Warm Heart at Work

On 14 May, Aisha and I (the HIV/AIDS team) met with Kittichai Kittisaro, a Buddhist monk from Phrao’s Wat Kuam Paak. In the past, Kittichai has organized programs to assist the HIV positive population in Phrao and educate the at-risk population regarding HIV/AIDS. This meeting was important because Kittichai could be a valuable resource and partner Warm Heart’s HIV/AIDS team. Aisha and I briefed Kittichai regarding the type of services and resources our program might entail and we solicited his opinion regarding the direction in which we are heading. He endorsed our plan and provided valuable feedback. The team is excited about collaborating with him in the future!

USC Medical School student intern Aisha writes: John and I have done quite a bit of research in the past few weeks on HIV/AIDS prevention/education—not to mention hours of brainstorming about how to best serve the HIV positive women and children in Phrao. We have participated in two radio shows with DJ Naan-Oun (Pi John)—one where John and I were crushed in a game of paytong after the show, and the other where I told all of Phrao that the world wouldn’t be the same after Michael Jackson’s death. This week, John and I have two meetings in Chiang Mai with NGOs focused on HIV/AIDS work, and are hoping to visit the wat to speak with the HIV positive women there as well. We are excited to here what everyone has to say, and are hoping to get some useful materials from the NGOs we are meeting with!

Warm Heart is bursting with new life. Six new interns have added almost more energy than we can stand and have reinvigorated everyone. They are very task oriented and we are already seeing results. I have set impossible goals for the summer – and have every intention of seeing them accomplished!

Aisha and John are working with HIV+ mothers and their HIV+ kids to develop a support program. What they have learned through interviews so far is that Phrao has some 15 HIV+ kids 12 and under (kids born before access to anti-retrovirals all died). The kids are shunned in the their villages and at school. Their mothers receive medical advice when they or their kids are sick, but no help to be better mothers, to deal with their kids’ questions or their own social isolation. We hope that together with a group of mothers and older children Aisha and John can develop a program that Warm Heart will be able to operate for the – unfortunately – growing population of HIV+ parents and children.

Aisha Scherr-Williams is a 2009 grad from University of Puget Sound and will be attending USC Medical School in the fall; John Arnold is UVA grad who is completing a Masters in Pacific International Affairs at the UCSD School of International and Pacific Studies.

Josh is laboring alone in back of the office to build a prototype solar hot water heater. Hot water is an unknown luxury here – but much appreciated by everyone who has ever tried it! (You need only take an ice cold bucket bath in December when the temperature is 40◦ to appreciate why.) But available heaters are electric, expensive, expensive to operate, and environmentally unfriendly (a large portion of Thailand’s electricity is produced with coal). Josh’s challenge is to harness the sun using recycled materials – old 55 gallon drums and insulation made from flattened Styrofoam food containers (themselves a ubiquitous, non-biodegradable environmental disaster here). If he succeeds soon enough, his next project is to make the Warm Heart Children’s Homes an industrial strength solar rice and soup boiler using an abandoned TV dish.

Josh /Wiener completed the Global PACT Thailand training at Rajabhat University in Chiang Mai in June and will return to Rutgers University in the fall where he is a double major in Political Science and Environmental Policy planning to graduate in 2011.

David, Sylvia and Zack have joined the Microenterprise and Microfinance Project. David and Zack have already assembled a library of microfinance training manuals and teaching materials. We will begin putting together the Warm Heart program next week. (Our clients are way behind the assumed clients of the normal training programs. We will have to back into things a bit more slowly starting with the basics of a family budget and building from there.) Meanwhile Sylvia is designing a microfinance market survey that she and Mae Joom will take into the rice paddies and lamyai orchards next week.

David Rose is a researcher on loan from Prof. Somboon, a senior leader of the Karen people in Thailand. David, an ex-lawyer now engaged full-time in NGO work, is working with Warm Heart in preparation for his work with the Karen. Sylvia and Zack Wagner-Rubin are both MPIA candidates at UCSD IR/PS.

Micro Enterprise has gathered another shipment of products that is now en route to the US and scheduled to arrive in time for Black Friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year and the official start of the holiday shopping season. The featured products are HANDCRAFTED evidence of the local artistry in Phrao.

Warm Heart’s Micro Enterprise team recognizes the rare beauty of the products of Phrao as well as the creativity of their makers, and looks forward to to sharing these items with an international market in time for the holidays. Most importantly, the Micro Enterprise team looks forward to the support these sales will provide to the Phrao community.

