Chiang Rai News
Tea Seed Oil Plantation helps Chiangrai Children
Students at Ban Khayang Pattana School in the Doi Tung mountainous area strike a pose for a photo.
CHIANGRAI TIMES – A tea seed oil plantation in Chiangrai is helping a tribal community improve its lot. The sweet, herbal aroma of tea seed oil, with its wide variety of uses and healthy properties, offers a promising future for poverty-stricken tribal villagers in the far northern reaches of Thailand where families are often broken up in the effort to survive.
The tea oil, which is different to the better-known tea tree oil, is now starting to change the lives of the villagers in Ban Pang Mahan in tambon Terd Thai of Chiang Rai’s Mae Fa Luang district by helping them to make ends meet.
Tea seed oil, the main cooking oil in southern China, is now available at Ban Pang Mahan in tambon Terd Thai of Chiang Rai’s Mae Fa Luang district.
Their saviour is a special plantation project sponsored by the Siam Commercial Bank Foundation and the Mae Fa Luang Foundation, chaired by Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn.
The scheme, run by the Pang Mahan Reforestation for Poverty Alleviation Project, was launched six years ago to help improve the quality of life of all the people in the village.
HRH Princess Sirindhorn brought tea oil seeds from China and instructed the two foundations to help carry out the project. The princess visited the project site earlier this year to monitor its progress.
Tea seed oil is the main cooking oil in some of the southern provinces of China and can also be used to manufacture soap, hair oil, lubricants, paint and a rustproofing agent.
The Pang Mahan project is the first Thai outreach project to utilise and adapt the Mae Fa Luang Foundation’s Sustainable Alternative Livelihood Development (SALD) approach since the foundation undertook comprehensive developments in the mountainous area of Doi Tung in Chiang Rai 24 years ago and was able to improve the quality of life of hilltribe people there. Its projects are internationally recognised.
Ban Pang Mahan is home to about a thousand tribal villagers. The village is about 70km from the Doi Tung development project in the same district. It is located near the border with Myanmar’s Shan State.
Two hilltribe students at Ban Khayang Pattana School on Doi Tung study with their tablet computers.
Most of the villagers previously grew corn and rice, but it was subsistence living at its worst and did not generate enough money to support the families.
“The poverty forced many young people to drop out of school and leave the village to look for jobs in Bangkok and other cities, while many others were involved in the drug trade and trafficking,” said Ban Pang Mahan chief Piti Weiyu.
But after the tea plantation came along, Mr Piti said many villagers returned home and have been hired on a daily basis to take care of the trees, which are being grown on 1,049 rai of land.
“Each villager gets between 120 and 400 baht a day depending upon how hard they work,” he said.
The tea oil plantation is a pilot project which HRH Princess Sirindhorn is paying close attention to. The princess has played a major role in supporting tea oil plantations which are able to yield seeds after eight years.
If the pilot project is successful, villagers will be encouraged to grow more trees permanently.
In addition, the Mae Fa Luang Foundation plans to develop the village’s plantations in such a way that they become a tourist attraction.
Somnuek Saimua, 27, an Akha man from Ban Pang Mahan, said his family has been assigned to take care of 5 rai of trees on the plantation every day until the tea seed oil can be harvested.
Mr Somnuek said he and his parents now make enough money to cover their living costs and educational fees, earning about 6,000 baht a month. He said those working on the project can now make ends meet. “Now I spend money on further education. I am studying at the political science faculty of Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, which is in Chiang Rai, and will finish soon,” he said.
Mr Somnuek said he does not want to leave the village to find a job elsewhere after graduation as he wants to make use of his knowledge to help develop the quality of life of people in the area, especially in promoting education among hilltribe children.
Mr Somnuek said more than 70% of students in Ban Pang Mahan village still have no chance of pursuing further education.
They finish Mathayom 3 (Grade 9) and leave school to help their parents work. “If we do not help to encourage them to study, these young people will be vulnerable to drug addiction and can become drug traffickers and traders one day,” he said.
The Mae Fa Luang Foundation is also promoting the importance of education among hilltribe people. It has played a greater role in helping develop the quality of education at both primary and secondary schools in the Doi Tung area.
The foundation brought in the Montessori educational system for Ban Khayang Pattana School nine years ago.
The educational style originated in Italy and is fundamentally a model of human development to teach kindergarten and primary students to know how to rely on themselves so they can grow up naturally and adjust to their surroundings.
Anthony Herring, a British teacher who oversees Montessori education at the school, said teachers have been trained to apply the Italian model to stimulate school children to interact with their environment until they are able to choose and act freely within environments and surroundings.
“Students who pass the Montessori programme are able to solve immediate problems and deal with hard issues in daily life because they learned and were guided by their teachers into the discovery of problem-solving skills,” Mr Herring said.
Veerachit Varanchitkul, deputy chairman of the Mae Fa Luang Tambon Administration Organisation, said the TAO has worked closely with the Mae Fa Luang Foundation in educational promotion for hilltribe students.
Mr Veerachit said the organisation pays particular attention to teaching English and Chinese and hires native speakers at the tambon’s secondary school.
“We want to see our kids speak more than Thai and dialect languages so they will be able to use them to make a living in the future,” he said.
Writer: Anucha Charoenpo
Police in Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai Province have arrested a 50 year old man after the threatened to rape a 20 year-old woman and the proceeded to murder her 2 and half month old baby.
