Last week, the EarthRights School Burma (ERSB) marked a major accomplishment and important step in the lives of fifteen young leaders, as the Class of 2011 completed their intensive eight month program. The students have completed core courses including such subjects as international law, human rights, environment, government and rule of law; they have participated in field trips to view contemporary manifestations of these issues in practice; and they have further undertaken skills training in advocacy and campaigning, reporting, public speaking, community organizing and fundraising. Read more »
The EarthRights School Mekong (ERSM) students have recently returned from their two-month field research session, where they conducted research on the impacts and implications of various development projects throughout the region. Student research topics included Burma's recently postponed Myitsone Dam, the Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Zone, mini hydropower dam projects in Vietnam, a grassland restoration project in Tibet, bauxite mining in Laos, biomass and nuclear power plant projects in Thailand, and large dam projects in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. In many cases, our students are the only people conducting research and interviewing local people in these areas. The field session gave students the chance to apply what they learned during their first three months of the ERSM program. Read more »
This guest post comes from Matthew Allen, or "Teacher Matt," a teacher at the Health and EarthRights Training program (HEART). HEART, one of our partner schools, is a collaboration between ERI and Dr. Cynthia Muang, and early this month celebrated the graduation of its first class of students.
I was lucky enough to arrive at the HEART site shortly after construction started. On the back of his motorbike, the program’s coordinator drove me out of the dusty town of Mae Sot along a dirt track through endless fields.
After 15 minutes of dodging potholes, we arrived at the training center. The site is surrounded by sugar cane and rice fields as far as the eye can see, framed by the mountains of Burma and Thailand, and in the beginning of the hot season the sunsets are spectacular. Read more »
Congratulations to the inaugural graduating class of the Health and Earth Rights Training (HEART) Program! The twenty new graduates recently celebrated their achievement in a ceremony marking the conclusion of the seven month intensive training program.
The HEART Program is a partnership between ERI and Dr. Cynthia Maung, award winning Founder and Director of the Mae Tao Clinic, which provides free health care to refugees, migrant workers, and other individuals crossing the border from Burma to Thailand. The HEART Program trains participants drawn from communities along the Thai-Burma border and inside Burma in knowledge and skills around the intersection of health, the environment and human rights. Read more »
Deep in northeastern Thailand, bordering both Cambodia and Laos, Ubon Ratchathani is about as far from the smoggy chaos of Bangkok and sun-baked throngs of tourists as one could get. For Thai activists, however, this remote province was center stage for several of Thailands most dramatic grassroots campaigns for environmental justice. In August, students from the EarthRights School Mekong traveled to Ubon to meet the community members who dedicated their lives to these struggles.
The Pak Mun dam case has been in the Thai headlines since its completion in 1994. The reservoir it created displaced thousands of people and the fish catch decreased by as much as 80%, with 50 of the 265 species disappearing completely. For 25,000 people living along the Mun River whose income depended almost entirely on fishing, the dam was a disaster. To add insult to injury, it failed to produce anywhere near its projected electricity output. Read more »
In the past two months, students at the EarthRights School Mekong (ERSM) have been studying the impacts of large development projects, particularly dams, in the greater Mekong Region. Although funders of dams state that dams positively develop countries and reduce poverty, in reality, the result is often quite negative, particularly for rural and indigenous populations.
Large scale dams have been shown to flood villages, force people to resettle, and decreases food security by depleting fish species and flooding farmland. In addition, the energy that is generated from the dams often benefits only residents in larger cities.
The ERSM students have also learned that our dependency on non-renewable resources such as coal and oil is just as harmful. Fossil fuels have polluted our air and water, contributed to climate change, and cause respiratory illnesses. Read more »
The following essay was written by "Karine," a Vietnamese student at the EarthRights School Mekong, following a class trip to Tha Ta Fang, a small village on the Thai side of the Salween River (map), on the Thai-Burma border. The Salween is the longest dam-free river in mainland Southeast Asia, but is threatened by a number of proposed dam projects.
This guest post comes from Evan, an intern with ERI’s Burma Alumni Program, who recently spent two weeks living at the Social Development Center (SDC), on the Thai-Burma border, where he taught research and report writing. The SDC was founded by alumni from the EarthRights School Burma and has been training human rights and environmental defenders since 2003.
I recently had the privilege of teaching for two weeks in a village in Mae Hong Sorn Province. Initially, I was off-put by the small village (“it’s rustic!” I wrote, facetiously, to my friends in Chiang Mai), and I also had my reservations about the work, worrying about how the students would view me and whether I could communicate with them effectively, in English. Read more »
The 2011 session of the EarthRights School Mekong has begun! As in previous years, the new students hail from a wide array of countries and cultures around the Mekong region, including Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, China and Tibet. At the welcoming ceremony, the incoming students mingled with staff, friends of ERI and the students of the 2011 EarthRights School Burma. After the party, they wrote reflections on their arrival in Chiang Mai and their first impressions at the school.
Now I have a great family in Chiang Mai that is created by all Mekong School members and students. All students are honest and lovely. The welcome party was the best. While we were singing and dancing, we were forgetting and free of all the bad things and events of the world for a moment. -Burmese student
The EarthRights School Burma (ERSB) class of 2011 has arrived! The students have completed their orientation to life in Chiang Mai and classes have begun. Their course of study will include subjects such as human rights, government and democratization, women's rights, environmental rights, public speaking, report writing and intensive English.
While most of our past ERSB alumni have come from areas along the Thai-Burma border, this year the majority of the students hail from inside Burma, representing 9 different ethnic groups from throughout the country. Many are already working as community organizers and environmental activists and have committed themselves to a minimum of one year's service with their organizations after completing their training at ERSB.
After their first week of classes, the new students were asked to write about their first impressions and their hopes for the next few months... Read more »
The power of law and the power of people
in defense of human rights and the environment.
© Copyright 1995-2011, EarthRights International
ERI staff, February 2010
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