Sombat Boongamanong, also known as "Nuling," is the founder and visionary of MAG. At age 35, he is one of Thailand's information technology leaders, without ever having finished the twelfth grade. The members of his high school's student council were popularly elected,

Photo courtesy of MAG     Sombat Boongamanong

"but every year they had conflicts with the administrators, so the system was changed so that school administrators indirectly chose council members," Sombat said. "I couldn't accept this. I fought for representation by students and I didn't finish school as a result of fighting for the issue."

Sombat was never a top student and was unable to pursue a university education because of the limited spots in Thailand's higher-education system. "I didn't like that style of education." he said. "It was too suffocating. It didn't work well for me. This style of education doesn't attract students to learn, and most of the time external factors can easily distract them."

In 1991, at the age of 23, Sombat founded MAG, a travelling theatrical company of political activists and artists, to protest conditions after a military regime took power in Thailand. MAG used art and drama performances as a safe way to reach a wide audience to promote social change, human rights and universal equality through mutual co-operation, self-education and an active community. When a more democratic government took power in 1996, MAG rode the digital wave, creating a Web site as a forum for political discussion and a place to recruit volunteer teachers for youth and community-based activities. It also solicited donations of money and books, amassing so many (100,000 volumes) that the community needed to build a new library to house them all.

Moving Up into the Hills

In 1998, MAG shifted its focus by moving from Bangkok to northern Thailand where it could concentrate its efforts on a single community to see if a comprehensive approach to societal change would yield long-lasting, far-reaching results. MAG focuses its efforts on the hill tribe members of the 15 villages in the Mae Yao sub-district of Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand, providing education and skills for income generation and agricultural self-sufficiency. It also helps the hill tribes fight drug abuse and the trafficking of women and children, claim their right to Thai citizenship and the benefits it confers, and retain their cultural identity while learning to coexist with lowland Thai society.

Photo by Naveen Kishore  Sombat (left) begins each day with a staff meeting of all his "commanders" (project heads and program officers). Rather than just delegate authority, he shares ownership and gives the staff freedom and independence to do its work.

Morning staff meetings (right) at MAG give staff members a chance to communicate about their projects, share opinions and ask about other projects. "In the beginning, it was simple because everyone worked together on the same projects, such as camps or drama," Sombat said. "Because they were very few of us (10 to 15), it was easy to communicate and we just needed one boss to specify the direction. Now we have more than 10 programs, with more than 30 people, including volunteers. We use horizontal communication so all of us can catch up with the others."