Chiang Rai

I write this from the northern Thai city of Chiang Rai. It’s a remote region famous for the Golden Triangle, a once thriving opium trade, and the beautiful Doi Chang mountains.

This is a rural area that is growing fast. The talk of the town is a super highway being built from China. This means more trade, more visitors, more cars and trucks.

Economic growth can certainly be a good thing. But it has consequences.

Will change mean a larger red light district in Chiang Rai? Will change mean more truckers and businessmen looking for a “good time” at night? Will change mean a child is even more at-risk as demand grows for cheap labor?

Will the demand include virgin girls?

It’s that stark, folks. It’s that evil.

People can fall through the cracks of change. As I said in my post about Bangkok, whenever wealth and poverty coexist there is exploitation. Chiang Rai is seeing the front lines of that risk. This once sleepy city of under 70,000 could easily be run over by a tidal wave of problems.

This is a distant location from the Klong Toey Slum, of course.  In Chiang Rai it doesn’t take long to leave the city center and see the countryside. It is a region of rice fields, farm workers and tractors.

But this is the front line of prevention on human trafficking and the economic disparity that causes such problems.

It is here we will find The SOLD Project. Just outside the city near a small village is their Resource Center, a simple building offering safety and hope to children and parents alike. Here you will find a place for students to drop in after school, get help with their homework, and learn ways to protect themselves from the risks around them.

This little resource center is a remote outpost of prevention on the front lines of the work most needed. It’s not attention grabbing work. It’s not the kind of thing that news crews normally cover, or celebrities often get involved with, or clever PR people turn into a fundraising machine.

Instead, prevention is helping a kid understand basic math or writing or reading. It’s explaining risks to parents. It’s working with teachers to spot problems early. It’s creating sustainable jobs.

I am inspired here in Chiang Rai by the committed people at SOLD. Leaders like Tawee and Plah who make a huge difference. Or the volunteerism of Nathan. Or the vision of Rachel.

But most of all I am inspired by the students. They often live in a home with absentee fathers. They often have mothers who are former sex workers. They attend weak schools with few resources. And they deal with a constant worry that there is no job waiting for them after school.

Yet somehow these students in The SOLD Project overcome it all. It’s not by accident. It’s by design. It’s through the work of the incredible people at SOLD.

One only has to look at Cat, who has a quick smile that can melt your heart, to understand the power of prevention. There are over a hundred kids in the program. Love, attention and hope are poured into their lives. Dignity and grace are at the core of it all.

Through SOLD, we can go to the source and make a difference. Rather than ignoring the issues of poverty and trafficking (what I might call the Singapore Solution), let’s dig deeper in our hearts and work to make a difference on the front lines. Let’s help groups like SOLD who use indigenous leadership to tackle the problems of their communities.

You can be part of this solution.  You can join them. Go to the website, make a gift, join the cause. You might think, “But it’s only a small gift, it’s not enough.” Phooey. What you consider a small gift is HUGE in this community. Even $4 a week is transforming. Do not use the excuse your gift is too small; celebrate your gift as courageous!

Just remember: change is inevitable in Chiang Rai, but you can prevent the downside if you work with SOLD. Join them.

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A few more thoughts as the trip ends. This journey has been about contrasts. From the strange backwater country of Myanmar to the bustling global center of Bangkok. From the Klong Toey Slum to Raffles Hotel. From the amazing city of Singapore to the remote rural city of Chiang Rai. And even now as I sit in a cheap little hotel near the Bangkok airport after being booted out of an overbooked posh hotel, I am struck by the dissimilarities a few blocks can make. And irritated by the flea bites on my legs.

The contrasts can be stark. But one thing is not so different. In each place I visited there was rapid change happening. The opening of an entire country in Myanmar, protests in Bangkok, the rapid rise of Singapore, the super highway in Chiang Rai. Change is happening and people are impacted deeply.

But there is another similarity. In each location there are people hungry for hope. Hope for  a way out. Hope for a job. Hope for a child. Even in Singapore there is hunger for meaning, purpose, or something other than the short term high of consumerism.

I have met amazing people doing great things to provide hope (pictures below). They have taught me a great deal. It is possible I have encouraged them, but it is certainly true they have encouraged me.

My intent is to not forget the hearts of the good people I have met. And to always treasure the hope they share.