Nine years ago, Ropita Mahamat almost lost her son in a shooting incident, a dishearteningly familiar story in the Deep South. One night at 9pm in Pattani, her son was picking a relative from a pondok school when unidentified gunmen opened fire on him -- or, more likely, on someone else, though the bullets hit him. This circumstance, like so many similar ones in the region, was never clearly explained.
"Luckily, someone found him on the roadside and took him to the soldiers, and he ended up at a hospital," said Ropita, 57. "But he became bed-bound and couldn't work for years. It was a blow to the family."
Ropita's husband was old and sick then -- he would later pass away -- and she became a breadwinner, working as a hired hand to tap latex at rubber plantations every morning. The unrest in the three southernmost provinces in the past decade has claimed nearly 7,000 lives and put a weight on everyone's shoulders, a protracted situation that has worsened the locals' livelihoods. Ropita, feeling the impact first-hand after her young son was shot, knew she had to do something more.
Six years ago she formed the Housewives Sweet Making Group in Kolam, Pattani. It was an initiative that exemplifies the growing drive for women in the troubled area to become more active in the household economy, earning income to support the family. Founded with a dozen members and initial capital of 40 baht, today the group produces three kinds of home-made snacks and distributes them to tea shops around Pattani and nearby provinces.
Video by Jetjaras Na Ranong and Kong Rithdee
They make krong krang and roti krob -- crispy and sweetened fried roti -- doling out hundreds of packs a day. What they earn isn't huge -- probably a thousand baht or more for each member per month -- but it's substantial in a region where household income is half of Bangkok's. And above all, it's the spirit of the women, who want to take their fate in their own hands.
"There are many unemployed women in the district," said Ropita. "I think they can do something more to help their families. Before, they raised their children and grandchildren, or they'd do random sewing jobs. What we do here may not be that big, but it keeps us busy, and it certainly eases the burden at a time when our expenses are often higher than our incomes."
Ropita's women's group is part of something bigger -- namely, Wanita Social Enterprise, an initiative by Oxfam to provide an economic platform for women in the Deep South. Meaning "women" in Malay, Wanita now has 26 women's groups and over 300 members under its umbrella, and they produce a range of locally-sourced products, such as food, snacks and handicrafts. Oxfam's goal is to open up new market opportunities for the member groups, providing training and leadership skills, which will in turn lead to more economic-empowerment activities.
Many families, like Ropita's, bear the direct impact of the violence that has plagued the Deep South. Just last week, a ghastly attack left four from the same family dead, including an eight-year-old child.
But even to those who haven't lost anyone they know, the situation has prevented genuine economic development of the region. Pushed by circumstances, women like Ropita feel the motivation to lead, and their role is unconventional -- and empowering -- in a conservative society where women are traditionally regarded as followers.
In Khlong Manee, Pattani, Supattra Cometan supervises a group of women in her village to make rubber sandals, pair after pair of colourful, environmentally friendly footwear made from recycled ocean trash. Composing a member group of Wanita, these women have received a commission from Tale Jorn, a local shoemaker known for recycling garbage, to produce the goods for them. Through market fairs, they also receive orders to make cloth bags and folders from local fabrics for organisations in Bangkok, including the UN.
Supattra is originally from Chiang Rai. Along with her family, she converted to Islam over 30 years ago and then moved to the South, where she later met her husband.
Abidoh Jina, leader of the krajood mat group in Songkhla.
"It's not easy to encourage women to start working and not feel discouraged by what their husbands might think," she said. "And I feared, at first, how the husbands of the women in my group would think of me. Sometimes when we got together, some women couldn't come because their men didn't want them to.
"But things have gotten better. Everyone knows now that it's good to have an extra hand in finding income for the family, however small it is."
Like Ropita's snack-making group, Supattra's team of women come together because they realise they have to chip in. With support from Oxfam, they now work in a simple concrete structure set under the pleasant shade of trees five minutes from the main road.
Sitting on the floor, young and middle-aged women glue the rubber soles to the shoes and attach the straps, working manually. Then they move on to the sewing machines to make batik cloth bags for the shoe packaging, adding value to the product while giving it a southern flavour.
"We tap rubber in the morning, then come here to work on the shoes and the cloth bags," said Supattra. "The orders we receive aren't huge, the maximum is 1,000. And if the customer wants more, with about 10 people in our group we don't have the capacity. Still, it's more important that we do something, and that it actually brings in some money to the community."
Where Supattra lives isn't that far from Krue Se Mosque, a landmark of Pattani and the site of a brutal siege that ended with over 30 deaths in 2004. From statistics, the violence in the Deep South has declined in the past few years. But no one is under the illusion that peace would come smooth and quick, and last week's attacks reminded the nation of the vulnerability people in the Deep South have been living with for years.
For Supattra, a southerner by choice, the question of leaving never crossed her mind.
"I had a chance to leave, but I didn't want to. I'm afraid, of course, but our family is here. And in fact it's not that bad if we set our mind to do something with the hope that things will surely improve."
At the moment there are around 1,000 groups of small-scale local producers of food and products in the Deep South. For its part, Wanita plans to expand its reach to include 20 to 30 more women's groups, according to Oxfam country director Suntaree Rangkusone. To find a larger market, the project will bring in mentors to help with packaging design and marketing, with the ultimate goal of establishing sustainable community entrepreneurship that benefits people long-term.
While peace is on everyone's mind, the more urgent mission is to improve day-to-day livelihoods. And in a conflict zone like this, women have proved instrumental.
"Once, women in the area may not have wanted to speak up or assert themselves," said Suntaree. "But they realise they can make a difference, and that counts so much here."
Find out more about Wanita Social Enterprise and available products at www.facebook.com/wanitase. For Oxfam in Thailand, go to www.facebook.com/OxfaminThailand.
