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When the Thai-T’ai (Leau) youth drama team traveled to China recently, they certainly didn’t take a relaxing vacation.  In fact, every day the team moved to a new village, trying to spread their message to as many Chinese ethnic T’ai (Leau) as possible.

The young T’ai (Leau) from Thailand traveled from village to village and performed a series of simple dramas, skits, and songs, attracting a large portion of each community to watch.  Through the shows, the team gave the villagers current information and helped the community talk about the risks of HIV/AIDS, gambling, human trafficking and drug abuse, problems that usually stay hidden.

The T’ai (Leau) youth performance group came out of the Ethnic Minority Capacity Building project, started in November 2002 as a project of World Concern Thailand and now continued by MMF.  Groups in China and Thailand have exchanged several study and exposure trips, helping leaders from minority communities in each country to learn from the work of their counterparts.  The project works with Akha and Lahu villages in addition to T’ai (Leau) communities that hosted the drama group.

One of the biggest issues this villages face is the migration of young people to the city, looking for work.  Many young women migrate all the way to Thailand.  Children move to urban centers to earn money for their families but parents do not know exactly what kind of work their children are involved with.  Most children tell their parents ‘retail shop salesperson’ or ‘restaurant employee’ but parents rarely understand the truth, which is that youth are often doing risky or even illegal work, involving drugs or prostitution. 

Even as villagers didn’t know what really happened to migrants, most villagers remained ignorant of how HIV/AIDS could affect them, and the risks associated with prostitution, gambling and drugs.  Most villagers had never heard of people living with AIDS.  They knew that sometimes people who had worked in the city returned home with sicknesses, but people did not know it was HIV/AIDS.  They didn’t realize HIV/AIDS had already come so close to their lives.

Until the Thai T’ai (Leau) performing teams arrived.  As the teams used dramatic performances, dance and song as vehicles to help the villagers understand, people began to recognize their own lives in the situations portrayed by the team. The presentations deeply touched peoples’ hearts.  People from teenagers to old women cried during the performances, then shared their personal experiences in the discussions that followed.  Villagers told of people who had contracted HIV/AIDS while working elsewhere, then had come back to die in the village. 

 The performances helped the people learn they had been told lies about life in other countries, specifically that if they sent their daughters to work in Thailand they’d have the opportunity to earn high salaries and become rich.  After the performances, the villagers reported increased awareness and showed a strong desire to stop migration out of the village. 

The run for this particular performance was only 10 days, affecting just a few villages in Southern China, but it made a world of difference to the people involved.  And more, the local Chinese government was so impressed, the team has been invited to return and carry their message to new communities.  Who knows?  The Thai T’ai (Leau) dramatic presentations could be the hit of the century.