We finally reach the end of our fieldwork in Laos. Our last day of the interview started with three personal interviews with three women from different villages and used to work in the mining industry. It was very interesting for me to interviewed a woman who just resigned from the company and support her partner to work overseas. The gender impacts are quite prominent from her story, due to issues on gender roles, expectations and equity issues. One interesting point raised by her is the future of her town after the end of mining MNC in Laos. It sounds like a common fear among community members. We heard the same issue from our focus group interview with six people from the village. Apart from generic comments on socio-economic and environmental impacts, the future of this town remains unclear among the members of this community.
Our Conversation on Mining and Gender
One important point that we learn from today's interviews with Laos women in this community is the meaning of mining industry to the community. Apart from economic gains (as publicly known in many cases), mining industry can also promote equity by means of education, training and social status. Most women who work in the industry agreed that they feel comfortable about themselves. They are proud to be able to generate income and being able to associate with mining MNC. When they work in this industry, it also promotes they status in the family and community.
Miners are the key clients of SMEs in Vilabouly
Before we left Vilabouly, our research visited the office of the Vilabouly's Chief to farewell and thank him for his support throughout the time we spent at Vilabouly. We shared with him our reflections from the field and our connections with the community. He also thanked us for our interests in his town and he really hopes that findings from this project will influence actions from stakeholders in international mining industry.
Office of Vilabouly District
We left Vilabouly with a number of different feelings. To me, as a researcher, I have learnt new experiences on community issues and how mega-million international business influence various issues in the community. I also learnt practices and protocal of research in Laos. It truly is one of the most exciting learning experiences for me. I worked and traveled with great team members from the National University of Laos, Nossal Institute for Global Health, Burnet Institute and had a great opportunity to connect with many interesting people from the community.
Vilabouly from the Top
I strongly suggest researchers in my area to think about the impacts of mining industry on development. We have learnt a number of interesting lessons from countries such as South Africa, Australia, Chile, Laos, Vietnam etc. We seem to struggle to find the best ways to promote long-term development for the community in the host countries. We really hope that the next step of this project will also be meaningful for stakeholders, particularly the local community, in this study.
Local Market
Vilabouly Cultural Hall
Research methodology is an important issue for our team.I n the middle of our research fieldwork at Vilabouly, our
team members think very carefully about some methodological issues. We understand that
conducting a research fieldwork on gender and mining can be very sensitive from
both political and industrial sides in Lao PDR.
As a researcher, I certainly have learnt a
great deal of research practices and protocol from the fieldwork and I would
like to share some thoughts with you.
1) Don’t Let Terms such as ‘mining’, ‘gender’ or ‘community’
Mislead You! I learn that sometimes we tend to have pre-judgmental perceptions
when we think of such terms. I had to tell myself to be neutral and try to seek
truths from the participants’ perspectives. Sometimes when I started the
interview with questions on mining and gender, I had to think very carefully
about not to lead the common perceptions of generic mining industry that we
always hear in the media.
2) Be Honest with Everyone in the Entire Research Process!
You will work with people at different roles and responsibilities when you
conduct research. In Laos, we have to deal with a number of government officers
from different levels and agencies, NGOs, communities, villagers, shop owners,
workers, men and women from different ethnic groups etc. They need to know the
ideas of your research. Make sure you can communicate your research with them
very succinctly, clearly in the simple language.
3)
Language, Language, Language! As a Thai speaker
who informally learnt Laos, I expected no major problems in conducting personal
and group interviews. Oh! I was wrong! In these 6-7 villages, diversity is a
key characteristic. You will work with Bru, Phu Thai, Laos Theung speakers.
Vientiane accent will be useful but not entirely helpful! Make sure you have a
translator next to you when you go to the community. I had 2 translators and
that’s been really helpful.
4)
Working the Politics of Research! I learnt from my colleagues from the National
University of Laos that we need extra times to work with several Governmental
agencies, chief of district, heads of different villages. The fact that gender
can be really sensitive, our objectives must be clearly communicated to all
Governmental agencies and the communities. Gender is not a brand new issue in
Laos and most women are aware of this issue. However, when you add the
complication of international mining industry in to this equation, our ideas
(questions, points and issues) must be clearly communicate.
