Baan Mankong in Chum Pae

I recently visited the other locality to have a CDF in Thailand: Chum Pae town, in the Isarn region of North East Thailand. Chum Pae is a new town, about 90km from Khon Kaen, and has a population of about 30,000. Despite the relatively small size of the town, a city-wide survey carried out jointly by community residents and the tesaban (town council) 6 years ago found that about 3000 people suffered from housing problems. Chum Pae's poor communities therefore embarked on Baan Mankong upgrading, in 8 separate projects, with much vigour, led largely by the energy of Pa (aunt) Nong, a cheerful, community-spirited and ambitious lady. She was my tour guide and drove me around in her pick up truck to visit 5 communities, as well as to chat with the relevant person in the tesaban. I left Chum Pae imbued with a sense of warmth and truly moved by the willingness of the people to devote so much time to helping each other improve their homes.

Of the first 8 Baan Mankong projects, 349 households of the 395 planned have been completed. However, this process took 5 years, and further plans were slowed by the drying out of CODI's revolving. A more recent re-survey of the city found about 600 needy persons (the big difference in numbers from the previous survey was explained by the fact that perhaps the first survey had been too wide in its definition of "need") - so the city's poor were faced with the question of how to upgrade/provide 600 homes in half the time of the first batch of Baan Mankong. Chum Pae is one town where "city wide" upgrading has been taken literally - some of the Baan Mankong projects involved the relocation on to one site of scattered renters and squatters around the city. This was the case with Pa Nong's small community of 31 households, who previously lived all around town.

When I asked whether this didn't create problems in the community if people didn't really know each other before hand, one committee member told me that actually it simplified things, because everyone was so desperate for a secure and affordable home. In comparison, the community next door, Sawang Saeng See, was earmarked for on-site upgrading and was Chum Pae's first Baan Mankong project - however, of the 65 households, only 29 houses have finished the process. According to Pi Waad, leader of the savings group, the process fell apart because people were thinking only of themselves, not of the whole community and the benefit they could all derive from upgrading. So savings activities stopped and started. Of the remaining 35 non-upgraded households, some don't want to take on debt, and others don't see the need for new houses. This community has served as a valuable learning opportunity for others.

The 9th project is just about to get started - two plots of land have been purchased, and infrastructural improvements will be starting imminently. As I watched the World Cup in the Pa Nong's community "sala" in the evening, two young persons arrived on a motorbike and whisked out a laptop to go over figures for Project 9. They are some of the dedicated community members of Project 9 who continue to work on their future community after a hard day's work at their "real" job, with the benefit of input from Pa Nong and other experienced upgraders from Chum Pae.

Chum Pae's CDF was formed in 2008 as a result of CODI's funding shortfall, and has already had marked benefits for Chum Pae's low-income residents. Chum Pae's CDF has funded 3 homes for three women in deep poverty who had no one to care for them and in insecure housing - the CDF contributed 35,500B to their new homes (on one of the Project 9 sites), the network provided the labour, and the tesaban the machinery.

With Project 9, the purchase of two sites involved the CDF in different ways:
1) Chayapuk site cost 3.6mB to buy, but only 2mB came in funding, plus the 10% of the residents' savings totalling 360,000B - this meant a shortfall of 1.2mB, and so the shortfall was borrowed from the CDF. As Chayapuk is slightly larger than needed at present, this allows for the creation of a land bank to accommodate future needy persons.
2) at Chalermsuk, the land cost 4.4mB, but CODI loaned 4.8mB, so the extra 0.4mB went into the CDF.

So the CDF really is a mixing and matching of different sources of funding, including 2mB from the tesaban (in the form of infrastructure subsidies), 1mB from ACHR, contributions from each community's savings group, and donations from other parties.

Another benefit of the CDF which was pointed out to me was that since the communities didn't need to borrow so much from CODI, as they had the CDF as an alternative funding source, CODI's money could be loaned to other communities elsewhere in Thailand - thus Chum Pae's CDF is not only helping Chum Pae people, but others around Thailand. Far reaching effects that I hadn't considered before.

Pa Nong is keen to get other towns to start their own CDFs, especially as outside Bangkok, there are many instances of persons who own land but live in poor quality housing - this group cannot be helped through Baan Mankong (as their land is secure) but the CDF could be a solution. The CDF also encourages people to save for their future, not just for Baan Mankong projects, so that they can end their reliance on outsiders. As someone said, the CDF isn't just about spending, but also about saving.

When I left Chum Pae I felt very much inspired and invigorated by the energy of the town's community members. Next time I hear someone (invariably a Bangkokian) brand NorthEastern Thais as lazy and stupid, I'll send them to Chum Pae to see for themselves how wrong they are.