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Community projects

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Community projects with the Karen Hilltribes Trust

Name: Karen Hilltribes Trust
Address: Midgley House, Heslington, York, YO10 5DX

Tel: 0845 344 7620

The Karen Hilltribes Trust is a UK-based charity helping the Karen people of north west Thailand to build a better future.

For centuries much of the population of northern Thailand has been composed of ethnic groups commonly known as hill tribes. The largest of these is the Karen hill tribe, many of whom still live in the more remote mountainous areas due west of Chiang Mai. They are subsistence farmers who live at peace with nature and the forests.

The Karen Hilltribes Trust sends volunteers to teach English and install clean water systems whilst living with Karen hilltribe families.

Water project
There are still hundreds of Karen villages without a supply of clean water. Villagers have to walk miles to find water that is free from chemical or animal waste pollution.

The Trust works with the Karen people to install and maintain clean water systems for the villages. We employ locally-based staff who, together with the villagers and our volunteers, install an average of eight systems a year. The outcome of the Trust's potable water projects has been a dramatic reduction in malaria, dysentry and other diseases. This has reduced mortality rates and contributed to a marked improvement in the general health of the Karen community.

"The water project was between the towns of Khun Yuam and Mae Sariang. Living in the jungle was great fun, sleeping under the stars and the forest canopy and listening to all the noises. After two weeks all the pipes had been connected up and we were able to drink the water out of the taps in the village. Even after only two weeks we were weary of not being able to drink out of the tap and so it must have been a hundred times better for the Karen who had never had fresh water. We then had a party on the last night at which a pig was killed and lots of moonshine whiskey was drunk!" - Theo Gaussen.