About us

The Life Development Center (LDC) was established in March 1994 by Mr. Manop Yangja and Mr. James Fish in order to help vulnerable tribal laborers who were working in Chiang Mai city and the surrounding areas. During that time period, the Thai economy was booming along with the HIV/DIDS epidemic. Due to the strong economy, many hill tribe people, mostly young and with limited education, migrated to the city of Chiang Mai seeking better employment. Their lack of eduction imposed them to work in more dangerous work places such as bars, restaurants, gas stations, construction sites, massage parlors or the sex and drug trade. Inevitably, many of them contracted HIV virus and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

In order to combat these challenges, the LDC was established with the mission of helping this vulnerable population and preventing the spread of HIV and other STDs through education, training, and counseling. The LDC was registered with the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security as a charity/non-profit organization and has been working as a humanitarian aid organization for over 15 years. After the LDC had been working with tribal people in Chiang Mai for three years, many HIV/AIDS infected people occured in different tribal communities. The occurrence of HIV among these populations is particularly problematic since they generally do not have an understanding the nature of HIV/AIDS or how to care for the victims. Due to this iugnorance, HIV virus inffected people are often being stigmatized and discriminated against. Seeing these needs, the LDC expanded its ministries to different tribal communities with different community problems such as illicit drugs, poverty, or gender equality related to contracting HIV/AIDS.

The LDC has mainly mobilized by partnering with different local and international development organizations and faith based organizations (FBOs.) In the past fifteen years, the LDC has reached more than 50 tribal communities with populations of more than 25,000 people in northern Thailand. In addition, the LDC also partially supports some relief projects in Myanmar. In our efforts to promote change we recognize the interdependence of our global society and believe that "involving people evolves behavior."

LDC vision

To be a self-supporting and long lasting organization working to ensure that vulnerable tribal people have good living conditions which include having excellent health, being spiritually saved, and becoming economically self-sufficient in environmentally sustainable ways.

LDC Mission

To improve vulnerable tribal people’s living conditions and environment conditions through increasing kinowledge, competency, and social accountability through the creation of sustainable income generating projects.

LDC Aim

To promote community health care, self-reliance and solidarity with holistic development approach.

Philosophy

To maintain the balance of nature by respecting dignity, rights, and the unique value of creation.

LDC Objectives

The LDC has been working on community development and empowerment, women and children’s development, poverty alleviation, and community health care and relief projects for over 15 yeaes. However, due to limitated funding, we have minimized our projects, and we now focus only on creating environmentallyl friendly incomes generating projects, self-health promotion projects, and women and children’s development projects. We also would like to maintain existing community groups and work through them. Five women’s groups, twelve local Christian churches and four communities are actively involving in our projects. Many of them have been trained in different aspects of development and acquired support to implement the projects. Sustainability is a vital for all development organizations. Currently, the worldwide economic problems have halted the efforts of NGOs who rely on external funding while social and environmental problems continue to intensify. To maintain qulified staff and connections with local Christian churches over the long term, it is necessary that we create sustainable income generating projects in the communities. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult to get support for sustainable in come projects as most donors believe that donating directly to the hilltrbe communities need the support of outside organizations to implement the projects. The majority of tribal people do not have formal eduction, do not speak Thai, and some still do not have Thai citizenship or legal rights. Because of these, our organization is important for developing cooperation within communities and establishing the kinds of sustainable projects that will be most effective for each community.

According to the Thai government, Thailand is a wealthy country and an economic leader in South Eas Asian countries, while in fact Thailand is still an agricultural country. The majority of the population is made up of poor farmers with small and insecure incomes. The situation among vulnerable ethnic minorties in Thailand is wors that the majorty of the Thai population, especially those minorities who live in remote areas where there in so socil infrastructure, no regular transportation, and insufficient of land.

The founders of the LDC are tribal pepole and thus have a special connection to these minorities. But, we do not have sufficient support to survive as an organization. Without support we can no longer assist our people. The number of people in need is increasing, and we need additional funding to establish sustainable income projects and assist our people over the long term. With this in mind, our slogan is "we survive, they survive." The LDC is working in three provinces in Northern Thailand along the Thai-Burma borders: Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Song, and Chiang Rai, helping hill tribes inculding the Lisu, Karen, and Lahu.

 
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Life Development Center
P.O Box 300 Chiang Mai, Thailand 50000.
E-Mail: infor@ldcl.org

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