Around the World in Forty Days - Australia, Burma, India, Thailand

by Joel Rookwood

In order to finally focus the majority of my energies on completing the doctorate that has been hanging loosely around my neck for half a decade, I decided this summer's expedition would be a little briefer than usual. In the eight years since entering into adulthood, I have spent four months of each summer exploring the world, usually within some kind of football-related capacity.

For 2007 however, I limited the football projects to four, beginning in Northern Israel in early July. I spent a fortnight working with mixed Jewish and Arab communities, where I ran one of the projects for 'Football For Peace', the social inclusion programme run through the University of Brighton since 2001. I was based a hundred miles or so from where I had spent last Christmas - working in communities around the Sea of Galilee.

The next stop was the Indian capital of New Delhi, where I met up with Arup Das, a contact from the India Youth Soccer Association. He arranged for us to spend time with street children supported by the Salaam Baalak Trust, a charitable organisation that provides shelters for the development of street children through an enabling environment, helping them to become part of mainstream society. The football clinics involved techniques that were clearly alien to some of the boys, who seemed to enjoy the unorthodox approach all the same. Thirty players took part of mixed ages from 10 - 17 years at the India Gate lawns. It meant a temporary postponement of cricket activities for a short while, to the dismay of the locals. However, the onlookers were treated to some exquisite skills from the coaching team, which managed to placate the cricket enthusiasts. Before saying our goodbyes, we dished out some kit donated by my former employees Liverpool FC and then headed for Nepal.

After a flight around Everest and boat ride up the Mekong River, we arrived in Burma, a little unsure of what to expect, given the scathing media exposure the conduct of the military government has recently received. Having arrived at the border, we were permitted entry into the country, although our passports were taken from us, with the promise that they would be returned if we ourselves returned to the Thai border before sunset. Just when I thought the border police were rehearsing for some kind of militaristic theatre, it dawned on me that they were serious. The Golden Triangle (the meeting point of Thailand, Burma and Laos), once the hub of drug production and smuggling activity, remains as mystifying and concerning as ever, it seems.

We had gone to the "Northernmost of Thailand", as the signs read, to work with a relatively small but highly significant and well-focused NGO called Childlife (or "Baan Nana" in Thai). It was founded in 1999, and is a strictly grassroots organisation, providing direct intervention for children at risk in Mae Sai at the border to Myanmar (Burma). They are a non-religious, non-government organisation and care for all children in need, regardless of ethnicity, nationality or religion. I met up with Angela, who took me around the shelter and the school that houses and educates the children.

Childlife is attempting to build a society where every child has access to education, food, and a safe environment with care, love and support, without discrimination, regardless of national identification. It wants their children to gain life experience and to support their development into responsible, dignified caring leaders and participants in the community.

The organisation works to prevent increasing numbers of street children and crime in society. They are attempting to become a long-term sustainable NGO and develop a best practice grassroots model to work with, protect and learn from children, especially those at risk, from around the world. They currently provide emergency and long-term shelter, including education, medical care, food and clothing for 140 children. They work on the ground and understand the real problems and issues that the children face. Some of their staff have experienced life on the streets and are able to work most effectively to improve the situation.

Importantly, they seek to prevent criminal activities and the exploitation of children. Through education, food and shelter they encourage children and their families to imagine a future beyond a life in the streets, to gain experience working together for a better future. Childlife is open to all children who find themselves in prolonged problematic situations. Within the minority ethnic groups around the Thai / Myanmar border, broken families, parental violence and sexual abuse are common. Many women are separated, divorced or abandoned by their husbands. Children suffer from these situations and can become vulnerable or homeless orphans. Childlife provides them a safe place to stay, where they can receive food, medical attention, education, and positive guidance. For emergency situations, parents can also meet Childlife's team for visits or counselling and family planning. Some of the projects the organisation has established include focusing on:

Street Children: The children in this group live and sleep on Mae Sai's streets, mostly near the Border Bridge. They stay around from 7am to 11pm to beg tourists in the border stop. Some children collect and sell recyclable materials too.

The Dumpster Group: These children live at the dumpster and collect plastic and other recyclable materials to sell at low prices. Some of these children work only the weekends, others every day. Some of them sleep at the dumpster as well.

Victims of Child Labour: The children belonging to this group are forced to perform hard physical work on plantations and farms in Mae Sai or Chiang Rai province. They suffer from very harsh living conditions and are exploited by Thai entrepreneurs.

Children in Difficult Family Situations: This group includes children who face violence and sexual abuse in their families. In most cases, the parents are drug addicted.

Orphans: Children without parents or support from other family members. Some lose their parents to HIV or AIDS.

Many of these children are at risk of being trafficked or sold for exploitative labours or prostitution. The street provides a dangerous environment run by gangs and criminal organisations that profit from the very lucrative and locally widespread trade of human beings.

It's an incredible area, and the children there are at considerable risk. We spent a day with them and you would not think they had been subjected to such harsh treatment. The ninety or so kids that we worked with were among the happiest we have come across. Along with street children from India, and those from other under developed parts of the world, these kids seemed to know the value of the little they had. We played football with them and visited them at their shelter. When we departed, we left in silence, in awe of the amazing work that people do to help the cause of others, and angry that some people seemingly live their lives to do just the opposite, or at least do not care enough to help.

The penultimate leg of the journey was in Thailand, where we worked in a slum community, in a school set up by another incredible NGO, Urban Neighbours of Hope. Formed in July 1993 by Ash and Anji Barker, the Christian UNOH community was first formed in Springvale - a multi-cultural city of Melbourne. The organisation has spread to Thailand, where the Barker family have lived for the last six years. The Klong Toey Slum is Bangkok's largest slum with an estimated population of over 80,000 people in a very small area. The slum is well known for its drugs, violence, and as being a major source of young women and girls for prostitution, due to the nature of the poverty experienced there.

The organisation works with adults, including a group of men and women who have been encouraged to use their skills for constructive employment. Klong Toey handicrafts currently employs 58 people making various handicraft products that are sold predominantly in Australia and Thailand. The project commenced in August 2005 after Anji felt the need for meaningful and fair employment in the Klong Toey Slum had become overwhelmingly apparent. The aim of the project is to provide flexible and long-term employment for women, and men who have little or no education/qualifications or opportunities to allow them to earn enough money to rise out of poverty. UNOH also work with the young people of the slum, focusing particularly on education and sport. We spent two days there coaching the boys and attempting to play futsal.

The final project of the summer was staged in Sydney where we worked in the suburbs of Bankstown and Mt Druitt. After an over night flight from Indonesia via Melbourne, we arrived in a downpour to be met by our hosts Bill and Wendy Suma. We were taken to the pitch where we ran a session for African refugees from Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Sudan.

Whilst I'm certain the weather during the Sydney summers would be virtually home from home for some of the Africans, they did not seem to have become accustomed to the South Australian winters. It was cold, and it rained. A lot. Finally, we squeezed in a visit to the largest aboriginal community in the world, an area Sydney seems to have long since forgotten. Mt Druitt is an interesting place. Seemingly devoid of development it may be, but the community's children had personality. Some may translate this as teacher speak for the kids being 'hard work'. In fact, they were quite the opposite. They certainly weren't the greatest footballers in the world, but they were a lot of fun. The trip was organised again by UNOH and their Sydney representative, Jon Owen, who was proof again of how committed and well ran the organisation are. The trip to Oceania marked the sixth continent I have worked in, and the thirtieth country. I think it's time I wrote a book.

Joel Rookwood

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