Getting Muslim women in deep South from under the veil

WHAT can we do to be strong like women’s groups in other areas?

That’s what a Muslim women’s group from the violence-plagued deep South wanted to know after the Raks Thai Foundation recently brought them to visit vocational groups in Nakhon Si Thammarat province and establish work-related connections with people there.

Pennapa Kongdee, the foundation’s coordinator in the three southern border provinces, said the question made the foundation’s staff realise that, besides giving the women vocational opportunities, they should also take women’s groups to visit places outside the troubled region to communicate with other people so they would be more confident and expressive. 

Fund providers, markets and related government agencies that had enabled many of the groups to do well – to grow and learn from experiences as well as have meaningful exchanges with other groups.

Habeusoh Mahama, of Tambon Batong in Narathiwat’s Rusoh district, and fellow members of a bakery group attentively listened to what members of the Ban Nam Tok curry paste-making group in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Tha Sala district had to say. 

“It is interesting that the curry-making group could expand to produce thong muan [crispy golden curl sweets] and open a community shop and a community bank,” Habeusoh said. “They have a very strong accounting system and developed their own brand of products. I would like to use what I learned today to improve my group.”

Peusoh Madeng, 48, from Pattani’s Ma-Yor district, said her batik clothes-making group comprised more than a dozen people but their products weren’t as attractive as those from other places. 

The group made several visits with the Raks Thai Foundation and met with Culture Ministry officials and lecturers from the Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya. 

As per request, a lecturer helped design a batik print that reflected her community’s identity via weeping fig trees. Local youths are learning the pattern, so the group’s products will include the weeping fig print by June, she added.

Nuroynee Haripa, 25, from Tambon Kota Baru in Yala’s Raman district, went on a trip for the first time along with her toddler child and her mother. She and fellow neighbours tailor Muslim prayer clothes and hijab scarves as well as other Muslim women clothing. 

Having developed a new design for hijab scarves that can be tied in various ways, she said she would have her own logo and would sell the products via a Facebook shop. Nuroynee looked happy and excited when she talked about her business plan while demonstrating how to tie the hijab.

That is in stark contrast to the deep South’s grim situation, with unabated violence over more than a decade. The death ratio is six males – many of them working age – to one female, resulting in an increasing number of widows. 

Between 2011-14, the Raks Thai Foundation had worked with communities and some 14,000 poor widows whose loss of family leaders in the unrest left them shouldering family expenses and burdens alone. The foundation’s Fund4Life project aimed to create jobs for these widows so they could look after their families and boost the local communities’ economies, resulting in more employment and income for all sectors.

“Fund4Life was active in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat since 2011. In its first four years the foundation got funding from the European Union and was able to aid 14,000 widows to improve their life quality and promote the communities’ economies as these women’s small businesses created jobs and boosted incomes,” Pennapa said.

The foundation directly helped 1,533 women to set up businesses and indirectly created jobs for thousands others, Pennapa said. 

Besides training them vocationally for what businesses they wanted to do, getting starting funds and developing their management skills, the foundation’s officials also supported the groups’ leading members and followed through with them to ensure all went without a glitch, she said. 

The foundation also provided these women – deemed more at risk of attack – with legal and rights-related information, she added.

Early last year, the Raks Thai Foundation proposed the Fund4Life project to get sponsorship from Chevron Thailand Exploration and Production Ltd. 

It received 150,000 euros (Bt9.7 million) to continue the work for another two years.