Shan Migrant Community

You may be surprised to read about the difficult conditions for migrant workers in Thailand. It is estimated that there are about 1.8 million migrants from Burma living and working in Thailand and more than 200,000 migrant workers in the Chiang Mai area. The migrant population is, generally speaking, the poorest people in Thailand. They work in the lowest paying, most dangerous jobs including construction, cleaning, and prostitution. Some migrant workers in Thailand are in the country illegally and others have limited papers. This means that they are not entitled to the same rights as Thai citizens and they are often exploited and taken advantage of by their employers and officials.

Many migrant children struggle at school for a number of reasons. Some do not speak Thai very well and so don’t understand the teacher, some are discriminated against and not allowed to attend Thai school even though it is illegal to exclude them, some have missed so much school in the past that they cannot catch up, and others cannot afford to buy school uniforms and pay school fees. Many of these same children can’t afford to go to the hospital when they are sick and they are not eligible for the Thai social security system because they don’t have full Thai identification documents.

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Unlocked

It was 5am in the village, and I was desperate to find the toilet, a situation exacerbated by my unwillingness to seek out the facilities in the pouring rain the evening before. When one of our hosts noticed me wandering around the mountainside in the morning, he perceived my need and offered to escort me to the prescribed location. Down the hill, around the fence, up the hill, across the field, and there they were: 4 beautiful outhouses. Necessity can make anything beautiful. Three of the outhouses had padlocks. I would have been quite happy to avail myself of the one that did not. My host, however, considered it his duty to determine which was the highest quality toilet and recommend it to me. He approached the first stall for inspection.

"It’s locked," said I, for so it appeared.

"Are you sure?," asked my host. With that, he reached up, flipped the padlock open, and lifted it out of the latch. Without a key.

The padlock had been situated such that it appeared impenetrable, but it wasn’t completely clamped shut. So really, the door wasn’t locked at all. I just thought it was.

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Rohingya

In May 2012, sectarian violence broke out in Arakan State, Western Burma between the Buddhist Rakhine people and the predominately Muslim Rohingya. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said that about 80,000 people have been displaced in and around Sittwe and Maungdaw by the violence. More recent reports and research from Partners staff on the ground in Arakan State suggest that the total is actually significantly higher and likely twice this number.

The displaced Rohingya are suffering from severe food shortages, poor sanitation, insufficient medical care and limited access to medicine. Many do not have shelter of any kind and children are suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and easily preventable diseases. As a predominately Muslim people group, they have consistently been the most persecuted people group in Burma, facing oppression from both the government and other ethnic minority groups. Likewise, retaliation is severe for those attempting to assist the Rohingya.

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10 things I’ve learned living and volunteering in Thailand: a year in reflection.

1. Weather is weather. When it rains, take cover. When it’s hot, drink water. When it’s cool, go outside. When it’s cold, layer. (You’d think a US Midwesterner would know this stuff already).

2. Taste the dish before adding more chilli.

3. We are not the problem solvers, we are the capacity and confidence builders. The best solutions are within the communities facing barriers. It’s our role to listen, be patient and be kind.

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The ones building the Kingdom

We care about the well being of the children in Burma. This is clearly stated in our vision for “free, full lives for the children of Burma”. Children need an academic education, but they also need to get their souls uplifted through Bible teachings and loving discipleship. This is why we support several Bible schools in Karen state.

Our support covers food and lodging in the dormitories, evangelism trips during the school year, support to two pastors and scholarships to several students, and the purchase of hymnals and Bibles. Hymnals are very precious to the Karen who love to sing and worship together wherever they are. Here are two short testimonies from two of the students…

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Promised Land

A few weeks ago, my coworker asked if I’d be willing to teach ballet to her 3-year-old daughter, Nenana. Since the bulk of my own ballet training occurred during half of my 5th grade year, 3-year-old is just about my speed. So I picked out the song “When You Believe” from The Prince of Egypt, and I’ve been prancing around my living room, choreographing movements to match the meaning of the music.

