Collaborating to Impact Lives!
MAKING a literal Night-to-Day difference! — We just returned from a trip to a pretty remote village community in Maeramat (Tak province) where, in collaboration with a corporate and individual partners, we have installed a self-sustainable aquaponics farming system powered by solar energy to transform the lives of some 58 families (approx 220 people). This project came to be from the initiative of Robert White of ThaMmachatPhan who received a donation from Mr David Bowser to help set up an aquaponics system in a school in Mae Sot. It evolved from this initial idea of helping one small school to helping a whole community after we connected him to Khun Rachen Kankaew, CTM’s Karen coordinator for the disadvantaged communities in the Thai-Myanmar border towns. He introduced Robert to a rural hillside community that can only be reached by skillful driving up very rugged and rocky terrain &across streams. Impossible in the rainy season.
After some deliberations, Robert and his expert team decided to set up the aquaponics system on the church grounds of this local community. With the solar energy, this is going to make an incredible difference as it will not only mean that for the first time ever, this community will have some electricity (not much but 280 watts is sure an improvement on zero!). Thanks to the combined generosity of Solatron, BSB and Leonics.
This project brought together professionals in the field of aquaponics and natural farming, with Robert White from Thammachat Phan in Bangkok, Bobby Burns (the ‘worm warrior’ expert in permaculture) as well as engineer Khun Palapol from Solatron. Besides them, there was also an ex-social-media-guru Olaf and an ex-corporate executive/systems developer, Prasit, who have both ditched their deskjobs & meeting rooms to embrace an all-natural culture in self-sustaining food and lifestyle. What better place to start than in this challenging environment where we are initiating this startup in aquaponics. If this takes off successfully, it will be the showcase and inspiration for many more villages who suffer from harsh weather and terrain along with the major obstacles in food supply. Can’t wait to see the first harvest!
Special Thanks also to NOK Air for flying two of the team, plus boxes of toys and other donated items, to Mae Sot.
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