Some of the most popular items from the Back-to-School shipment are to be featured in the Holiday sale.  A colorful array of scarves from the Weavers of Wat Toong Luang are guaranteed to keep its wearers warm and fashionable this winter season and Saa paper products from Baan Mayaoon Saa Paper Factory include stationary sets, boxes, and notebooks.

In addition, the artisans have created some new products for the holiday sale, including Saa paper lanterns in various shapes, and colorful mobiles all from Baan Mayaoon Saa Paper Factory. Warm Heart is also testing out the children’s market at high-end boutiques with a few sample sets of wooden toys and puzzle games from various stores located in the furniture district of Chiang Mai.

This holiday season, make a conscious decision while spreading the holiday cheer by gifting with Warm Heart’s products from university sales at Northeastern, Rutgers, and UCSD. A beautiful gift that supports artisans and small business development on the other side of the world will bring us all together in celebration.

My name is Alicia Genna. Currently I’m living in the Phrao District of northern Thailand, working on a Public Health initiative with Warm Heart Thailand. I’m far from home; this is how I got here.

Last summer, I traveled to Thailand with a study abroad program through Northeastern University. The Dialogue of Civilizations trip, led by Denise Horn, a professor at Northeastern University, took us to Mae Sai, the northernmost town in Thailand bordering Burma. I worked with other young women from all over—Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Laos, Burma (Myanmar)—in a “community development” training workshop. Many of these women had grown up in underdeveloped areas just like Mae Sai, and suffered the effects of a community that was unable to sustain them. Some had lost limbs in unsafe working conditions and some had been subjected to horrific sexual exploitations. All showed signs of abuse and humiliation.

I grew to understand the issues of the community through my personal relationships with these women. They were amazing—so smart, beautiful, kind, ambitious. Despite all obstacles, they were already on their way to saving the world.

Now I’m back in Thailand, working at Warm Heart with some of my old friends and some new ones. Warm Heart is a nongovernmental, grassroots organization located in Phrao, one of the poorest regions in northern Thailand. Here, the local people suffer a loss of culture, a severe lack of education, little business opportunity, and poor health care. My professor, Dr. Michael Shafer, fell in love with this area on our last visit, put his job on hold, and personally invested everything into creating Warm Heart, into nurturing this community.

I work directly with Warm Heart via Northeastern’s Co-op Program. With the support of GlobeMed Northeastern, I’m currently working on portable medical clinic designed to reach the hill tribe villages around Phrao. Warm Heart also offers co-ops in the areas of elementary education, local economics, cultural preservation, nursing and public health, environmental conservation, micro enterprise, nonprofit public relations, and IT database development.

If giant crickets and monsoon weather 24/7 aren’t your fancy there are other ways to get involved. Visit the employment section of our website to learn more. Send us your suggestions, donations, professional advice, and any stories you might want to contribute. In addition, Warm Heart is holding a Micro Enterprise Back-to-School sale to support local artisans during the first month of classes at Northeastern, Rutgers, and UCSD. Look for the Warm Heart table run by the International Affairs Society during the Student Activities Fair beginning on September 11 at Northeastern. Rock back-to-school accessories handmade by the Weavers of Wat Toong Luang and Pa Daeng.

Distance makes no difference. The problem is still there and the solution is in your hands. Look through my eyes at a six year-old little girl jumping around with excitement because I just handed her a toothbrush. Then think about how such a minimal effort would reward you the giver. We really need your help, in whatever form it may come.

Look us up! Make a move! And in return, you’ll be the reason for a little girl’s lighthearted dance! What could be better?

Alicia has submitted a version of this piece to several newspapers in her hometown of Olivebridge, NY, as well as her university newspaper, The Huntington News.

Having bid a sad farewell to Andrea Castillo last week, the team has translated the results of our recent market survey and brought them to Bangkok for further meetings with Dr. Michael Shafer and a consulting engineer. After another round of evaluations, the team has a roadmap for the additional work and research that must be completed. For the next few weeks, the team will be concentrating on performing more fieldwork around Phrao. Last week’s market survey will be considerably broadened as more data is collected on how the agricultural material flows in northern Thailand.

Updates to follow!

