You're a village woman. There's never much money in your pocket, but you're used to that. You, your husband and children plant a few vegetables, have a few chickens, plant rice, and hope for the best. But the best doesn't come. The rice harvest fails, so your husband goes to Bangkok to get day labor work. He goes just for the dry season, but the rainy season comes and he doesn't come back. He never comes back, and you are now a village woman with a family and no husband.

What do you do?

Ask any farming family in Thailand's poverty-stricken Sa Kaew province, and they'll tell you that's a normal story. But for many of the villages in Taphraya district, that story has changed. Project L.I.F.E. Foundation saw the need and, hand in hand with the village women, are solving the problem.

Our Project L.I.F.E. coordinator visits the villages, talks to the women, and asks how they would like to help themselves. How can they earn enough in their spare time so that their husbands don't have to go to Bangkok to work? The answers are different in different villages. Some plant vegetables, some make handbags, some do weaving, some raise silkworms, some run tiny little co-op ‘gas in a barrel’ gas stations.

History

Located strategically on the Cambodian border, Taphraya has a long and important history with YWAM Thailand. This quaint rural town is situated just 40 km north of the major border crossing town of Aranyaprathet. After the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia in 1975, the area around Taphraya and Aranyaprathet became a major recipient of Cambodian refugees.

In 1979, YWAM Thailand became involved in ministering to the many thousands of refugess from Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, who were seeking shelter in Thailand. YWAM volunteers assisted refugees through medical care, vocational training, clothing ditribution and other ways until 1995 when the refugee camps were officially shut down.

Up to now, Rural Women’s Development has helped over 79 families stay together. That’s success. It’s also success when 30 ladies involved in 3 village weaving projects weave a total of 3825 meters of top quality cloth..almost 4 kilometers! That’s an amazing amount considering the ladies are only able to weave when they are not farming rice. Equally amazing is that all the cloth was sold the moment it came off the loom!

Anything is possible where hope lives. Project L.I.F.E. gives that hope through Rural Women’s Development.