Community-based efforts in health promotion in indigenous villages on the Thailand-Myanmar border
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Ann N. Suk
Abstract
This case study of mainly Karen and Mon communities in Kanchanaburi Province, western Thailand, offers insight into the challenges that these rural villages face with regard to food security and environmental health issues. As non-Thai communities, these villages receive little support from the Thai government, and are often vulnerable in terms of access to food markets, infrastructure, and education and livelihood opportunities. This discussion further considers the involvement of Pattanarak Foundation, a Thai NGO, in health promotion and economic development in these villages as an example of a community partnership at the grassroots level. Examining Pattanarak’s efforts to build skills in household vegetable gardening and livestock-raising, raise awareness about child nutrition issues, and improve community sanitation illustrates the value of a participatory process, and also demonstrates some of the challenges associated with on-the-ground health promotion in disadvantaged rural communities. Applying a community-based participatory research (CBPR) framework to pursue partnerships between communities, NGOs, and researchers may offer an avenue for effective interventions to improve health in marginalized communities.
Acknowledgments
This manuscript would not have been possible without input from Pattanarak staff Mr. Teerapap Wattanapan, Ms. Piyawan Phomat, and Ajaan Seri Thongmak. In addition, Pattanarak staff and volunteers Mr. Kittipon Saisungkwangrop, Mr. Jordah, Ms. Nappason, Mr. Nared Pingmool, Mr. Dtawigeh, and Mr. Samunprai Saisungkwangrop offered support with data collection and advice. Other staff and community members offered insight as well; with special acknowledgement to Mrs. Duongjai Seekum and Mrs. Jinta.
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©2016 by De Gruyter
Articles in the same Issue
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Traditional and emerging environmental hazards in South-East Asia: double-trouble in the 21st century
- A quarter century of the Pacific Basin Consortium: looking back to move forward
- Exposure to Metals
- Arsenic projects in SE Asia
- Lead exposure from battery recycling in Indonesia
- Connecting mercury science to policy: from sources to seafood
- Mercury exposure in the work place and human health: dental amalgam use in dentistry at dental teaching institutions and private dental clinics in selected cities of Pakistan
- Protecting health from metal exposures in drinking water
- Exposure assessment of lead from food and airborne dusts and biomonitoring in pregnant mothers, their fetus and siblings in Karachi, Pakistan and Shimotsuke, Japan
- Mining
- Reconciling PM10 analyses by different sampling methods for Iron King Mine tailings dust
- The “CHILD” framework for the study of artisanal mercury mining communities
- Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas: impact on health and environment
- Hazardous Waste
- Searching bioremediation patents through Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
- Proteomics of Sphingobium indicum B90A for a deeper understanding of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) bioremediation
- Novel industrial wastewater treatment integrated with recovery of water and salt under a zero liquid discharge concept
- Water
- Connecting science with industry: lessons learned transferring a novel plasmonic mercury sensor from the bench to the field
- Pilot-scale UV/H2O2 study for emerging organic contaminants decomposition
- Nanotechnology: a clean and sustainable technology for the degradation of pharmaceuticals present in water and wastewater
- Solar-driven membrane distillation demonstration in Leupp, Arizona
- What works in water supply and sanitation projects in developing countries with EWB-USA
- Natural Disasters and a Changing Environment
- Environmental exposures due to natural disasters
- Changing exposures in a changing world: models for reducing the burden of disease
- Sustainable development through a gendered lens: climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
- Environmental Justice and Human Rights
- Creating healthy and just bioregions
- Worm-free children: an integrated approach to reduction of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Central Java
- Diabetes in Native Americans: elevated risk as a result of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
- Pollution, health and development: the need for a new paradigm
- EcoSystem
- Pacific connections for health, ecosystems and society: new approaches to the land-water-health nexus
- Exposure to e-waste
- E-waste: the growing global problem and next steps
- Global challenges for e-waste management: the societal implications
- E-waste issues in Sri Lanka and the Basel Convention
- E-waste interventions in Ghana
- CALUX bioassay: a cost-effective rapid screening technique for screening dioxins like compounds
- Cancer
- Cancer surveillance and research on environmental contributions to cancer
- Domestic incense use and lung cancer in Asia: a review
- Children
- Inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene in the South Pacific: how might it be impacting children?
- Children’s environmental health indicators in Australia: are we collecting the right information?
- Community-based efforts in health promotion in indigenous villages on the Thailand-Myanmar border
- Emerging issues
- Bayesian networks in infectious disease eco-epidemiology
- Health co-benefits in mortality avoidance from implementation of the mass rapid transit (MRT) system in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- Particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) personal exposure evaluation on mechanics and administrative officers at the motor vehicle testing center at Pulo Gadung, DKI Jakarta
- Life cycle assessment of dairy farms
