Building Community Knowledge

Since our evaluation camp at the end of March our university students have been hard at work, returning home for the holidays and conducting community surveys in their villages.  The surveys helped developed several important skills while also providing an opportunity for the students to examine their homes by researching a diverse range of topics including the local economy, governance, religion and infrastructure to name a few.  From the 9^th to the 11^th of May our university students came together to share their conclusions. While the results revealed a diverse range of experiences they also shone the light on what is several commonly confronted issues including development, gender role and land issues.

The communities in Mae Hong Son are rural and located in isolated, mountainous areas sometimes inaccessible during the wet season.  Environmental events were common as landslides and flash floods regularly affected life.  The location of many villages within, or near, national parks also has an impact on cultural traditions, agricultural practises and livelihoods that are connected with the land.

The belief structure in the communities was also discussed with a diverse range of beliefs represented in our student body. Christian, Buddhist and Animist were the most common with some communities containing all three religious and cultural groups.  One Shan student originated from a Buddhist, Shan and Muslim village.  What became clear were the varying degrees the different beliefs and cultures had blended.  In some cases students who considered themselves Christian retained a lot of their Animist traditions and beliefs.

An important skill developed through the exercise was that of analysis and it was when the students examined the gender roles in their communities that they drew some confronting conclusions.  Gender roles and the expectations of marriage are traditionally based, deeply ingrained and is something that many of our students, particularly the women, felt constrained by.  In some cases women who had exceeded their position in the community or marriages that had been deemed ‘illegal’ were blamed for bad luck, natural disasters and deaths in the community.  During the presentations many discussions were held around this issue in the hopes that it would create awareness and confidence in the students to address these pressures in a constructive way.

Conducting the surveys also presented the students with an opportunity to confront their own pre-conceptions.  Puu Saw, a junior staff member here at Sangsan, talked about a woman many neglected in the village due to her a practises in witchcraft.  For many years Puu Saw had been warned not to talk with the woman by elders in the community but in undertaking the survey Puu Saw decided to seek out the woman’s story.  The result surprised Puu Saw as the woman did not meet any of the negative pre-conceptions the community had held about her.  Quite the opposite and furthermore she provided a lot of interesting knowledge on the community.

Development has also brought change, and subsequent challenges, to the villages.  A consistent theme was the loss of customs, with songs and folk tales not learnt by new generations.  Often at ceremonies the elders of the community have to support the youth to sing a song and our students hoped that their survey results could help record and preserve some important cultural traditions.

A lack of infrastructure, access to health services, reliable electricity and poor road conditions were also common experiences.   Education for many children within the communities was obstructed by financial unaffordability, seasonal work demands, traditional gender roles and geographical access often making our students an exception within their communities to have achieved university enrolment.

Aside from the ability to analyse other skills are practised through the exercise.  Research, interviewing and presentation skills were employed and developed through doing the exercise.  Creating a PowerPoint presentation is another skill the students employ regularly at university and was also covered.  An additional short exercise on PowerPoint design helped the students develop their skills further.

The surveys revealed a lot about the issues and experiences facing our students but more importantly it provided a great opportunity for the students to learn new skills and further develop old ones.  Perhaps the greatest outcome was the ability for the students to analyse and reflect on the impact their communities have had on them personally and how they can then impact their communities when they graduate.