5)
Be
Flexible with the Data Collection! Miners work at different times and hours. Do
not force them to come to you but you need to be flexible with them. In mining
industry, people work at different levels and jobs. Most women in our study
work as cleaners, admin. persons and unexploded ordnance persons. We have to be
flexible with time and ready to adapt our schedule, language and approaches.
There are a lot more points to share. These points strike my
thoughts as potential ideas to develop into a research methodology paper in the
future.
I would like to share the feelings of our team on ‘methodology’ in the
form of ‘photostory’ and we hope that this story will help you to understand
complex issues of doing research on gender and mining.
We returned to Ban Non Somboon to listen to some personal
stories regarding the relationship between the communities and mining
multinational corporations (MNCs). After The interviews with two men (villagers
who also work in mining industry), we can confirm that their concerns regarding
the future of the village and their job security are prominent. Since this
village is not very large, the residents also ponder alternative jobs such as
service work in Savannakhet town. Still, most people may need to stay in the
village and never want to be in another town where they are not familiar with.
Ban Non Som Boon
From this point, our concern is the future of Vilabouly. We
need to know more about the plan of Vilabouly residents and other stakeholders
such as mining MNCs, the Governmental body, women groups and youth groups. One
point that we learn from most interview is an option on agricultural and
farming skills can be one potential solution. To understand this issue, we organize
to visit mae Saipon from Ban Boong Kham and seek to understand her sustainable
model.
Mae and her farm in the mining community
We arrived Ban Boon Kham in the morning and visited her
Hydroponic farm and agricultural business. Mae told us that she was interested
in working in the mining industry but the opportunity was not there for her. Women can only do certain things in mining industry and she had no interests in those jobs. She has always been interested in business. One day, she was part of the tour to Vientiane and had an opportunity to visit
a hydroponic farm there. It was the day she saw potential business with the
mining industry. What next? She
contacted the company and informed them that she needs to set up a modern vegetable
farm and supply her products to the company. It’s not only for her but for the
village. MMG agreed with the idea and employed an agricultural expert to teach
her village on how to run hydroponic farm. Unfortunately, she was the only
person who attended and successfully completed the training.
Hydroponic 'Salad'
The company also suggested her to work with other 14 representatives
from different villages to be the key suppliers for fresh food for the company. In forming this group, she can also buy vegetables and fruit from the community and resale them to the
company. The relationship between her and mining MNCs has been really strong. In her own terms “mining company has endless needs for food.”
Her Pig Farm
Poultry Farm
We
learnt from her that not all villagers are interested in this business for a
number of reasons such as not access to funds, not understanding of the
business model, and lack of connections to the suppliers and understanding of
markets. She has agreed that mining MNCs can co-ordinate their efforts with
someone like her and the leaders of the community to support villagers to live
sustainable life, regardless of income from mining industry.
I left her farm with some feelings when I think about the
future of the industry and the village.
It is Saturday but our team did not plan for a break. We separated
our team into two teams. One team went to Padong and the other went to Non Som
Boun. I went to Padong with Ajarn Noi, Tim and Dr. Soonthon and we planned to
meet with head of village and 4-5 residents of Padong village.
The village is not as large as the previous villages we
visited. The first person I met with was the head of village who, again, was
very warm and was eager to chat with me. He told me about the characteristics
of Padong village, 65 families and have no key vocational skills and
sustainable incomes. Most women from Padong village do not work since their
full-time responsibility is looking after family of the husband and children. Although he praised some good impact of the
mining industry on the village, some drawbacks were mentioned frequently. This
is not the first time I heard of environmental impacts (and I am not surprised
to hear it) but this village seems to focus on this issue. Some other issues that
emerged include lack of land for women to work, employment for men and women,
and food security. Mining industry seems to have deep impacts upon their economic and social status.
Our Research Partner from the Village
These stories were confirmed when I discussed with a few
Padong women. They were eager to share some interesting stories regarding their
work and family relationship and how mining industry impact on those issues.
One women who called herself Mae (mother) voiced her experiences on how her
family struggle with land issues, drinking water and some health concerns. She,
however, reflected that her son who works as a driver in the mining industry is
the breadwinner.
