Relief work | Aid workers Miika and Maria Savola entered a Thai prison – “Yes, everyone had a tear in their eye”

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Aid worker Miika Savola crumples and crumples a 50-euro bill in a northern Thai youth prison. He asks the prisoners what the value of the bill is folded.

The prisoners answer that still equal.

Then Savola crumples the bill properly. He even stomps on it and asks the same question.

Equal, still answered.

Savola then takes the crumpled note and looks at the young prisoners, each one of them.

“In the same way, you have the same value, even if there have been bumps in life.”

Prisoners listen with interest, probably also somewhat confused. The idea is not very typical in Thailand, where the value of a person is still quite generally determined in many circles by the “goodness” or “badness” of actions. Ancestry also affects rank and status.

Many of the young people who ended up in prison did not have the best possible starting points. The actions have weakened the position and “value” even more, also in the minds of the young people themselves.

Parents of young people, who have been invited, are also faced with new ideas. The purpose of the event organized by the prison is to give young people at least a little hope for a better future.

International diakonia project workers Miika and Maria Savola had been asked to speak from the Finnish perspective.

“We had free rein. We thought it would be good to talk about the value of a person. Whatever has happened and whatever a person has done, he has the same value”, says Maria Savola.

“It was also aimed at parents. They too can feel that their value has gone.”

The so-called loss of face is a common concept in Thailand, as in many other cultures of the Far East. Many parents may think that after their child has fallen into the path of crime, they too have lost face.

“Almost everyone in Thailand still has the utopian idea that everyone is equal,” says Maria Savola.

Savolat live in Northern Thailand’s most internationally known city, historic Chiang Mai. During the prison visit, they visited the city of Phitsanulok, 350 kilometers further south.

The Savolas are employees of the Finnish aid organization Fida. Fida, which has a Christian background, works in different parts of the world in an effort to improve the position of women, children and the disadvantaged and to help, for example, in the prevention of human trafficking.

The Finns had been invited to the prison by the local Santi congregation, which has been working in the region’s prisons for decades.

“Church workers have a somewhat similar task to diaconate workers in Finland. They have expertise, and they are officially in cooperation with the state’s social services,” says Maria Savola.

“They organize life coaching for prisoners and encourage them to be released. There are few resources in the prison, and they are happy to welcome churches and organizations.”

Congregation sounds quite special in Thailand, because the country is really Buddhist.

However, there are approximately 2,500 Christian congregations in the north, and for example, a large number of the numerous mountain tribes in the region are Christians.

There are also Muslims in the region, although not as many as in southern Thailand, where Islam is even more common than Buddhism in four provinces.

According to the country’s administration, there are about half a million Christians in Thailand as a whole. The population of Thailand is just under 70 million.

Prison gig was new to Savoloi, and it certainly won’t be the last time.

Mainly they have worked in Thailand with northern tribes. There, too, they help local partners, which are usually churches and organizations.

“It is really important for the organizers here to have a good Thai partner. Westerners doing it alone is not a very good thing. We can go to training together,” says Maria Savola.

The Savolas have also been involved in projects against human trafficking and child abuse in the Chiang Mai region.

The Thai authorities have now tried to intervene strongly in human trafficking, which is a good thing, according to Savolo.

“Thailand has good laws regarding that,” says Miika Savola.

Most recently, on Thursday last week, the police raided Chiang Mai’s restaurant district and arrested the owners of a bar. According to the police, three underage girls who had been forced to work and had been exploited were rescued from the restaurant.

Savolat and other employees of the organizations do educational work in the villages.

Young people who have got their lives back on track, as well as, for example, young people studying different fields in educational institutions, have come to speak with them in the villages. They tell you how many options there are, both for boys and girls.

Aid workers are also trying to encourage tribes to abandon their traditions of child marriage. In addition, they aim to help improve electricity, water supply and roads in remote villages.

Finns the second program number at the prison concert was related to the mutual relations between the prisoners and their parents.

Prisoners aged 14–18 and their parents were asked to write each other a letter in which both write three positive things about each other and apologize for something.

Due to the strongly hierarchical culture in Thailand, it is also quite unheard of for a parent to apologize to their child for something. However, everyone was asking now.

When teenagers and their parents read letters written to themselves, they became sensitive. The feeling spread to others.

“Yes, everyone had a tear in their eye at the end, us too and everyone else present,” says Miika Savola.

It was rewarding.

“There is a lot of influence work, from which you don’t see an immediate result. Of course, this is really moving. The dams broke, as did years of silence,” says Maria Savola.

“It felt like emotional locks were opening,” says Miika Savola.

According to him, the participants did not care that there were strangers there.

“The most important thing was that you had your own child.”

The greatest joy of an aid worker comes from the fact that someone’s life changes maybe a little for the better, says Maria Savola.

“Someone gets hope and gets to experience love in their life. That’s a really cool thing. And if you can develop healthy family relationships, wow!”

Important is, according to Maria Savola, that young people can find dreams and goals.

“Even if they had been in a youth prison, it would be great to see great stories in which they later develop society on their own,” says Miika Savola.

The Savolas say that they have already arrived. Many who got rid of drugs and prison have gone to talk to young villagers.

“The main idea behind it is that even though it has gone wrong, nothing has been lost. Everything is possible, and good choices can be made in the future,” says Miika Savola.