AFECT - THE ASSOCIATION FOR AKHA EDUCATION AND CULTURE IN THAILAND - is the oldest HILL TRIBE organization in Thailand and has been protecting HILL TRIBE culture since 1981. Because we are the only organization in Asia protecting HILL TRIBE Culture we are pleased to offer unique short courses in OUR TRIBAL SCHOOL ADVENTURE and Long term Volunteer placements - some of the best in Thailand. We work in association with UNESCO and UNDP.

The tour can be viewed at http://www.akhaasia.orgNGO's site is http://www.akhathai.org
-The Hill Tribe Rainforest Adventure Experience (ECO-SCHOOL)

We offer a 3 day and weekly RAINFOREST ADVENTURE where you learn about Forest Survival, Shamanism, Interwoven Forest Consciousness, Ecology, Naturopathy (herbal ancient medicine) Mythology and Patterns Systems and Relationships found in the Natural World. Interspersed within the school program are fun tours and activities that make this a unique way to engage in a fascinating and ancient culture. Our villages are culturally protected by UNESCO and off the typical tourist track so without other tourists around you can experience customs inherently alive with hill tribe traditions unchanged for hundreds of years. Learning how creative tribes live will give you valuable life skills which will stay with you for ever, teaching us a deeper understanding of interwoven life and ourselves within the natural environment.

Some of the Topics covered in the courses

SYSTEMS THINKING
Recognizing that learning to think systemically is critical for sustainability because an ecosystem is not just a collection of species, but is a community and communities, whether ecosystems or human systems, are made up of sets, or networks, of relationships.

THE PRINCIPLES OF ECOLOGY

NETWORKS All members of an ecological community are interconnected in a vast and intricate network of relationships, the web of life. They derive their essential properties and, in fact, their very existence from these relationships.

NESTED SYSTEMS Throughout nature we find multi-leveled structures of systems nesting within systems. Each of these forms an integrated whole within a boundary while at the same time being a part of a larger whole.

CYCLES The interactions among the members of an ecological community involve the exchange of energy and resources in continual cycles. The cycles in an ecosystem intersect with larger cycles in the bioregion and in the planetary biosphere.

DEVELOPMENT The unfolding of life, manifesting as development and learning at the individual level and as evolution at the species level, involves an interplay of creativity and mutual adaptation in which organisms and environment coevolve.

Long Term Volunteering

Many NGO's do great work and offer exciting volunteer exchanges but often centre on fragments of humanitarian work. Because we are run and managed by the hill tribe we believe in a holistic and progressive approach to charitable work. Working within the cultural structures of hill tribe society creates a lasting and more sustaining autonomy. We can arrange extremely diverse volunteer packages around our 12 the humanitarian programs we manage. These volunteer packages are some of the best in Thailand.

Because Hill Tribe Culture is rapidly disappearing, partly due to the negative effects of tourism the above schemes have been designed to educate tourists positively about the rich and sustainable aspects of Hill Tribes Culture.

All the money generated is put into our cultural education program in Laos which helps build positive community based tourism, empowering tribal communities to create and manage tourism strategies

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Last edited on Nov 15, 09 7:42 AM.
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Dave L.

Nov 15, 2009

I did this tour and it was brilliant. It was really great value and they are some of the most friendly people Ive met.

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Darline C.

Feb 18, 2010

I have been there last summer 2009 through another program and they took me and my group to AFECT Center and I loved it so much. I'm going back again this summer as well.

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