In the evening, we went to Ban Non Som Boun which is still
not very far from where we stay. Interestingly, we conducted five personal
interviews and one focus group interviews with men. I realize how much men in
this village feel for economic impacts of mining industry upon their community.
Most of them agree that work and economic benefits from the industry can be
powerful for women in the community. Lesson learnt for me is the impact of mining industry can be beyond the primary stakeholders. Mining MNCs and local Government should also understand the real needs from secondary stakeholders.
After a big dinner and bonding activity among our
team, we still had an early start at 8pm. We left ‘Boun Home guesthouse’ at
8.30 and returned to Ban Nam Khip for more data collection. Our team decided to conduct a semi-structured
group interview with four women from Ban Nam Khip. Two of them work in the
mining industry and another two do not engage in any employment.
My Bru Interpreters
From the methodological perspectives, the discussions among
these four women can be really interesting since we can expect contrast views
from those who have been in the industry and those who are independent from the
company.
Interestingly, all
four women raised an important concern that women need to work more and
perhaps the company can help women in Ban Nam khip to work . At least, the
company should prepare local women with some skills that can promote them to progress
s in the future. Issues that mining company or industry can promote women
include job security for women, health and well-being, and skills. I feel that
issues on gender roles and expectation are quite prominent among the
participants in this study. Women who work feel that they do not have to rely
on husband and can ‘swap’ roles with the husbands.
Head of the Village
In Laos, diversity is an important social issue. Since the arrival,
I have been working with women and men from Phu Thai, Pa Kok, Bru and
Vietnamese backgrounds. It was fascinating to see how people from different
ethnic groups connect in one place. Language is one the challenges for me since
I need to understand not only the verbal language but also non-verbal context
of the participants. I am very fortunate to have ‘Thai’ as my interpreter from
Bru to Central dialect. Also, ‘Thalalin’ and a few friends such as ‘Udomxai’
and ‘Ajarn Noi’ always helped me with issues of language and translation.
House of the Bru
In the evening, I followed my team to Ban Huay suan, a Bru-speaking
community. We conducted five semi-structured personal interview with men and
women and observed the whole village. Ban Huay Suan is quite an open community
where most people gather around one shop in the centre of the village. I observed
kids and men gather together and enjoy each other’s company. Most women tend to
stay in the house and prepare dinner and clean the house.
The interview with Laos and Bru languages was somewhat
difficult because I need to build trust among all participants in this study.
Fortunately, most people I interviewed seem to understand central Laos accent
well enough. The key issues from this village include job sustainability, women’s
employment, women’s skills and ability to work in the non-mining industry in
the future. After the interview, we collected
different feelings about the village and how they interact with the company. I
still think that we need to re-visit Ban Huay Suan to understand how to prepare
the community for the future.
From my experiences, data collection can be time consuming
and dull in many circumstances. I do not feel that way while I am doing this
project. Again, we had an early start at 7am. We planned to separate two teams
to collect data. One team, Dr. Kab and Ajarn Ou, would aim for the data
collection at Ban Noon Kradaeng. I will follow Dr. Soonton, Tim and Ajarn Noi to Ban Nam Khip. The plan worked
very well.
We arrived at Ban Nam Khip at almost 9 and I helped my team to
set up the tables and recording system. I was a little worried about the participants since the rain
was quite heavy and I was not sure if it was a ‘difficult’ time for them to meet with
us at the community'd Sala. Only 10 minutes, Nai Ban (head of the village) turned up and
greeted us with a big warm smile. Dr. Soonthon explained the idea of this project
to him and asked for permission to interview the community.
A House at Nam Khip
A House at Nam Khip Village
I met with an interesting woman who does not work but she
looks after women community in Ban Nam Khip. While we were talking to each
other she addressed a number of interesting points from women perspectives such
as the outcry for training and skill development for women, equal opportunity for
men and women to work in the mining industry, and opportunity to work in
different positions and roles for women. Women seem to have limited roles such
as cleaning, cooking or supporting roles in the mining industry and she
disagrees with that idea.