Huyen and I arrived in Koh Samet at our hotel the Ao Phai Huts. Our room was 600 baht a night - in Chiang Mai, 600 baht gets you A/C, breakfast, nice beds…in Ao Pai on a weekend it gets you a run down “bungalow” consisting of a piece of foam on a raised platform, sheets full of stains and holes, a run down bathroom, and a lot of bugs. Unfortunately Koh Samet is a favorite of Thais. It is close to Bangkok and there are low amounts of rain during the rainy season so everyone heads here on the weekends. We managed to talk our room rate down to 500 baht per night and opted to sleep on top of our towels, cover ourselves in bug spray at night, and hope for the best. Overall, it didn’t turn out to be so bad, as we were only a 2 minute walk to one of the nicest beaches on the island!

The next morning we got Thai massages on the beach. The massage was 200 baht massage with the sound of the ocean in the background, not bad. I could have done that all weekend if I’d had more money!

We had met a woman from England, Becky, while waiting for our bus in Bangkok and we randomly ran into her again on the beach. We had lunch with her and her friend Les, an American from D.C. who is spending a year teaching English at a girls’ school in Bangkok. After parting ways for some time at the beach, we all met up again for a seafood dinner on the beach. We all had a great time trading stories, drinking beer and eating well.

From there we wandered down to some of the full moon parties, enjoying a fun night of dancing and drinking. Of course, by dancing, I mean that Huyen and Becky danced, while I kind of bounced, and Les just looked annoyed. But it was still a great time!

Saturday night was spent wandering Khao San and Rambutri in search of a place to spend the night. Six guesthouses later, we ended up with adjacent rooms at Orchid Guest House on Rambutri. Huyen and I ended up eating Thai curry at an Israeli restaurant.

After spending Sunday at the beach we began the long journey back to Phrao, refreshed and ready for the week ahead!

Written By: Shannon Pallone

University of California San Diego

Colin Ashe is the newest member of the Carbon Credits and Renewable Energy team. Colin recently graduated from Northeastern University with a degree in Biology. He will be taking over all projects at the end of this week when Andrea Castillo finishes her summer internship with Warm Heart and heads back to San Diego.

This week, most of Warm Heart’s Thai staff is conducting informal interviews with biomass farmers and biomass businesses all over Phrao in order to more accurately assess the availability of agricultural residue in the district. According to the data gathered, there is enough biomass within a 50km radius of Phrao to establish at least a 4 mega watt biomass powered generator. This is a major turning point in the project, as the availability of biomass will ultimately define the future boundaries of this project.

The Micro Enterprise team said goodbye to Huyen Giap, a UCSD graduate student, last week. Huyen has been with Warm Heart since the very beginning and contributed to the establishment and development of the first few months of the Micro Enterprise Initiative. The team will miss this woman who brought her education in business to the Warm Heart office. Her Vietnamese background combined with an American education provided the team with new insight into the differences of the Eastern and Western marketplace, as well as balancing the cultural dynamics of the Micro Enterprise team itself.
The rest of the team forged on after a delayed shipping date of the Back-to-School product line. The final shipment of products will be sent by this Friday with an expected US arrival during the first week of September, just in time for the Back-to-School season. The coding for all the products in the Warm Heart product line has been completed, and now the team will prepare the marketing strategy and logistics of U.S. sales on university campuses and a boutique in New Jersey.

With the research phase of the biomass project nearly finished, Andrea Castillo of UCSD took a trip to Bangkok to meet with a consultant engineer. This American engineer has been working in Thailand since 1982 and has extensive experience in the energy sector. He has also worked on several renewable energy projects, five of which include Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) approved biomass powered generator projects.

Andrea and the engineer went over the data that has been gathered over the course of the summer and the numbers looked promising. The team will still need to gather more data on the estimated surplus biomass in order to figure out the actual tonnage that will, in fact, be available. Andrea had also prepared several technical questions to ask the engineer. He was able to provide some great resources and will follow up on the more information that is still missing.

Overall, the meeting went very well. It looks like the team will move onto implementation feasibility research, the next phase of the project. This process will involve several informal and formal meetings with local stakeholders and the creation of the Project Design Document (PDD). The engineer will be heavily involved in this task as it involves a great deal of technical expertise.

For now, the team is focused on looking for a location for the power generator. Ideally, it will be a small piece of land that is close to a main road for transportation and electricity access, and to a water source for cooling water.

The team will also go around and collect samples of the biomass around Phrao such as corn cobs, rice husks, longan tree branches, rice straw, etc., and send them to a university for a chemical profile. This will help to assess the heat generating ability of each type of biomass and give a more clear picture of how much electricity can generated with the biomass powered generator operations.

The team is very excited about moving forth with this project.