Feeding orphans of HIV+ Burmese women

We are finally returning to Mae Sot and our friends at Social Action for Women in December!  After a two and a half year absence, we are jumping for joy!

In the meantime, Ko Myo, our SAW liason in Mae Sot, reports that 20 young Burmese arrived at SAW orphanage during the last week of September.  Twelve girls and eight boys were among the many Burmese peacefully protesting the Feb 2021 military coup ( Grades 8-10 ).  When the police started arresting protesters, they fled to the Thai side of the Thai/Myanmar border near Mae Sot. At this point they were arrested by the Thai army. Fortunately, the army did not deport them but instead turned them over to the Karen National Union (de facto governing body in Karen state).  The KNU brought them to SAW where they are now safe and waiting to enroll in several migrant learning centers to pursue their GEDs.

At the end of May, SAW will close its pre-school, middle, and high schools due to low enrollment and the high cost of maintaining them. SAW director Aye Mar says that the migrant learning centers, approved by the Thai government, are fulfilling the educational needs of SAW's children.

As always, funding is an ongoing challenge as the world's attention has been focused on the war in Ukraine, hurricane Fiona, and the rising cost of absolutely everything.

When I return to Mae Sot, I will be volunteering out of  Minmahaw Migrant Learning Center as well as SAW to run photo workshops.  This time we will be using the ubiquitous cell phone cameras for our projects, as basic point-and-shoot digital cameras are increasingly hard to find and increasingly expensive.