Burmese Refugees: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Challenges

Although we share with you our many successes, it may be interesting to know many of the challenges the DARE Network Staff must overcome, work with, ride through and endure to continue to do their work.  Apart from war and trauma that is.

1.  Environment

The environment in the refugee camps and inside Karen State is primitive. In many places there is no electricity or running water.  Shelter is simple bamboo.  There are many insects, snakes and other wildlife with which to contend.  People are traumatized. At our office we have frequent power outages and water stoppages.

1. Climate

The climate is harsh. In the rainy season there is flooding and landslides.  Increased mold, bacteria and malaria carrying mosquitoes all presenting health dangers. In the dry hot season, there is dust, smoke, pollution, and heat reaching up to 45C or 113 F.  This heat makes it very difficult to think and move…to work.  The demands of the work increase within the climatic conditions.  We have no air conditioning in our office or in our DARE Centres, in the field.

1. Authorities

Thailand and Burma, despite their façade of democratic reform are run by dictators.  Abuse of power over people with low status is the norm. Arrest, raids, and corruption are rampant on the border.  In order to work, we must be careful of for our staff many of whom are stateless people. In Karen State, we must appease 4 or 5 armed groups at all times to provide safe passage for our DARE outreach teams.

1. Bureaucracy

Like many countries, Thailand requires are morass of bureaucratic obeisance.  Reams of forms and multiple meetings are the norm for every move we need to make.  Just a visit to the refugee camps require levels of approval from the local to the provincial to the national level. Sometimes these approvals don’t arrive in time. Camp passes can be denied for unknown reasons.  There are at least 10 meetings a month on the border that we are required to attend, which are not all in the same place. 

1. Travel

DARE Network staff support and monitor and evaluate all of our activities in Karen State and the Refugee camps.  We travel on mountainous roads in all seasons, we cross rivers, ride motorcycles and walk, in order to support our teams.  Noting the climate and environmental conditions above it is not easy and the distances are long.  Each monitoring trip takes a week and we do these monthly.

1. Language barriers

Our staff are required, because of our DARE teams, donors and authorities to speak, read and write in their own language Karen, Burmese, Thai and English.  That’s four languages we deal in every day.  I would say our DARE Network staff are among the most brilliant people I know.

Happy New Year from DARE Network

As we head into our activities preventing addiction and treating addicts in the Refugee Camps on the Thai/Burma Border and in our DARE Centre in Karen State, Burma/Myanmar, we want to share with you GlobalGiving's report to us about our work throughout 2018.  With your help, we have been able to support our folks to do their work and all the funds raised go directly to them to run our programs. In our next report we will share with you the results of our first 3 months of 2019.  Until then, thank you all who have particpated and partnered with by supporting us through GlobalGiving.

FROM GLOBALGIVING TO DARE NETWORK

Congratulations on a great year! We are thrilled that DARE Network (Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Network) is an active member of the GlobalGiving community with a GG Rewards Superstar status as of Dec. 31, 2018. We’re proud to share some highlights from our past year together.
 

 Raised $17,673. on GlobalGiving to fund your vital work, $730 of which was driven by the GlobalGiving team through bonus prizes, matching money, corporate partnerships, gift card redemptions, and/or our marketing efforts! (This figure includes all donations regardless of currency.)

Activated 135donors to support your work on GlobalGiving.Raised an average of $59 from each donation this year.

Raised $2,370 in recurring donations from 15 monthly donors .

Earned a combined Net Promoter Score of 79...which is calculated using the cumulative donor feedback on your project reports.

Participated in 7 GlobalGiving campaigns and contests.

Demonstrated your commitment to building organizational effectiveness by earning 78 Effectiveness Points in GG Rewards for Listening, Acting, Learning, and Repeating.

We know that this is just some of the great work that you led in 2018—and we’re honored to be a part of it!

In celebration of your hard work, we created these badges for you to post on your organization’s website, social media, email signature, and more. Right-click the badge below to download a copy to share.
 


Using your selected badge, you can share with the world that your organization has been vetted by GlobalGiving, was actively engaged in our community and was a top-ranked organization in 2018! We hope that publicly sharing your badge will help your organization continue to gain the recognition that you deserve as a trusted partner and change-maker in the world. 

You’ve also received the Site Visit Verified badge because you hosted a GlobalGiving representative. This is indicated on your project pages and your projects will show up under the Site Visit Verified search feature.
 
You’ve also received the GlobalGiving Staff Favorite badge, because your organization was selected by someone from our team as their favorite! This is indicated on your project pages and your projects will show up under the GlobalGiving Staff Favorite search feature.
 
And because a member of your organization filled out all three Listen, Act, and Learn steps of at least one Effectiveness Cycle in GG Rewards, you’ve earned the Effective badge.