Women elders of the Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group seen at the local community weaving hall. For over a decade, the Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group from a small rural village in Loei province in Thailand has been fighting the Tungkum goldmine. The group is made up of respected - and largely illiterate - women elders who have been funding their activism through growing and processing organic cotton. Agriculture is the main source of income for the majority of residents in Loei; resources such as water and land have a large bearing on their livelihoods. When the local community reported symptoms consistent wit
Women elders of the Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group seen at the local community weaving hall. For over a decade, the Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group from a small rural village in Loei province in Thailand has been fighting the Tungkum goldmine. The group is made up of respected - and largely illiterate - women elders who have been funding their activism through growing and processing organic cotton. Agriculture is the main source of income for the majority of residents in Loei; resources such as water and land have a large bearing on their livelihoods. When the local community reported symptoms consistent with blood poisoning back in 2007, they began protesting. Community resistance to the mine and the lawsuit that followed with Deutsche Bank meant the company was declared bankrupt in January 2018. But since then, the mine and chemicals associated with gold extraction have been abandoned. Debates about what to do with the giant vats of sodium cyanide among other toxic waste left behind by the mine remain unresolved to this day.
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Photo credit: © SOPA Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
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Keywords: anti-tungkum, ban, community, elders, female, goldmine, group, hall, kerd, khon, ladies, lady, rak, weaving, woman, women
