from Burma every year, many whom would have nowhere else to go for basic medical care.  We met with some of the patients, and had one particularly poignant conversation with a smiling farmer who had lost his leg to a land mine just two days prior. 

Humbled and honored after our morning at Dr. Cynthia’s clinic, the group’s next destination was the Mae La refugee camp, the biggest of its kind in all of Thailand. As we approached the gates, . . .