Habitat World Online

Thailand: The Soosawad family plans for the future
Walking behind Muhamad Soosawad, one cannot help but think that the 61-year-old is rather agile for a man his age. Only when he feels for the threshold before carefully stepping over it does it become clear that he is blind.

Muhamad lives with his 55-year-old wife Leema and his three unmarried children in Suksamran district, Ranong province in southern Thailand. Home is a Habitat brick house furnished simply, with a linoleum floor and straw mats and printed curtains for the windows. His former home was a wooden house that was not affected by the tsunami. However, the herbs that he had bought from Bangkok for export to Myanmar were washed away. And after the storm, his old house was torn down due to its substandard condition.

The family lives on the 3,000-baht (US$88) monthly income that his son Husaman, 22, brings home as a fisherman. Leema helps their son each afternoon by setting fishing traps and leaving them overnight. After the catch is brought home each morning, 20-year-old daughter Sutida helps to sort what is to be sold. Youngest child Saram, 10, is a student in the local school not far from his home. To supplement the family income, Muhamad and his wife also sell betel nuts in the market, Muhamad expertly wielding a knife to slice betel nuts. (Betel chewing is a common practice among the local people in Suksamran.)

Recalling the time, about two years ago, when he was contributing his own labor to house construction, Muhamad says: “Even though it was very hard work, I was happy and willing to help because I thought, ‘I will have my own house soon.’

“Now, my family and I do not have to worry about heavy rains, unlike in my old house when the roof would leak,” he says. Leema shyly nods in agreement.

Looking to the future, Muhamad says he would like his children to receive higher education, a wish that Sutida is keen to fulfill. She has hopes of becoming a nurse, a stable job that would allow her to help her parents. As there are no nursing courses available in Suksamran, she will have to study in the city — but she is closer to achieving her dream because the family is able to save more these days.

Living in a solid Habitat house means that money that would have gone into repairing a leaking roof, among other things, can now be set aside. The security of a Habitat house is also apparent when Sutida reveals that her father had fallen a few times at the old house, which was elevated. In the Habitat home, however, her family is more comfortable and happy, she says with a bright smile.

By Hiew Peng Wong, an editor/writer in Habitat’s Asia/Pacific area office