Thanks to OurBetterWorld.org for making this splendid short film on our Raise-a-Piggy project.
This is a Recyclable Social Investment project started in Sep 2014 during the filming of the Channel News Asia documentary "A Singaporean Abroad 2".
It began with a humble cash donation of S$360 (THB9000) by 2 friends from Singapore - Charlie and Nishi. A brilliant idea struck and we "invested" that cash into 6 piglets each costing THB1500. We decided to support 6 deserving families with school-going children. Each family signed a "social contract" to raise the piglet with care. As all of them are farmers with land, raising a piglet is easy and cost little. But after a year, they would be able to sell the pig for about THB4500. They would then return us THB1500 so that we could purchase another piglet to support another beneficiary family, while they keep the profit to support their children's education.
This way, the social capital is recycled as an ongoing support for many more hilltribe families in the community. We hope friends and guests will contribute to this Raise-a-Piggy Project to enable more needy families to be supported at any one time.
The higher purpose of this social project is to help the hilltribe community learn financial concept such as asset vs liability through an experiential manner. A piglet can be seen as food, which means eaten once and finished! Yet, it can be seen as an investment that can grow over time - its worth grows from $60 to about $300 in 1-1.5 years. Yet, it can be an asset that multiplies when one pig gives birth to many so some can become food, others become investment and some retained as assets.
Thanks to many kind-hearted friends from Singapore, our pool of sponsored piggies has grown over the years. Kitt and Father Gun work with local village chiefs to jointly manage this social project from selection of families to support, maintaining records and monitoring the 'maturity period.'
We started with 6 piggies in Sep 2014. Our piggy pool grew to 33 in Jan 2015, and 60 in Jan 2017.
Her are some photos of the hilltribe children/families when they received the piggies:
Tigerland Rice Farm is an eco-enterprise that promotes eco-consciousness and appreciation of the authenticity and simplicity of the Karen hilltribe way of farming lifestyle through fun and experiential programs in rice farming and social projects in support of the hilltribe communities of Northern Thailand.