In a sun-dappled patch of sand along Thailand’s east coast, a group of environmentalists is holding a class as a group of environmentalists listens to local activists explain their fight against industrial parks.
Some of the 13 students from across the Mekong region have faced harassment, prison sentences and even violence at home. Environmental activists around the world are battling intimidation and violence, with one person killed every two days last year.
Under a canopy of mango leaves not far from the Gulf of Thailand, those risks seem far away and the focus is on learning from the community’s fight to protect the land.
Activists are participating in a field trip to Earthlights School, an unusual program of intensive training and education for environmentalists.
We provide a practical curriculum that includes campaign skills, proposal writing, and evidence gathering.
But it is also a valuable opportunity for activists, who often face intense domestic pressure, to share their experiences and freely discuss their work.
“Most of them arrive very stressed and anxious, either stress related to the specific dangers and risks they face, or just general anxiety,” said Christina Jolly, a teacher at the school. (53) said.
Discussing such concerns at home can be frowned upon at best, and dangerous at worst.
But at school, “after a while you start to relax.”
āThese walls will come down.ā
Win Thandar Kyaw, from Myanmar, was a student at the school in 2014 and credits the school’s skills with helping her win compensation for landowners affected by property seizures.
She is currently working with schools, which she says provide a “safe haven” for activists who are under tremendous pressure.
“They can speak up, they can actually say what they’re feeling and what they’re facing, and they can express themselves.”