Life Development Center

http://www.ldcl.org

About us

The Life Development Center (LDC) was established in March 1994 by Mr. Manop Yangja and Mr. James Fish for helping vulnerable ethnic minority tribal labors who were working in Chiang Mai city and nearby. Because in that time, Thailand economy and the HIV/AIDS epidemic are booming, a large number of vulnerable tribal people migrated to Chiang Mai city and nearby for seeking better employment and development opportunities, most of them are young people and have very limitation of education and city life experience that made inevitably imposed them into high risk HIV contracting labor works in different workplaces, such as restaurants, bars, gas stations, construction sites, parlor massages and sex workers. Many of them fall into social pitfalls, got involved in drug dealing and sex workers that led them contracted to HIV/AIDS disease and other sexual transmitted diseases (STD). The Life Development Center was established for helping these vulnerable people, preventing them from contracting HIV virus and other sexual transmitted diseases by giving information, providing training and counseling. LDC was registered to the ministry of Social Development and Human Security as a charity or non-profit organization and serving civil society for fifteen years. After LDC launched HIV/AIDS prevention project among vulnerable tribal labors who were working in Chiang Mai city and nearby for three years, many HIV/AIDS infected people occurred in different tribal communities in rural areas, and frightening the family members and community people because people in the rural areas don’t have proper understand about HIV/AIDS so they don’t know how to taking care of HIV/AIDS infect people, therefore, many HIV/AIDS infected people were encountered social pressured because of stigmatized and discrimination. Many assistance requirements from the villagers came to us, that made us expanded LDC ministries into different tribal communities and different problems that related to contracting HIV/AIDS virus and the roots of community problems such as illicit drugs problem, poverty problem, gender equality etc. LDC has been serving civil society as a non-profit organization for over a decade, and had initiated various alternative development projects among vulnerable tribal communities for preventing HIV/AIDS problem, illicit drugs problem, poverty problem, environment problem. LDC mainly mobilized by community based organizations (CBOs.) and faith based organizations (FBOs.) In the past fifteen years LDC reached more than 50 tribal communities with approximately 25,000+ populations in the north of Thailand, LDC is also partially supporting some relief projects in Myanmar. LDC is working through community people, community groups and local Christian churches LDC is also a partner of different local and internationals development organizations for serving society and achieving the goals. We considered everything as a whole as cosmic systems in terms global interdependence, nothing stand a lone. We also very concerned about social engagement or involvement, we believed that “Involving people is Evolving behavior development.”

LDC vision

Vulnerable tribal people have a good living condition - have healthy health, have self-sufficient economic, spiritual saved and environment sustainability. LDC is also being self-supported and lasting organization

LDC Mission

Improving vulnerable tribal people’s living conditions, environment conditions by raising villagers’ knowledge, competency, social accountability, and creating LDC sustainable incomes generation projects

LDC Aim

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

Philosophy

Keeping balancing of the nature by respecting dignity, rights and a unique value of creatures

LDC Objectives

To promotes community health care, environment conservation, poverty alleviation, gender quality, social accountability and community development and empowerment

To provides technical and financial supports

To provides and enables supportive communication for development and empowerment

To improve vulnerable tribal people’s living conditions

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 a decade, and now due to limitation of support we have minimized the projects and focus only on, creating environmental friendly incomes generation projects, self health care promotion projects and women and children’s development project. We also would like to maintain existing community groups and work through them. Four women’s groups, twelve local Christian churches and four communities are actively involving many of them have been trained in different development aspects and gained some acquisitions to support project implementation Sustainability is a vital for all development organizations and projects that we can not ignore. The whole world is struggling economy problem and caused a large number of local Ngos. and many internationals organizations that totally depended on outsource supports have to ceased while social and environment problems are intensifying. To maintain qualified staffs and the ministries for last long we extremely need sustainable incomes generation projects, but it seems extremely difficult to get support for this kind of projects, most of donors are not much concern about this problem, they mostly prefer to support the projects that operating by villagers/community but among vulnerable tribal communities we have learned that it has extremely to make sustain the projects by villagers themselves without local Ngos. or supervisors support. Because the majority of tribal people don’t have formal education, don’t speak Thai, some are still don’t have Thai citizenship or legal rights. According to the Thai government and many resources shown superficially Thailand is the wealth country and playing economic leader in South East Asia countries, in fact Thailand is still agriculture country, the majority populations are poor farmers that don’t have secure and sufficient incomes, many of them have a big debts that can not payback. The situations among vulnerable ethnic minority communities are worst than the Thai people, especially those who lived in remote areas where there is no social infrastructures, no regular transportation and insufficient of farming areas. We ourselves are tribal people and we have heart for our people but we ourselves don’t have secure and sufficient support to make us survive, without having secured and sufficient supports we can no longer to survive and able to assist our people. We always realized that receiving support from donors is no longer available, but the people in need are increasing so the only way that we can survive and able to assist our people last long is establishing LDC sustainable incomes generation projects with a slogan “We survive, they survive” LDC is working in three provinces in the north of Thailand on along the Thai-Burma borders – Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Song and Chiang Rai provinces, including Lisu hill-tribe, Karen hill-tribe and Lahu hill-tribe. Many of these tribal communities we are working with are in remote areas where there is no social infrastructure and regular transportation.

Newsletter

Life Development Center
P.O Box 300 Chiang Mai, Thailand 50000.
E-Mail: ldc@loxinfo.co.th