WWM has been joined by a small group of women from Pattaya International Ladies Club in Pattaya this past week for a trip to Mae Sot.  One of the ladies, Ann, shares their experience…

Day One:

We left Pattaya a little after 1:30pm on Tuesday, February 1.  Four members of the Pattaya Ladies International Club accompanied two of WWM’s founders, Rosanne Diamante and Bronwyn Little, on the trip; Mary Pierce, Catherine Cunningham, Moya Hand and Ann Winfield. These educational trips are organized so that visitors get to visit a number of migrant schools and boarding houses that Women With a Mission support in and around Mae Sot, a town in western Thailand that shares a border with Burma. The town has a substantial population of approximately 100,000 Burmese Karen refugees and economic migrants.

The majority of the migrant schools in and around Mae Sot are not under the Thai Education Department and are run independently by the Karen and Burmese people with support from several different organizations. The biggest of these is the Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee, which is working with the Thai government to provide accreditation to the migrant schools. Because the schools are not yet under the auspices of the Thai Education Department they are referred to as Learning Centres, although they are also called migrant schools as many of the students are the children of Burmese migrant workers.

The seven-hour drive to went surprisingly quickly, with us all singing along to Irish songs provided by Moya, reading and taking cat naps along the way. We arrived in Mae Sot about 9:30pm and Rosanne and Bronwyn took us all to a great little restaurant, Casa Mia, that served Thai, Burmese, and Western food. After a delicious meal of tea leaf salad, banana flower salad, Burmese curry, and other typical Burmese dishes, we finally made it to the guest house, found our rooms, unloaded the van, and called it a night.

Day Two:

On Wednesday we left the guesthouse at about 7:15 in the morning so that we could catch the children at breakfast at the Child Development and Training Centre (CDTC), and the Hway Ka Loke (HKL) boarding house.  The school and boarding house are major recipients of support from WWM and it was so wonderful to see and to learn about the positive changes that this small charity has brought to so many children’s lives. The school was founded in 2003 with a small amount of funding and was rebuilt by the charity after it was damaged by the hurricane that devastated parts of Burma two years ago. Almost all of the students’ parents fled from the Burmese junta and are now manual workers of local Thai employers for whom they work long hours for about 80 baht a day. The school, consisting of approximately 380 students, has dormitories for more than 250 students, divided into male and female dorms. Teachers also have the responsibility of taking care of the boarders as well.  Women With a Mission is the major supporter of the school and dorms.

We were greeted by 200 smiling, laughing children from kindergarten age to up to about 14-15 years. Most of them were playing when we got there, but very shortly afterward all ran off for breakfast in their brand new canteen, funded by Women With a Mission. After breakfast, off they ran again to play before classes started at 9:00am. We, the guests, were given a tour of the school by our hosts and it was truly amazing to see how self-sufficient it was. Thanks to a new well, dug with funds raised by WWM, the school had a great big garden, bursting with produce, most of which, to tell the truth, I didn’t recognize. But it all looked very healthy and a larger area was being dug over for more vegetables. Bronwyn explained for us the difference that the well had made in the life of the children – they were able to shower and wear clean clothes, eat the produce from the garden, enjoy the beauty of the flowers that were planted everywhere.

There was a piggery. Apparently it used to have nine pigs in, but three had gone to create a New Year’s feast for the children and their families. But we did get to see one lone survivor rooting around in the bushes. We toured the boys’ dorm and were amazed at how neat and tidy the boys kept everything. There were a number of boys there waiting to practice their English with us. The dorm had a teacher on site in charge of looking after everyone. We walked past the classrooms where students were separated by grade and over to the girls dorms. The girls’ dorms were on the other side of the garden and surrounded by a large fence to keep the children secure. Again, everything was spick and span, with a teacher in charge of taking care of them all.

Not all of the students at CDTC are boarders. A lot of them walk to the school from nearby migrant villages, and others who live further out are picked up by van and delivered to the school and taken home again. It really was a very well run and organized set-up and it was a joy to see the happy, healthy faces of the children and hear them doing their lessons.  Students are all taught Thai and English in addition to following a regular curriculum. Practically every child we spoke with had a good grasp of English and the older ones were quite proficient. The dedicated teaching staff is comprised of foreign volunteers, and Karen and Thai teachers. WWM helps to pay their salary.

As we finished our tour the children were all having blood taken, as malaria and dengue fever are real threats in the Mae Sot area this year. All in all, it was an eye-opening introduction to a migrant school, and one that left all of us very impressed with the work that WWM is doing.

Then we were off to a delightful little school, after a stop at the sprawling Mae Sot market to buy fruit to take as treats for the children. Rosanne had planned to buy oranges, but because it was Chinese New Year’s and oranges are considered a “good luck” fruit on this celebration the price had skyrocketed, so she bought large cans of cookies instead. Hle Bee school has about 250 students and 14 teachers. Located in the centre of Mae Sot, it was was founded in 1999 by a group of dedicated teachers with the aim of providing the best possible education to migrant children. Last year, the school ran on emergency funding but successfully finished the school year as teachers and parents were determined to keep the school open.

The school was wonderful – 200+  running, laughing, playing bundles of energy! We were quickly surrounded by the more adventuresome children as we took out our cameras to take pictures. They loved having their pictures taken, and with the digital cameras they could all see their pictures afterwards. That produced great howls of laughter as they identified themselves! WWM has donated a mushroom house to this school. These houses, consisting of mushroom spore bags on shelves in darkened rooms, provide about 80 kilos of vegetables each life cycle for the children, adding valuable nutrients to their diet. The spore bags are then used as compost for the garden. Rosanne and Bronwyn went off to meet with the school administrators and we toured the school and played with the children. They all loved getting the cookies as a surprise mid-morning snack.