At the Training Centre
After the interview we visited Huay Kong Training Centre
which is a key vocational training centre for weaver, designer and local
textile manufacturer. It is very interesting to know the amount of money and
efforts that MMG spent for this 5-years ole centre. We observed design class
and realize that all participants s are women who finished school recently and
need to find some work opportunities in this area.
Huoy Khong Training Centre
In the afternoon, I had a great opportunity to re-visit Ban
Nam Khip and interview a woman who works in science-based work. Her story is also very interesting, like other
previous informants. She works to
support her education in business and management, her daughter (one of them
lives with disabilities).
Similar to the
previous case, this woman feels that mining industry helps support her
financial and social status in the community. Without her current job, she may
struggle with costs of living, supporting her family and her education. She is
currently studying business administration with the hope to pursue some
management in mining sector. Interestingly, she was very open about the
drawbacks of mining industry. Some are related to her community (e.g.
environmental problem, business commitment issues) and some are related to
herself (e.g. her health, future and work). After the end of the interview, she
asked me to explain the actions of this project and what should we do to take
further actions from this project. Very good points from her!!
Friends from the Government and Village
We ended the night by saying farewell to ‘Nai Ban’ and
presented some token of appreciation to him. We hope that we will return to
this village to share our information with the community.
Our research team started at 8am with a quick research discussion
and plan over breakfast. The plan for
today is to meet with Chief of Vilabouly district and introduce our project to
him and his community, discuss our data collection plan at Ban Vang Yang and
research summary with him. Everyone was ready for the first big day.
It took us only 10 minutes to drive from the guesthouse to
the Office of the Governor. It is quite a grand building but it gives
you an impression that this is the place where the Governance team
operate. I learnt that the governance
power includes different departments such as Youth (Sao Noom) and Women (Mae
Ying). To me, this is a good reflection of Laos Governance system.
We met with the Chief of Vilabouly District, Mr. Bouasone
Mahavong, who warmly greeted us in his office. Dr, Soonthorn from NUOL shared a
short summary of our project to the Governor. The key message is the academic
collaboration among Australian and Laos Universities and the strong support
from the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for this project.
The Chief of Vilabouly is a charming and very charismatic person. He addressed that
Vilabouly needs more developmental studies aiming at sustainable development.
He is aware of social and ecological changes in his area and heneeds to see
some ideas and suggestions from our project. He is also very keen to receive
the final outcomes of the project and will support this project while we are in
Vilabouly.
Our morning session was well set up by Thalalin, Christi and Sriampa from Burnet
Institute. Thalalin is the key co-ordinator for the fieldwork who organized five villagers and the
deputy head of the village to meet with us. In our team, we share similar
interests on gender and equity so we decided to take different roles in the
interview process.
Dr. Kab and Ajarn Noi interviewed two female workers from
MMG, while Ajarn Ou interviewed a man who is currently working for MMG. Dr.
Soonthon, Tim and I had a great opportunity to interview the deputy head of the
village who has been living within Ban Vang Yang community for his entire life
(40 years!). A number of amazing stories such as the way community struggled
with the lack of water, schooling and education in the village, how the
villagers have been moved by the mine, and economy around the village. We
finished at 11am and returned to the guesthouse to work on data management.
Although it was pouring rain in Vilabouly, I managed to
observe the main area of the village. This area is different from the village
area. I saw mobile phone shops, a number of restaurants, guesthouses and
motorcycle shops. It was clear that the major customers of these business are
the mine workers and visitors.
At 5PM, we started our second round of the interview. We had
six villagers from Ban Vang Yang to be interviewed. It was very interesting to
me to interview a Laos-Pa Gog (an ethnic group) woman who works in
the mining company. She is illiterate and does not speak
central Laos dialect. This is a challenge for me when it comes to listening and talking to her since
my (broken) Laos many not be very clear. I asked her girlfriend to sit
next to me and help me with some words. It was very awkward at the beginning
since she seemed not to understand me but when we started to discuss her work
and issues regarding her routine life, we connected. For ethical reason, I will
not reveal her identity but let’s call her ‘Sao’. Sao is the breadwinner of her
family since the husband has no proper skills and they have four kids to look
after. With her current situation, she felt uncertainty in life and work. She would
like to be able to work in different departments and roles. However, she kept
saying that she is poor and there is really no choice in her life. I asked her
what her ultimate dream is. “To see my kids happy and go to school” she humbly
replied.
