Nomklao

 Nomklao is one of the communities within Wangtholang District that is in the construction stage of the Baan Mankong Programme.  People here come from different backgrounds but been living together for a long time. Some stages have been completed and given a 30 year land lease from the CPB, and others are still under construction. 

Here the dynamics are very different from the ones in Tepheela. People seemed more united and strong. For instance, the community leader of Nomklao is the one representing the whole District and women where more involved in leadership, recognized, and outspoken.

The area is very close to commercial actitivies and a lot of people here are street vendors. We where introduced to the community, its people and history through a video which took us through a long history of activism and milestones that have had an impact in the community living conditions.

We came to Nomklao wanting to have more interaction with community members and not only the community leaders. This was important for us as we wanted to hear from a variety of individuals and explore diverse experiences and points of view.

We (with the help of our translators and CODI staff) organized a participatory exercise known as the River of Life, with the aim to collect people visions on the past, present and future of the area.

This experience was really fascinating for me as it was the first time I did something like this. It was challenging as we had to work together with our translators as well as the community members in order to gain information. I really enjoyed working like this because hearing what people want to say is very interesting as I was getting a real life picture of the experiences, feelings, and needs of people. In my opinion, this type of communication and interaction is what development practitioners should aim for...not saying that is easy but definetely worth it!

I found challenging communicating through a translator as sometimes you don't understand or they don't understand exactly what the questions or answers are. I think these types of exercises require a lot of time in order to gain confidence and feel more confortable with the people and atmosphere.

This exercise showed us the evolution of the community from being an area lacking secure land, housing and infrastructure to an area being upgraded through the Baan Mankong Programme. People seemed happy and satisfied with the programme as not only people are gaining material benefits but also more recognition as citizens from the CPB, local authorities and other government departments.

We discovered that the community has a savings group that has diversified its funds for investment in other sectors such as education, health and community activities. They have also created a 'risk fund' in order to help people that cannot afford to pay the required amount for the loan repayments. This risk fund is very interesting as shows how people manage to respond to financial challenges that can appear along the way.