India, March 24 -- "Huai Hom is a coffee village. Thanks to our Arabica varieties, we have regular income," said Wa, visibly pleased, showing me the Google translation on his phone as a rooster crowed in the background. Wa, is a Sgaw (white) Karen, a member of an ethnic sub-group of Thailand's Karen hill tribes. As such, he wears a hand-painted t-shirt and an embroidered, handwoven cotton cross-body bag, plus fisherman pants and Adilette slides. "We don't need much money for food and have our own supplies," he tells me in clipped English.

Overcoming The Odds Photo Credit: Philipp Meier His ancestors had not been so lucky. Until just 60 years ago, Huai Hom in Northern Thailand was a hotbed of opium production. There were regular water sho...