Police with doctors from Wiang Kaen Hospital and the Chao Luang Wiang Kaen Welfare Association were summoned to the scene of the incident to a 2-story cement house, Village No. 2, Tha Kham Subdistrict, Wiang Kaen District of Chiang Rai
On arrival they found Ms. Chanikarn, age 20, in a state of distress crying uncontrollably beside her 2 and a half month baby girl (Linlada) that was dead on the floor.
After calming Ms. Chanikarn, the child’s mother, said that at approximately 2:30 p.m she was out to collect diapers that had been dried in front of the house, while her 2 and a half month old daughter was sleep on the ground floor of the house.
She said she was suddenly approached by a Mr. Lee, about 40 years old, who lived on the opposite side of the road. He came towards her and grabbed her arm and threatened her saying if she didn’t sleeping with him he will go and kill his daughter.
Miss Chanikan refused and ran away, then Mr. Lee then walked into the house and grabbed Ms. Linlada’s leg, smashing the child’s head against the cement floor of the house. The infant died immediately.
Mr. Lee then just walked away and returned to his own home, leaving Miss Chanikan and her dead baby.
When police went to Mr. Lee’s home he immediately confessed killing the infant and was taken to Wiang Kaen Police Station for further questioning. Under caution he told police that he was sexually attracted to Miss Chanikan‘s and when her husband leave for work he took the opportunity to approach her.
He said when he saw her husband leave he crossed that road and found Miss Chanikan in the yard alone, he then threatened her to sleep with him, saying he would kill her child if she didn’t have sex with him. However when she refused he flew into a fit of rage walked into her home and murdered he baby. He said he was out of control with rage.
After killing the infant he walk across the street to his home and waited for the police to arrive. The police have charged him with premeditated murder and attempted rape. He is being held without bail at the local remand center.
Meanwhile, Miss Chanikan and her family were preparing a religious burial ceremony for the child.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
CHIANG RAI: Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.
On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.
His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.
Pol. Gen. Kittirat Panphet, Deputy Commander and Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, Assigned Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai Pitanilabut, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Police/Deputy Director of the Police Crime Suppression Division, has launched the operation ‘Bombing the Thieves’ Bridge’ in collaboration with the CAT Office, G., mobile phone network operators AIS DTAC TRUE NT, and local security agencies to cut the mobile phone signal and WiFi internet that criminals illegally use to deceive Thai citizens.
Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai stated that they will begin pressing the first action of the ‘Explosion of Thieves’ Bridge’ in Chiang Rai Province toward the thieves’ base of operations in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone.
The territory surrounding King Roman in Laos. King Roman is now a full-service entertainment destination with an airport that welcomes travelers from Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar, he explained.
According to Pol. Lt. Gen. Thatchai, this operation will have no influence on honest people along the Thai border, and it will only target cyber criminals.
They will also increase the arrest and prosecution of unlawful service towers, such as SIM booths, which allow gangs register SIM cards to swindle the people. Dealing with criminal organizations of foreigners and Thais who band together to deceive and damage Thais.
The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) suspended more than three million SIM cards on July 16 because the holders had not verified their identities with their mobile phone operators by the deadline, in accordance with the NBTC’s measures to combat alleged fraudsters’ mule accounts.
The names of the holders of 80 million mobile phone numbers used for mobile banking transactions did not match the names associated with the mobile banking accounts.
The NBTC would require mobile phone companies to authenticate SIM card holders and the names of their mobile banking accounts. The verification procedure is expected to be completed by the end of September this year.
In addition, the NBTC and Royal Thai Police have collaborated to combat illegal telecom towers throughout the country’s borders, disconnecting signals at 465 places, altering antenna direction at 470 towers, and dismantling antennas at 179 locations.
They are certain that the move will disrupt contact center gangs and other types of technology-based crime.
Other Chiang Rai News:
Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/
Police in Mae Chan, Chiang Rai, shot and killed a 28-year-old man who allegedly attacked a police officer with a machete. The officer was slashed in the right leg with the machete.
According to police, the culprit, known only as Mr. Toon, had been harassing local villagers in Mae Chan district, Chiang Rai, threatening them with a knife and using violet insults.
The village headman arrived on the scene to try to calm Mr. Toon, but he was shouting hysterically and taking swipes at him with the machete, so he contacted the police.
When the responding officer arrived at the site about 9 p.m., he attempted to calm the man, but he instead assaulted the officer, slashing his right leg with the machete. In self-defense, the cop had to fire his gun at Mr. Toon, striking him in the chest.
Mr. Toon and the policeman were taken to Mae Chan Hospital, where Mr. Toon died of a gunshot wound. Pol Sgt. Sutthikiat Phanomphraisakul was released from the hospital after receiving numerous stitches for his injuries.
Local police received a tip around 9.30 p.m. yesterday that a guy was causing mayhem in the village. When authorities arrived, they discovered 28-year-old Toon strolling along a public road, holding a large knife and threatening people. Mae Chan district officials attempted to contain the incident.
During a search of Mr. Toon’s home, authorities discovered methamphetamine consumption equipment. Locals told authorities that the man was addicted to Yaba (Methamphetamine) and an alcoholic.
The authorities are conducting an inquiry to determine Toon’s motivations and whether any underlying issues contributed to his violent outburst.
Other related news:
Chiang Mai Police Offer Cash Reward After Officer Killed
https://www.chiangraitimes.com/crime/chiang-mai-police-offer-reward/
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