I just got back from a 10-day trip to Beung Klung, a small town 8 hours south of where I live in Mae Sot, Thailand. It looks like a fairly unassuming place at first glance. Vegetable stands, partially paved roads, a couple barrels with hand-pumps that serve as diesel stations. But if you take a right about 1 kilometer before the Burma border, you’ll come to a little hill in the midst of the betel nut trees, and on that hill you’ll discover something most extraordinary: an outpost of the Kingdom of God.

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Mobile Health Clinics

In Eastern Burma (Karen State), health conditions are among the worst in the world. Partners is helping to build up health care in this region together with the Karen Department of Health and Welfare (KDHW). The KDHW manage the clinics, which are staffed by the local people themselves. Partners is fully supporting seven of those clinics financially, as well as giving additional training for medics and policy support to KDHW. Altogether, these clinics reach over 30,000 people for health education and primary health care. 

The clinics also provide school health services, assist the villagers to implement sanitation projects, and educate people on nutrition. The medics of these clinics provide an invaluable service. They are saving lives, improving public health, and making a brighter future for their communities.

 THE STORY OF NAWHTOOLER PAW

I am 33 years old and I have been twice widowed. My first husband was shot and killed in 2008 by the Burma Army while he was farming in his field. Three years later, I remarried to a Karen soldier. After some time, I became pregnant again with my new husband’s baby. But before he had the chance to see his son’s face, he was killed in action. That was in 2011.

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A boy called Ju-Ju

I have recently returned from a trip to Thailand where I had the chance to visit Mae La camp on the Thai-Burma border. Whilst I was there I met a two-year-old boy called Ju-Ju. He was a cheeky, out going little boy that was up to all sorts of mischief as most two-year-old boys are (I have three young boys of my own). The reality of his situation struck me when I discovered more about Ju-Ju.

First, I thought he was just one of the children of the adults that were present, however, I soon discovered that he was left at the camp by his father only a few months prior. Ju-Ju’s mother went missing, no one knows where, why or how. Ju-Ju’s father who was a farmer had no extended family to help him raise and look after a child so young while he worked on the farm, so he had no choice but to give his son up to be cared for by others in a refugee camp. I can’t begin to imagine the pain the father must have gone through to give up his son like he did. The choice to do so would be terrible and I am so thankful that I have not had to make that choice.

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Kachin Emergency Relief

Despite recent ceasefire agreements with ethnic Shan and Karen people groups, the Burma Army has continued to attack innocent civilians and displace villagers in Kachin State, Northern Burma. Since June 2011, tens of thousands of ethnic Kachin people have been displaced from their homes. Recent statistics have more than 100,000 displaced Kachin living as refugees in their own country. Due to fighting in the North and West of Kachin State thousands of people have fled in recent months.

Partners Relief & Development has been providing emergency relief for the Kachin since June 2011. In addition, we have been working alongside Kachin Community Based Organizations to build community support networks and sustainable development farms. In early January 2013, our networks in Kachin State let us know about the growing relief needs. We received numerous reports of attacks by the Burma Army against innocent Kachin villagers including the use of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft for airstrikes near Laiza.

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Lives transformed for the Kingdom?

Over the past month or so, the topic of how Partners is transforming lives has come up a number of times. Sometimes we feel pulled in different directions by people wanting us to be more evangelistic or more overtly “Christian” and some on the other side wanting us to be “less Christian”. Often there is money involved which makes things even more complicated; some Christian donors want to see that we are having an impact for Christ and some non-Christian donors don’t really want us to be sharing our faith at all.

Partners is an unapologetically Christian organization. However, we are also a diverse group of people who run a diverse range of projects, with people groups that are very different, especially when it comes to matters of faith. Partners work with Muslims, Buddhists, Animists and Christians; basically anyone in/from Burma who needs and wants help.

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