Who is the girl in our Advertisements?
I photographed the little girl in my advertisements during a trip to Myanmar in 2006. She belongs to a minority group there called the Akha, and she lived in a village that had dozens of children who flocked to greet us. They wanted to see if our guide had a treat for them (he did have some hard candies). He also had scarce pharmaceuticals for the parents. They loved having their picutres taken. The children knew our guide well, since he is devoted to doing all he can to help this impoverished minority group. Although he has a farm of his own, he takes out time to guide tourists to these remote villages and uses the earnings to buy medicine, blankets, and other necessities for their inhabitants. My husband and I were moved to contribute money to a tea plantation that promised to transform the lives of all the inhabitants of one village. It was this experience--realizing how little money it takes to make such an enormous differrence--that caused me to start thinking about fairtrade. I have now dedicated my life to its principles and to helping impoverished peoples.
Akha in Burma Peoples calling themselves Akha are concentrated in the mountains of eastern Burma (Myanmar) in Kengtung (Shan) State, interspersed with Lahu, Lisu, and Wa peoples; the lowlanders are Shan. Many Akha have been displaced during the last 30-40 years by incursions of the Burmese army, internecine warfare, including warlords such as Khun Sa (Lintner, 1990). This has concentrated many around Kengtung city and the town of Ho Ki Lek, near the northern Thai border. Many have become Christian, chiefly Catholic, especially the more urbanised. The number of Akha in Burma is difficult to estimate, but is certainly up to 150,000 (Akha Society for Culture and Art, Kengtung, 1996). They are called Kaw by Shan and Burmese. They are the largest highland minority in north-eastern Burma. (http://www.hani-akha.org/mpcd/hani-akha/geography.html)
