Next January I’m trekking through largely untouched forest and along non-commercial trekking routes in northern Thailand – close to the Thai-Burmese border – in a small group led by Karen staff from the charity Karen Hilltribes Trust (KHT). We’ll experience the hospitality of the Karen, see their traditional crafts, visit their schools and enjoy the local food. We'll learn about the work of the KHT and have the chance to see some of the projects in action. We’re paying all our own expenses.

KHT is helping the Karen people in three key areas: improving health by installing clean water systems and latrines, increasing access to education by providing school buses, meals, dormitories and scholarships, and securing better livelihoods by building irrigation systems.

In the late 1990’s, I switched from working in IT to Human Resources. I had to get up to speed with topics like leadership and I came across stories of a brilliant WW2 leader, “Uncle Bill” Slim, who ‘won the deep and abiding love of all who fought under him’. He led the ultimately successful Burma Campaign which forced the Japanese out of Burma; my father was later to serve in the army in Burma. As I read various books about the Burma Campaign, there were fleeting references to the Karen people. In Slim: The Standardbearer Ronald Lewin mentioned the Burma Division of 12,000 Karens, Kachins and Chins armed and organized under British Officers. Bernard Ferguson in Beyond the Chindwin says “The best watermen of all, however, were the Karens of the Burma Rifles…. Nobody who has served with the Karens could fail to like them”. Slim himself, in Defeat into Victory, notes “the Karens… remained staunchly loyal to us even in the blackest days of the Japanese occupation, and had suffered accordingly.” After the war, a large number of Karen people migrated across the border into Thailand.

Last year, Aberdeen Asset Management decided to sponsor several Emerging Market Charities and staff were invited to consider a selection: when I saw that the Karen Hilltribes Trust was on the list, I voted for them. In April, we had a Charity Showcase where the charities that Aberdeen had supported over the past year came in and spoke to us about their charities and discussed volunteering opportunities ahead of the Aberdeen Global Volunteering day on 28 April. I spoke to the Karen Hilltribes Trust representative. She did not say anything about the volunteering day. The best way to help, she said, would be to raise money and come on the 2018 Jungle Trek.

Please help the Karen hill tribes by sponsoring me or giving direct to the charity.