Coming straight from the school benches, without any experience in working on site and with the various stakeholders involved in projects such as these, I was amazed by the work of CODI’s Baan Mangkong and how much strength, motivation and engagement can come from within a community.

Our group had the chance to meet communities in Pattaya, two hours outside of Bangkok which were still in the early fases of the Baan Mangkong project. They made interesting case studies as they were not just facing the challenges in organizing the community, one of the key requirements to join the BM, but bringing several communities together.  All struggled with their own difficulties, but it amazed me at how they all found a way to get organized and work together so efficiently. It is then you can see what effect an organisation as CODI can have. But at the same time you start wondering: This is an amazing program which has many successes within the context of Thailand and its particular culture, but how can such a program be implemented successfully in another setting, one where individualism is so much stronger than a sense of community?