{"id":287,"date":"2010-06-20T19:21:24","date_gmt":"2010-06-20T18:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/TravelWithPaulie.com\/blog\/?p=287"},"modified":"2011-11-23T00:31:14","modified_gmt":"2011-11-23T00:31:14","slug":"volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thailand isn’t just beautiful white beaches.<\/p>\n

I arrived in Mae Sot, Thailand, on 16th June 2010 after a few days of overland travel<\/a>.\u00a0 My intention for coming to Maesot was originally as an information technology volunteer, with a view to helping schools and perhaps some people in the organisations with their computing needs.\u00a0 It didn’t take long for that mandate to magically morph into English teaching<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Tomorrow I will take my first English teaching class.\u00a0 Seriously, I haven’t the first clue and to say I’m nervous<\/a> is an understatment.\u00a0 I figure for the first lesson I’ll do self-introductions and get them to talk about themselves and each other and hopefully gauge their level.<\/p>\n

So who <\/em>am I teaching English to…?\u00a0 I’ve only been in town 4 days but I know enough to know that’s an easy question with a complicated answer. In this article I’m going to give it a shot – please note that this information may, and most likely will, be revised in the future as I learn more.<\/p>\n

Word count: ~1200.\u00a0 Approx. reading time: ~10 minutes.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

Who are the Karen people from Burma?<\/h2>\n

The Karen people are a large ethnic group that represent 7{97de8d2e860196f43620abbbd870152438d0e1a3bef5042cd7be1942d94df9d0} of the Burmese (Myanmar) population, living in the south and southeast.\u00a0 Since 1949 they have been defending themselves from persecution perpetrated and supported by the Burmese central government – State Peace and Development Council (SPDC).\u00a0 As such, many have become IDP<\/a>s within the mountainous regions of their homeland, or have fled across the border into Thailand.\u00a0 Maesot, on the Burma-Thai border has seen a massive influx of refugees and immigrants, and as such the majority of the population is no longer Thai, but Karen\/Burmese.<\/p>\n

There are several different types of migrants, namely refugees, registered, and unregistered.\u00a0 I believe the refugees, found mostly in the refugee camps found in a few places along the border.\u00a0 Entrance into and out of the camps is strictly controlled and visitors permits are required to enter.\u00a0 If you’re a Karen\/Burmese refugee, you live in the camps.<\/p>\n

The registered migrants have, I believe, been granted official permission to reside within Maesot for a certain period. They may not travel however either beyond the city limits or beyond the province borders, namely Tak.<\/p>\n

Whether registered or not, if a Karen\/Burmese migrant is stopped by the authorities and found to not <\/em><\/strong>possess the necessary identification papers, they will be immediately detained and imprisoned. For how long is unclear, but I believe that in Maesot since the border is so near, they are released the following day into Burma at a charge<\/strong> of approximately \u0e3f1500 – a tidy profit that is split between officers on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

So if you’re a persecuted Karen and you try to escape into Thailand and are caught, prison and a huge fine awaits, not to mention an escort back to the very place you’re trying to escape from.<\/p>\n

Karen\/Burmese Migrant Children Education<\/h2>\n

Another angle to this whole quagmire (and there are many angles!) is that elementary education is too expensive for most people in Burma.<\/p>\n

Too expensive?!<\/p>\n

Their options are: their children do not receive any education, or, they send them across the border to one of the migrant schools in the Maesot district.\u00a0 The problem isn’t crossing the border across the Moei River, the challenge for the Karen migrants is staying on the other side.<\/p>\n

That said, it turns out these migrant schools have been officially “sanctioned” and with the assistance of the BMWEC<\/a> umbrella organisation many are negotiating official Thai accreditation – to do this they must meet a certain criteria which haven’t actually been released yet.<\/p>\n

I use the words “sanctioned” and “accredited”, though I’m not entirely sure the scope and the implications of not having this them.<\/p>\n

One such school, Paya Daung School, is located approximately 15km outside of Maesot town, within throwing distance (as a trained athlete perhaps) of the border.<\/p>\n

I visited there for the first time 4 days ago and was taken aback by the state of the place – and by all accounts this school relatively well off.\u00a0 There are over 200 children at the school ranging from 5-20 years old, the vast majority of which sleep in dorms at the school situated on the 1st floor, above the ground floor classrooms.<\/p>\n

Facilities are super basic, and water for washing etc. is obtained from the village well.\u00a0 The school’s running costs are supported by several organisations and this is helped\/overseen in part by the Migrant School Committee – the organisation with which I’m currently associated.<\/p>\n

Making a difference through volunteering<\/h2>\n

I’ve hashed this topic out before<\/a>, but it can never hurt to flog the proverbial horse.<\/p>\n

