Toilet Block Completed.

The toilet block we funded last year has been completed and is a great improvement on the previous one.

Visit to Paraheta School

Thant arranged a visit for us to Paraheta School, a school we funded for 2 months last year whilst they waited for their donor to provide their funding. We currently fund the school's supply of bottled water as their water is from a local stream full of pesticides and fertilizer.The school has changed a little since our last visit, there is now a concrete floor and half walls around the main classrooms area. They have recently had 20 new desks which is great as they previously worked on the floor. School had finished for the day as we couldn't go until 6pm but there were still 20 students there who live there permanently. With no electricity and light fading fast, we had a quick look around, watched the children do their homework and then have their evening meal in candle light. One of the photos is taken with a flash, the other shows the lighting as it really is. Quite a quaint atmosphere if you forget about their situation!

Lunch and Some Fun!

We sat at Canadian Dave's cafe eating our lunch in anticipation. We had arranged with Thant (our Burmese friend) that if the children arrived we would phone him and he would send the older boys that live with us to fetch them. Soon, Ayisha arrived with her brother and nephew, I rang Thant, and Angulah arrived in a Tuk Tuk to take the children back to the house. Wendy went in the Tuk Tuk so there was a white face as the Tuk Tuk driver was scared he would be pulled over by the Thai police to check out the Burmese children. The children went to Thant's house where they had lunch and spent time playing with some toys we had bought for their visit. This has got to be better than rummaging through the rubbish and dodging the Thai authorities. The children turned up another time at the house during the week but we haven't seen them in the last few days.

Closing Ceremony at MaeLa Special School

We were invited to attend the closing ceremony at the MaeLa Refugee Camp Special School with Big our World Education coordinator. We travelled about 45 minutes north of MaeSot to MaeLa camp and parking outside, ducked through the barbed wire and into the Special School. The ceremony was rather long winded with everybody giving a speech but it was made enjoyable by the singing of some of the visually impaired students. We enjoyed a traditional Karen lunch before having many photos taken with students and staff.

More children on the street!

On another recent visit to a favourite café for lunch we were approached by 2 different boys, again asking for food. Having our friend Maung Maung Tinn with us enabled us to chat with the boys while their fried rice was being cooked. We discovered that they are from the Muslim quarter of town and basically spent their time trying to get money out of foreigners and avoiding the Thai police. Both boys lived with ‘aunty’ as one boy’s mother had gone to Bangkok with her new husband who didn’t want him. The other boy was shyer and we will try and find out his story at another time. Meeting these 2 sets of children gave rise to the thought of the “Burmese Soup kitchen” idea. We will keep you updated!

Meet the Street Kids

Whilst having lunch the other day we were greeted by 4 children ranging from about 2yrs old to about 8/9 yrs old. They asked for food and stayed around whilst their fried rice was being cooked. The following day the same children arrived again at the same café and asked for some food. Wendy had just finished eating her meal and had placed the left overs on the table beside us. The children ploughed into the rice and noodles and finished her meal off very quickly. The 2 yr old reached up to Wendy and sat on her lap and drank her water and ate her food, obviously very hungry! The owner explained that these children regularly visit his café and often encourage foreigners to buy them food. They obviously don’t go to school!

Our Plans for 2008

Our Plans for 2008

We have decided to spend the next year in Mae Sot on the Thai/Burma border. We are hoping that we will be able to offer help and support to the Burmese and Karen people living in the area. We fly out to Thailand on the 17th January and will probably spend a couple of days in Bangkok before heading north to Mae Sot. In Mae Sot we will catch up with friends and discuss what we are going to do in the time we are there. Below we have outlined some ideas we have for what we will do on the border:

Mae Tao Clinic.
Mae Tao Clinic is a refugee clinic on the outskirts of Mae Sot near the Thai/ Burma Border. www.maetaoclinic.org/aboutus.html )
The clinic has a children’s ward treating a wide variety of ailments. When a child comes to the clinic they are often accompanied by brothers and sisters as well as one of the parents. As they often live many hours travel away, they all stay at the clinic with very little to do. We would like to provide these children with an art and craft programme allowing them to develop creative skills and have some fun. Many of the children have come from jungle areas and have never experienced activities which children in our schools take for granted.

Teacher Training.
The Karen Education Department is responsible for about 60,000 children in migrant schools and schools in refugee camps and also schools inside the Karen State of Burma. We worked with the KED in 2005 and when we visited in the summer we discussed with them the possibility of doing some teacher training when we return next year. We hope we will be able to share different teaching methods and help them to extend their curriculum being aware of the limited resources that are available to them. We would like to look at how children with disabilities are catered for in the schools, (if at all), and maybe work out solutions for developing programs for these children with the department and the teachers.

Local Migrant Children.
We have a friend in Mae Sot who works very closely with the local migrant population. These are Burmese people who have come across the border to look for work and/or to escape the persecution of the government regime in Burma. These people live and work in very poor conditions. Very often the children are unable to go to school as they are required to go to work to help support the family. We would like to work with our friend to identify families where the children are very keen to go to school and possibly arrange some support for the families to enable the children to attend school instead of having to work or maybe some sort of programme to enable the children to have some education at alternative times.

Children With Disabilities.
We have been working with children with disabilities for a number of years in different settings both in the UK and in Australia. Whilst visiting different schools in the Mae Sot area, we have noticed that there are few, if any, children with special needs in the migrant schools. As there must be children with special needs in the area, we are interested in exploring where the children are and what sort of provision is available for them. This is a project we are very interested in as it is an area which is possibly very under resourced at present in the area.

Teaching.
As well as the projects mentioned above, we will be involved in teaching different subjects in the schools and with groups in the area. This will involve teaching computers to both students and teachers in the schools lucky enough to have them. Many different groups in the area are desperate to improve their English skills so there are always groups looking for people to teach English and also help them edit documents and proposals that have been translated into English.

We hope that you will support us in your thoughts and prayers over the coming year and if you feel you are able to help in any way, please let us know.