We ended the interview
with meeting with Nai Ban (head of the village) who also joined us and shared
his view on various impacts of mining industry on his community. He hopes for better
quality of life among the members of Ban Vang Yang.
We finally arrived in Vientiane for the meeting and data
collection. The flight from Bangkok to Vientiane has always been great since my
first experience to Laos. After arrival,
we had to be ready for the meeting with our team.
The meeting was full of enjoyment and excitement. Team members
from Melbourne consists of Tim Moore from the University of Melbourne and Natt
Pimpa from RMIT. We first met with
Sriampa and Christi, our partners from Burnet Institute, at a local coffee shop
called Joma café.
The focal points of our discussion include the logistics of
data collection and protocol of meeting with key stakeholders in the community.
We were confirmed that the key villages in this study will include Vangyang,
Namkeep, Nongkadeang, Noonsomboun, Padong, Boungkham and Huaysuan.
Our team carefully selected these villages due to their vicinity to the mine
and diverse populations (miners and non-miners). We are also aware of significance of Suvanakhet as the largest province in Laos.
From the methodological perspectives, our concern is how to engage
with workers, women, men, representatives of women union and the community.
With strong plan and support from the National University of Laos, Burnet
Institute and MMG in Vientiane. Our team
contacted the community leaders and workers and asked for support in the
recruitment process. Although it took
2-3 months to recruit the participants in this study, we know that all
participants are very keen to share their life stories with us.
We had lunch with Dr. Saengdeune, Dr. Soonthone, Dr.
Kabmanivanh (aka Kab) and Ajarn Malaipon and Ajarn Outoompon (Ou) from the
National University of Laos (NUOL). It was our first time to meet with Dr. Kab
and Ajarn Malaipon in Vientiane. Both will play a leading role in the data
collection process in Vilabouly. I must admit I am impressed by the quality of
work from NUOL team, particular their research in gender, equity and migrant
workers in South East Asia. Our lunch ended with ideas to be implemented in the
field.
Our second day started at 5am!!!
We met with Dr. Kab and Ajarn Malaipon in front of the
University and that’s where our journey began. Traffic in Vientiane was not
that bad for Tuesday morning and I expected some long, quiet 12 hours trip..I
was wrong! As a competent researcher in sociologist, Dr. Kab broke the
ice with an interesting conversation on “Kao Chi Pate” (French Style Sandwich)
and its cultural influences in Laos. By 8am, we stopped by a shop and bought 5
Kao Chi Pater and iced coffee…What can I say!! Sab Lai (delicious).
An important part of the research team is getting to know
each other. We exchanged our stories from education in Australia, research in
Laos, migrant workers an ASEAN Economic Community, Thai politics, gender and
ethnicity in Malaysia and even Australian politicians. I realized that this 12
hours trip is truly important for us to understand each other’s work and life
backgrounds. We stopped at Chum Pa Sak
for lunch with Dr. Soonthon and Ajarn Malaipon. I was amazed by the number of
big trucks loaded with wood, products and people on the road. This area is one
of the strategic area for Laos economy and it will become greater when AEC
becomes a reality in 2015.
The road to Vilabouly is not that bad. I observed some
roadwork and construction along the way and some signs of deforestation and damaged
roads. Obviously, this area is where economy and people link and it may require
some facelift in the future. When we
were close to the community where we will spend the next 14 days with, we
started to see heavy rains and storm. What excite me is the households and
community along the road. I observed small communities, plantations and some
shops. People who gathered in the shops are mostly men. Women seem to work on
the domestic issues such as looking after kids, feeding their poultry, and
cleaning the house. The sign of gender role is very clear to me at this point.
We arrived in Vilbouly at 5.30 and checked in the guesthouse
(Heun Boun Houm). One of our team members, Thalalin from Burnet Institute,
greeted our team and organized rooms and schedule for us. I am excited to know
that we are going to work with this fabulous team in the next 2 weeks. And I
know it is going to be a very meaningful and interesting research.