As the children all went back to classes, we left for a tour of the Mae Tao Clinic. This is a truly incredible organization that provides free medical services to the migrant community. The clinic was established by a Karen woman, Dr. Cynthia Maung, to offer free medical care to Burmese who do not qualify for treatment at the local Mae Sot hospital. The Clinic is funded independently and is supported by teams of volunteers. Our tour took us to the maternity ward where we were able to hand out donated clothing and blankets for the babies and their mothers. We saw the pharmacy, surgical wards, outpatient clinics and the prosthetic limb workroom. It was very shocking to find out that most of the injuries that required prosthetics were caused by land mines.

When you think that without the Mae Tao Clinic the displaced Burmese population would have no access to medical care, it really is a monumental achievement that Dr. Cynthia was able to create the bustling health centre offering totally free care that we toured.

Our last stop of the day was the Star Flower School. This lovely little school is newly created and is located in central Mae Sot, providing educational services to 20+ disabled children. Staff work with both the children and the parents to improve the quality of life for the children when they are not at school and they told us that parents are thrilled at the improvements they see in their child’s ability to interact with family members.

We got there just as the children were going out to play in a giant sandbox full of toys. Of course we came with treats – Rosanne had four cartons of ice cream for the children and they really loved that!  This innovative school is funded by the World Education Consortium and is one of the few such schools catering to disabled migrant children in Thailand. After playtime was over the children and staff all sang songs for us. It really was very heart warming.

As we drove away from the school, Bronwyn asked if we wanted to see the Friendship Bridge that connected Burma and Thailand. Of course we said yes! It was just a few minutes drive and the bridge has been closed since before the Burmese elections last month and the ensuing fighting, however it was interesting to see. We could see clearly into Burma and I watched women walking under the bridge from Thailand into Burma. We did some shopping, then all piled back in the car and drove back to our guest house for a well-earned glass of wine after a long day full of new and very emotional experiences. The impact that this small charity has was so evident. Watch out for Women With a Mission – they can, and do achieve the impossible.

Day Three:

We left Mae Sot at about 8:30am to travel to two other schools that WWM supports a little way outside of Mae Sot. The first one we went to was a small school, Future Garden Learning Center.  The children were all in class and Rosanne and Bronwyn met with the school principal. WWM had previously donated a mushroom house to this school to help supplement meals for the children and teachers.

After a short visit here, we drove about an hour to a migrant school close to the border. The drive was beautiful, going through lush farmland that supplies much of the vegetables and flowers brought in Bangkok and Pattaya. As we drove, for many miles we could see the hills of Burma on our right. When we arrived at the school, we were told by the teachers that every day they could hear the fighting happening just across the border. Women With a Mission also funds a mushroom house here that provides about 80 kilos of food for the students and staff. It was a much more rural school than the others we had seen, and more basic. Teachers were Karen and Thai, supplemented by foreign volunteers. We spoke with one young teacher from Chicago, USA. After graduation from college he did a six-month teaching internship in Chicago with resettled Karen there. He became very close to one family. He then chose to volunteer in Thailand, working with Karen refugees and migrant workers and has been here for six months now. The children were all very fond of him. (We heard similar stories about all of the volunteers we came into contact with on our journey.)

This school was built on a hillside and constructed on breeze blocks. Housing was provided for students, teachers and staff, and in another area that we didn’t visit, a nursery school and kindergarten housed the younger children. Teachers and staff lived on the premises. We didn’t get to talk to any students here as they were all in class during our visit. We did peek in at the classrooms though, and they were all very busy with their lessons.

After lunch in Mae Sot, Rosanne went shopping for supplies and we ladies went back to our rooms for a rest. We all reunited at 4:30pm for a return visit to CDTC for a special barbecue they had prepared in our honor. When we got there, we saw that the children were all dressed in their best clothes for the big party. Some of the boys were barbecuing chicken and they seemed to be taking their responsibility very seriously! One of the school staff was digging a pit for the Burmese rice cooker – a large hole where a fire would be built and a large pan of water placed on top over which the rice would be steamed. As we waited for the dinner bell, my travelling companions and I played with the children, taking more photos and entertaining the children by showing them the pictures. Some of us got lessons in the Karen language, and the children just howled with laughter at our botched pronunciation of the simplest phrases.

At last the dinner bell rang and the children raced off to the dining hall with us following at a more sedate pace. The meal of rice, curry, chicken and potato salad was prepared and served by the teachers and it was delicious. After dinner, the children ran off to wash their hands and have a drink of water then came back for the entertainment portion of the evening. Jim, the school’s principal invited us all up to introduce ourselves first. The kids were great, sitting quietly as Jim translated what we said, and then applauding at all the right times. Then some of the younger girls got up and performed dancing and singing acts. They were so adorable! Then it was the boys’ turn, and they also sang, no dancing though. Rosanne had told us that we would have to get up and entertain the children, so we’d decided to do a silly routine, the Hokey Pokey song, but fortunately, once the boys sang, the festivities came to a halt.

The evening was really memorable, one I know I will never forget. We returned to our lodgings and had a recap meeting over drinks. It was a whirlwind visit, but we saw so much and learned so much about the Karen people, what they have endured and overcome, and how great change can happen from just the smallest positive input into an untenable situation.