Asia Study Tour 2002

The tour was typically (and literally) a drive-by glimpse of what Asia has to offer. This year we visited East Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam and examined the challenges faced by government and non-government agencies in promoting appropriate health practices, with a particular emphasis on Maternal/Child Health, HIV/AIDS, Environmental Health and the cultural/religious issues involved.

Discussions were held with major NGOs working in the region as well as site visits to villages with a focus on government policies and the human consequences for women and children especially as some live as street kids and "sex workers", their interaction with predatory tourists and the inevitable outcomes. We had excellent sessions with the Health Department in Sarawak, with UNICEF in Thailand and with Care Vietnam and the United Nations Family Planning Association in Hanoi.

We stayed in a Longhouse in Sarawak, (Longhouses really are long - maybe up to 500 metres long) and a Karen Village in Northern Thailand. Despite repeated promises from the locals, we are yet to see an orangutan in the wild (wrong time of year - too much fruit on the trees).

In Thailand we visited Chonburi to look at Primary Health Care Training Centre and Clinic and Village Centre and in Chiang Mai we spent time at the Health Project for Tribal People. This project helps women and children who have HIV/AIDS and tried to prevent the disease occurring among the minority indigenous peoples in the region including the Karen, Hmong and Akha. We travelled to a Karen Village about three hours away with Jacques who is developing eco-sustainablity tourism projects. It was delightful and had both Protestant (Methodist), Catholic churches as well as animism. We had an overview of the village, their crops, livestock etc and were shown many herbs and medicinal plants growing. The house we stayed in had two rooms where we slept 5 in one and two in the other. The room with 2 people had a fire in one corner where meals were prepared. We had an excellent meal which had lots of vegetables in it plus one meat dish and fish which were excellent.

Next morning three people set off to climb the highest mountain in the region while four of us stayed behind to learn the art of weaving. In Chiang Mai, we saw a few hundred Akha women and young people walking the night markets and quite a few young women working in bars/brothels. Students were each given a task to walk the night markets and to observe and describe what was happening. We were asked to talk with flower sellers, some of whom are as young as 6 years old, the Akha women and the girls in the bars to see where they came from, how old they were and why they were in Chiang Mai etc.

Overall, it has been a successful study tour from both a scholastic point of view, networking, promotion of Curtin and its courses and from meeting up with Alumni. The students were great especially the three American students who contributed much to the tour.

Helen Fairnie
January 2003