I’m a professional IT geek.\u00a0 I’m not the best, or most technically gifted, but I know my stuff and I implement quality sustainable solutions.\u00a0 But here’s the thing, when there are no computers to be worked on and very little IT support opportunities to give, what’s a buddy to do?\u00a0 Well it seems, for now at least, teaching English is the name of the game.\u00a0 No problem!\u00a0 But even if\/when I become comfortable enough at doing this, I’m fairly sure that I wont want to continue along that path because that’s not where my strength lies.<\/p>\n

My leaning is towards how I can have English teaching being taught here sustainably through the continual supply of quality English teachers.\u00a0 Sure, I can teach for a couple of weeks, but I feel I’m better apt at trying to put in a solution to ensure there is English being taught at these schools long after I’m just a fond memory.\u00a0 This idea will be developed and detailed in future articles.<\/p>\n

I also figure they are likely to gain much more if my efforts with them are focused in areas within which I<\/strong> have expertise – and that would be IT.\u00a0 So I want computers in these schools.\u00a0 I want to expose these kids to technology that most children their age are growing up with as standard.\u00a0 I’m not looking to give them an edge, but simply level the playing field.<\/p>\n

This issue of IT literacy and computer supply will be the topic of one of my next articles and will hopefully form the beginning of a fundraiser campaign that will see at least one<\/strong> computer in as many of these schools as possible.\u00a0 More details to follow very soon!<\/p>\n

Until then, if you liked this article and feel others should also be aware of the issues presented here, take this article and send it on to your friends and ask them to read it in full.\u00a0 You can also simply click the Facebook icon below to share it directly on your Facebook feed if you’d like to share it that way.<\/p>\n

If you are in Mae Sot, or anywhere in Thailand, or you’d like to come here to volunteer, please go to my contact form<\/a>, send me an email and I’d be happy to talk with you about it.<\/p>\n

Thank you for visiting!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Karen ethnic group in Myanmar\/Burma has been in conflict for over half a century. Many are internally displaced within their own country, and many have fled across the border into Thailand. This article details some of the situation here in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[300],"tags":[150,314,160,544,353,364,371,372,374,384,548,420],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cat-volunteering","tag-asia","tag-burma","tag-english-teaching","tag-karen","tag-kayin","tag-mae-sot","tag-migrant-schools","tag-migrants","tag-myanmar","tag-refugees","tag-thailand","tag-97de8d2e860196f43620abbbd870152438d0e1a3bef5042cd7be1942d94df9d0e097de8d2e860196f43620abbbd870152438d0e1a3bef5042cd7be1942d94df9d0b997de8d2e860196f43620abbbd870152438d0e1a3bef5042cd7be1942d94df9d"],"yoast_head":"\nVolunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Karen ethnic group in Myanmar\/Burma has been in conflict for over half a century. Many are internally displaced within their own country, and many have fled across the border into Thailand. This article details some of the situation here in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Plog - Paulie's Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/paulgoodchild\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Travel Paulie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@paulgoodchild\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@paulgoodchild\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Travel Paulie\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Travel Paulie\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63\"},\"headline\":\"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care?\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1223,\"commentCount\":9,\"keywords\":[\"Asia\",\"Burma\",\"English Teaching\",\"Karen\",\"Kayin\",\"Mae Sot\",\"migrant schools\",\"migrants\",\"Myanmar\",\"refugees\",\"Thailand\",\"\u0e41\u0e21\u0e48\u0e2a\u0e2d\u0e14\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Volunteering\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/\",\"name\":\"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Plog - Paulie's Blog\",\"description\":\"A personal blog exploring life, learning, business, and travel\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63\",\"name\":\"Travel Paulie\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Travel Paulie\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/paulgoodchild.me\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/travel-paulie\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog","og_description":"The Karen ethnic group in Myanmar\/Burma has been in conflict for over half a century. Many are internally displaced within their own country, and many have fled across the border into Thailand. This article details some of the situation here in the border town of Mae Sot, Thailand.","og_url":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/","og_site_name":"Plog - Paulie's Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/paulgoodchild","article_published_time":"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00","author":"Travel Paulie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@paulgoodchild","twitter_site":"@paulgoodchild","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Travel Paulie","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/"},"author":{"name":"Travel Paulie","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63"},"headline":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care?","datePublished":"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/"},"wordCount":1223,"commentCount":9,"keywords":["Asia","Burma","English Teaching","Karen","Kayin","Mae Sot","migrant schools","migrants","Myanmar","refugees","Thailand","\u0e41\u0e21\u0e48\u0e2a\u0e2d\u0e14"],"articleSection":["Volunteering"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/","url":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/","name":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care? - Plog - Paulie's Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-20T18:21:24+00:00","dateModified":"2011-11-23T00:31:14+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/volunteering-maesot-who-are-karen-why-should-care\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Volunteering in Maesot: Who are the Karen and why should you care?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/","name":"Plog - Paulie's Blog","description":"A personal blog exploring life, learning, business, and travel","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/537616de812405e9c4d2411c99c74f63","name":"Travel Paulie","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=wavatar&r=g","caption":"Travel Paulie"},"url":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/author\/travel-paulie\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paulgoodchild.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}