Mrs. Supa Preechaprasit
Biography
 Born on December 11th, 1970, Mrs. Supa Preechaprasit is currently 35 years old. Born and raised up in a rather poor family, she sacrificed her chances to have her formal education and allowed her 5 siblings to have theirs. With her great determination, she pursued her education by the supports from her friends and local school until she completed Grade 4. Mrs. Supa started to work when she was 14 years old as an employee in a bee farm. She worked there for 5 years and married Mr. Maitri Preechaprasit. In 1988, they then moved to settle down at San Suk village, Chiang Rai Province and had 2 children, Miss Wilaiporn and Mr. Wittawat Preechaprasit, who are now studying. Mrs. Supa ’s family is a farming family. They plant ginger, corn, rice, and also raise cattle.
When she was in the former village, Pa Mee, Mrs. Supa was a public health volunteer and also joined as a Village Protection Volunteer. She participated in many forest growing activities. As there was a Conservation Forest area in Ban Pa Mee, conservation schemes were initiated. People were not allowed to cut down the trees or destroy the Conservation Forest. Mrs. Supa herself was one of the members who made protection line against forest fire of the village which were held twice a year.
Mrs. Supa and her roles in development
In the late of 1999, Mrs. Supa’ s family participated with Heifer Thailand as she received a breeding female pig and a breeding male pig. Her family extended all the gifts of piglets to her neighbors. She actually raised pigs before that but they were hill pigs which were not a good breed. Mrs. Supa knew that Heifer can provide good breeds of pigs and had a good-will to truly help the depraved. She decided to ask for the support from Heifer. Unfortunately, in the same year her house was damaged by a fire. She had nothing left. She told that when the house was on fire, everyone in the family was working in the farm and she herself was sick. When coming back home, they watched their home burning but cannot do anything. It was the most desperate moment in life. The only hope was the pigs Heifer gave her. After that tragedy, Heifer came to help her family by giving 100 kgs of pig feed so that she can bring herself and her family back again. Later on, Mrs. Supa’ s family received 4 breeding heifers and 1 breeding cow from Heifer. Now, the cow gave 2 offspring. Heifer also gave support for farming at her back yard by making cement fish pond for feeding catfish and other vegetables around the pond for eating in the household.
From many activities supported by Heifer to benefit her family and her community, Mrs. Supa told that her family earned more money to cover the household expenses. Farming at the back yard provided more foods, which were safe and good for family’ s members.
Mrs. Supa’ s husband used to attend a training held by Heifer about Community Cattle Caring Volunteer. At the present, Mrs. Supa succeeded her husband’ s duty and raised her animals herself and also provided services for her neighbors when their animals were sick.
Before she stepped up as a forefront leader of San Suk Village, Mrs. Supa used to help Mrs. Pairoh YerBor, Women Group’ s Chairperson then, for a year. When Mrs. Pairoh resigned, she was elected to lead the Women Group from 1990 up to present. It had been 14 years that she was responsible for the position and in 2001 she was awarded the best performance female leader in developing community. The activities to improve life quality of women and San Suk community can be illustrated as follows.
Processed Herb Project. This project included shampoo, soap, herb balm, herb garden in community forest by growing them on the free space among the trees. There were many kinds of herb including Akha’ s herbs. Whenever activities were held whether inside or outside of the community, Mrs. Supa would lead the women group to sell their herbal products which was a way to earn income for the group.
San Suk Women Saving Group was an initiation for training women to save their money. At the beginning of the project, there was only 5,000 Baht capital and no one seemed to pay attention on this project.. Presently, however, there are 50 members and the saving money totals 60,000 Baht. Each member is to save their 10 Baht a month. The saving amount is for members to borrow as a capital for their occupation.
Women Cattle Raising Group. During the first phase of the project, there was only 20,000 Baht fund and there were only 12 members. After that, the Group tried to encourage more women to become members and there are now 50 members. The Group had 2 breeding cows and 1 offspring, and 10,000 Baht left in the account.
