The Mirror Art Group
Helping Vulnerable Hilltribes
The Mirror Art Group is an NGO working in the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai. We operate a number of projects and programs to help the hill tribe peoples of Mae Yao sub-district to combat their everyday struggles with unemployment, poverty, drug addiction and lack of Thai citizenship. We also try to give the hilltribes of Mae Yao the skills, education and support required to adapt to a co-existence with lowland Thais without sacrificing their cultural identity.
We have sixteen core members and a rotating staff of volunteer teachers and workers, all striving towards the common goal of rebuilding strong, active hill tribe communities.
We provide scholarships for hill tribe children to attend secondary school: while government school may be free, books, uniform and transport to and from school are not. Many children whose villages are far from their schools have to spend the week in town, and have not the means to pay for their accomodation and living expenses. The scholarship fund finances all these costs, an average of $50 US per child per year.
Two other emergency funds are maintained to lend money to villagers in time of acute need. The Traditional Culture Fund is a resource for villagers who must perform an expensive rectification ceremony (in the occasion of death or another inauspicious occurence) and do not have the cash on hand. A seperate fund intended to assist with medical emergencies is also available.
Visiting
We accept volunteers and internships through the year and long term volunteers (more than 2 months).
You might teach English to Mirror staff, local people and children in school 2-3 hours/day and 4 time/week, create documents in English, work on websites, join projects eg join anti-child begging campaign, HIV project or youth development project, help with fund raising or in preparation of an event. Please contact us for details.
Support Needed
We welcome and rely on donations from Thailand and abroad. In addition to giving to our general fund, you can also choose to earmark your donation to one or more of several different funds - please see our website.
