[Evaluation of the development agriculture and education project for Akha (DAPA)

DAPA grew out of the efforts by the American Baptist missionary, Paul Lewis, to create a development project to help all the Akha. Since DAPA took shape in the early-1980s, it has worked to provide education to Akha youth and to help Akha farmers grow cash crops. The DAPA office in Chiang Rai served as an Akha cultural center and an urban refuge for the Akha. DAPA have done an impressive job as an indigenous organization. The Akha take pride in its existence and its work, particularly the educational side. Despite management problems and problems in implementing its agricultural work, the Akha still maintain a positive attitude towards DAPA. DAPA has to face many difficulties in dealing with the problems of the Akha. The Akha are the poorest hill people in Thailand. They are the most recent imigrants and face more citizenship and land tenure difficulties than other groups. They have the least level of Thai education and the lowest level of experience in coping with urban conditions. This has resulted in the Akha facing mounting problems of prostitution, drug use, and crime within their society. Akha cultural values are under severe strees because it has become largely impossible to live a traditional Akha lifestyle. Customary gender relations and health care systems are coming undone. More than other hilltribes, the Akha are encoutering obstacles to functioning well in modern life, a life that for the Akha as others peoples from the hills, is becoming increasingly urban, currency-based, and Thai-ized. To deal with these conditions, the evaluation team recommends that DAPA work with other project, government agencies, and NGOs. DAPA shou d rework its scope to help Akhas everywhere in the hills and in the city. DAPA should promote educational activities and the development of information systems at all levels in order to help the Akha learn how to function in the modern world. Topics of vital importance include citizens rights, finding new ways of life for woman, health care systems based on staying healthy, the provision of life skills, and research ways to promote Akha pride while acting within the Thai context.