Moving on to Mae Sot

4 December 2009

Sophia and I left Mae Sariang with Htoo Paw from KWO after breakfast. Htoo Paw had been conducting leadership training in Mae Ra Mo camp and was returning home to Mae Sot. Htoo Paw told us how her mother is very sick now and she would like to go and visit her in Karen state but it is too dangerous to make the journey to her village through the jungle. It was really interesting to talk to her and learn about her work and the problems inside Burma. Her family do not want to leave their village despite the dangers and the deprivations because it is their home and what they have always known. It seems that Htoo Paw is doing valuable work and she has great ambitions.

There is a camp called Mae La on the main road near Mae Sot so we stopped at the DARE centre in the camp to meet the trainers and staff there. They are conducting a six-month training for prevention and treatment of addiction. Trainees came from various camps for the training. One trainee is from the migrant community in Mae Sot. He talked about the different problems working with this community – his work will be more involved with prevention and counselling as there is no Centre for treatment or communal activities. Again several were recovered addicts and everyone was open and happy to share with us. This programme clearly not only helps people recover from and avoid addiction but is empowering the community as a whole to build for a better future.

Our visit was brief but valuable. Then we proceeded on to Mae Sot.
We had arranged to meet with two Earthrights School alumni. Pakaw Mu who works with Mon Overseas Women Organisation (OMWO) was a graduate from 2004 and has done several small projects since then. She was a primary school teacher in Mon state and came to work with OMWO because there are more opportunities in Mae Sot. She has recently been working with the migrant community in Mae Sot teaching them their rights and encouraging them to find employment and protect themselves against unscrupulous employers. The majority of the migrant community are refugees who cannot get registered as the Thai authorities will only allow certain ethnic groups to register as refugees.
We also met Noe Noe Tasan from Burma Women's Union (BWU). Noe Noe graduated from the Earthrights School in 2002 and continued her work with BWU - she did not apply for an alumni grant. BWU runs a library, a drop-in centre, day care centre for children and runs training courses for high school graduates. The Drop-in Centre provides a space for factory workers to rest, cook and wash. They also run sewing classes there for those looking to improve their skills in order to search for other work. On average people are allowed to stay for one week. BWU runs three Drop-in Centres - the other two are on the Burma-China border and the India-Burma border.
Their library and office provides a space for people to meet and discuss. They organise monthly discussions for women from Burma.
We enjoyed our own discussion with Noe Noe about the problems of bringing together the various ethnic groups within Burma. She explained the ethnic areas and the administrative regions and we discussed the complexities of the situation within the country.