From the above activities, Mrs. Supa Preechaprasit was greatly involved as a chairperson of the group who made a great contribution in improving living standard of women and Ban Saen Suk community. She shared her opinion that these activities encouraged members to be cooperative to one another and learn how to share and help each other when needed. Apart from the activities mentioned, Mrs. Supa also played an important role in constantly helping other activities occurred in the community. Those activities included:
Forest Growing Project. Mrs. Supa and members participated in this activity and made protection lines against forest fire. Women Group normally prepared food for all participants who came to help growing the forest each year. For the protection lines against the forest fire, Women Group was responsible for the area connected with Saen Jai Mai Village together with Mr. Kitti, the Village Head. San Suk village at the moment completed growing forest covering 500 rais in Mae Chan District, Chiang Rai Province, which has been supported by Heifer. The project received impressive cooperation from both governmental and non governmental organizations totaling 18 organizations as well as 10 communities in its vicinity that also shared the benefits of the forest.
Community-based Water Quality and Quantity Monitoring was originated to respond the forest growing activities. “Water Conservation 2002” was then initiated in San Suk village as a project to evaluate water quality. Samples were collected by villagers and then recorded, interpreted, concluded, and disseminated. In other words, the project participants were called the scientists villagers. Heifer International Thailand would support in terms of academic resources, fund, and cooperation with other educational institutes either governmental or non governmental organizations.
“Water Conservation 2002” was one of Global Water Watch Project which was operated by Auburn University, U.S.A, and Heifer International Organization to collect information to monitor global water quantity and quality.
In “Water Conservation 2002”, a workshop was held to educate 19 villagers on how to inspect water quality. Mrs. Supa was one of few women who participated in the project from its beginning. She admired this project as it was beneficial to the community and to herself. For her, the project encouraged participants to be confident and outspoken. She and other members now provide information for those people who are interested in the subject. Besides, the project also raised people awareness to carefully consume their water resources as they knew that water was a place where diseases germinated. At the present, San Suk village becomes a model community on how to conserve environment as it was awarded by different organizations, especially the project of level water quality and quantity project, which is a rather new knowledge for villagers and raises their awareness to the water consumption.
Apart from the activities mentioned above, Mrs. Supa also attended trainings concerning forest and water conservation, side effects from using pesticides, EM Substance, workshop for water level quality and quality inspection. She received information concerning environment from village monthly meetings. She applied knowledge obtained and made EM liquid from snails in fish ponds to spray lychee trees as the environmental-friendly insecticide. She also shared the EM with her neighbors. To encourage villagers to participate, Mrs. Supa was responsible for her family and community and behaved as a model. As a good model, she was widely accepted and received cooperation when needed. All members attended the meeting under her lead.
Conclusion
Her perspective in developing community is to help the villagers earn more income and be determined and consistent in growing and conserving forest for the benefits of future generations. She strongly believes that fertile forest will yield enough water and foods.
Mrs. Supa remarks that she has today because of the support from Heifer. When her house was damaged by fire, Heifer helped her to be able to stand on her feet. Not only that, she was given animals to raise so that her family can live on them. They earned more income and became self-reliant. More importantly, Heifer helped her find out what sustainable development and self-sufficiency is like. Not only care for sufficient foods, increased income, but Heifer also realized the significance of human potential development, which pushed her to step up as a leading women in her community. Heifer cared for environment which was the most fundamentally factors of every living thing.
“I would like to thank Heifer for everything given to my family. I really appreciate the kindness in helping me and my family to stand firmly on this earth. Thank you for a great support in building me up so I can be in help for other women in my community and my sisters in this world.”, said she.
Today, however, Mrs, Supa is considered a model for other Akha women to step forward and play leading role in their community. That is so important that it can improve life quality of the people. They can work for enough food and earn more income. Importantly, the leading role of Ms.Supa inspire many Akha women to come out of their house, working shoulder by shoulder with men, to build up the equitable society and sustainable livelihood
|
