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Published on October 30, 2007

 In an illustration of the interconnectedness of all things in this world, an ethnic Mon boy becomes linked to a young photographer in Bangkok, a small café in Saladaeng, a celebrated musician and even those peeled prawns we eat for dinner.

Cue the "six degrees of separation" theory, which suggests that every one of us is connected to everyone else on the planet via no more than six other people.

In January 2006 the Labour Rights Promotion Network (LPN) was alerted to the plight of the Mon lad in Samut Sakhon's Mahachai district, which is home to many Burmese migrant workers. He was seriously ill with rheumatic heart disease, as confirmed by Mahachai Hospital, and required special and very expensive treatment.

The boy - 12-year-old Yi - arrived in Thailand seven months ago. His sister Yang, 23, has for years worked at a shrimp-processing factory in Mahachai and brought her ailing brother to Thailand when their parents died.

They live in a small room with a dozen other people, next to the foul-smelling factory. Yang and her husband each earn Bt200 a day at the plant peeling prawns and have a baby not yet a year old.

Yi had been living with his illness since he was six - half his lifetime. He occasionally suffered intense chest pain - there was a large swelling on one side - and sometimes coughed all night, but Yang says he was stoical and never cried. At times he had to lie still for days until the pain abated.

The LPN got busy arranging a heart operation for Yi, and meanwhile the agency's director, Sompong Srakaew, placed him in a school. It's an opportunity he never had in Burma, and an experience he thoroughly enjoys.

"I love going to school and playing with my friends," he says.

Just the same, on doctor's orders, Yi couldn't run around and couldn't eat sweets. He stuck to the rules - and the operation was a success.

He's doing fine now, as a cheering crowd witnessed last week at the Bangrak Café on Bangkok's Soi Saladaeng. The small bistro is hosting the photo exhibition "In-Difference", which features a series of shots taken at the LPN school, and Yi is among the pupils pictured.

The photographs were taken by Aphiluck Puangkaew, a Thammasat University economics graduate. He'd read about the LPN's work with Burmese immigrants in Mahachai and was shocked about the labourers' poor living conditions. He called up the LPN and asked if there was anything he could do.

"I'm not a great photographer - there are a lot of people who can do a better job than me - but I think we should all be able to

use our skills to help other people," Aphiluck says.

He set off for Mahachai with a pair of cameras and started making the rounds of the places where the immigrant kids are found, starting with Wat Srisutharram School.

"I tried to capture the joyful moments," he says. "I was on a tight schedule and could only spend half a day there, but even half a day spared can be incredibly valuable in someone else's life."

Aphiluck visited classrooms and rode home with 20 of the youngsters on the school bus to see where they lived. He saw Yi's flat next to the factory, a small room on the first floor where 11 people lived, coming and going according to their work shifts.

He took pictures of everyone, in black and white.

Aphiluck and Yi were at the café for the exhibition's opening, together with the LPN's Sompong, Assoc Prof Surichai Whankaew of Chulalongkorn University and well-known musician and artist Phurich Sukhummalchan, better known as Yai of Monotone.

"When we talk about children, we automatically tend to think about them having names and nationalities," Yai said, gesturing to the photos on the café walls.

"These immigrants don't have surnames, but we see them now, and we know that we live with them in the world. Why don't we live with them in harmony and share with them our happiness, and relieve some of their suffering if we can?"

The evening proceeded with a show of traditional Mon dancing, and the guests gradually seemed to forget about names and nationalities and especially borders, content to share a fascinating moment. "In-difference", the title of the exhibition, didn't apply here.

Vipasai Niyamabha

 The Nation