Du Pla Ya Boarding House

Du Pla Ya Boarding House, a name chosen by the children, sits amongst the hills of Umphium Mai Refugee Camp and is home to approximately 60 children between the ages of 7 and 18, and their four carers. The children mostly are from the Karen, (or Kayin), State where an ongoing civil war has produced thousands of refugees and internally displaced people (IDP). Many of the children are not registered with the camp authorities meaning they’re not eligible to receive refugee rations and instead share in those received by the others, resulting in not much of anything for anyone.

A typical story of how these children have ended up at Umphium Refugee Camp is that of New Gay Was. She is 10 years old and has 6 siblings. She is in Grade 2 at school in the camp and her parents and siblings remain in Burma where her parents work cutting the jungle and planting rice. In her own words, New Gay Was told us that troops came to their village to take children as military porters and their animals for food. She is happy to be studying in the camp as she can study the whole year and there is no shooting. She misses her family a lot.

Fish Raising Project

WWM began supporting self-sustainable fish raising projects for families living with disabilities in Sattahip, Thailand, in October 2009. So far 22 families have received three tanks with 500 fingerlings in each, food to feed the fish and training. Most families are seeing the results of their second ‘harvest’ – after approximately three months the fish are sold at the local market and funds are re-invested back into the project to buy more fingerlings, make repairs or improvements and continue training if necessary, whilst providing an income – and in some cases, a few fish here and there for dinner. There’s more photos on the photos page.

Hway Ka Loke Boarding House

Hway Ka Loke Boarding House is home for 260 children aged between 5 and 15 years. The boarding house was establised out of necessity to cater for the numbers of children crossing the border to attend the nearby school and although we do what we can, remains without regular financial support. Many of these children’s parents remain inside Burma, living as Internally Displaced People (IDP), meaning they have no permanent home nor access to education, health care and other basic necessities.

Together with the help of sponsors, WWM are able to offer support to HKL Boarding House for food, hygiene and other basic requirements and teacher’s salaries.