Pimjai Intamoon - The Teddy Bear Woman
Some people are special; the first time you meet them (even if only for a few minutes) it strikes you. Then, later, as you find out more about them the 'wonder' increases. Pimjai Intamoon is like that.
There is a small building hidden away in a "soi" (lane) in the Donkaew area of MeeRim district, north of ChiangMai. When I arrived with the Rejoice team, Pimjai was the only person there. The room was silent, the row of industrial sewing machines were untended, the pile of pieces of cloth unused. There was a cabinet with finished items; teddy bears of different sizes, some 'graduating' from college, some getting married, some just being bears. there were bedroom slippers, shopping bags and purses. A photograph of Pimjai receiving a certificate from a Princess of Thailand was surrounded by other awards and photographs. Yet it was silent, I felt "something has happened here, but it is over".
Rejoice social worker Gee introduced me and explained I was interested in photographs of her and the work to show to people abroad. She photographs easily - picking up the teddy bears and then handing me a three page resume of her work before going to help the Japanese students who had come with us that day.
Gee explained how she had started a self-help group to make the teddy bears, but that a local businessman had seen the potential and started his own business offering the women Pimjai had trained, a regular salary. Recently she had been forced to turn down a large order because she did not have the workers to complete it in time.
The purchases were made and it was time to go, ironically to see the workers who had left. They still needed the vitamins, milk powder etc that Rejoice supplies despite now having a regular wage..
As I read the leaflet Pimjai had given me, I realised that the 'Teddy Bear Project' was just one part of the work she had started to help people out of the poverty trap. Small groups had been formed to start 'Credit Unions' to encourage saving and to provide cheap loans, local wisdom was shared in the use of plants for medicine, people came together to share experiences - true 'self-help'
Nor did Pimjai shrink from the larger 'political' issues, female trafficking, corruption in drug supplies, testing of dangerous new medicines on poor people by multi-national corporations....
I was happy to realise that my impression that it was 'over' was very wrong. This remarkable lady will continue for as long as she can, to help her community. She will make the best use of any help from 'outside' to help those with HIV, and their families, to help themselves.