Pangea Site Visit Northern Thailand - Fortune - January 2026

In January 2026, several Pangea members and their travel partners spent a day with Fortune, a small grassroots organization located in Fang District in Northern Thailand. This was Pangea's second site visit with Fortune. You can read more about the first visit from early 2024 in this blog post. Three of the four Pangea group had been on the 2024 site visit, while this was the first site visit trip for the author of this post.

Sharing lunch with many of the Fortune team at an outdoor restaurant in Fang, Thailand

Fang is a largely rural district in Thailand with a heavy emphasis on agriculture. It is also close to the border with Myanmar (Burma) and has seen an influx of migrants, primarily ethic Shan people fleeing Shan state in eastern Myanmar as a result of increased persecution after the coup in 2021. Fortune is run by young Shan people who have settled in Fang. It’s mission is to help other migrants obtain necessary Thai identification cards and resettle in Thailand. Pangea has funded Fortune for several years. 

On this year's visit, we spent a full day with Fortune. In addition to spending time with them at their offices learning about their programs, Fortune took us to the local district administration offices, where Thai identity cards and other administrative tasks are completed. Fortune has a person working full time at the district offices helping to translate and answering a myriad of questions from migrants trying to understand what they need to do to comply with Thailand’s often changing requirements. Pangea funds go directly to supporting this Fortune program and we saw during this visit just how important this service is to people seeking to obtain ID Cards, work permits, and register their children for school.  

After leaving the Fang District administration offices, we visited a migrant camp in the middle of an orange orchard and one on the outskirts of town to see how migrants live and learn about Fortune’s efforts to connect migrants with health care, education, and provide them with knowledge to help them understand Thailand. 

We also stopped at the same preschool at a local temple that was visited in 2024 and saw the children doing their best to nap on a warm afternoon. Fortune helps fund this program for children of migrant workers that helps them adjust to life in Thailand and teaches them Thai language, which is required to attend Thai schools. 

We left the site visit impressed with how much Fortune does to help displaced people from Myanmar (Burma) and saw first-hand how Pangea members’ contributions are making a daily positive difference in many migrants’ lives.  

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 Visit our SE Asia Grant Partner page for more information about the organizations we are currently supporting in SE Asia.

Read more about our Site Visits, or learn more about the Pangea Experience. Questions? Email us at info@pangea-giving.org.