Tham Hin ..and other  Refugee camps

(A point of departure….)

Temporary camps for Burmese Fugitives who are in Thai territory along the border with Myanmar are a “home” for about 160/170.000 people.

These camps are there from approximately fifteen years. Generations, are living there. Many people and many child are borning there and grow up without the knowledge of other realities and without the means to imagine or plan the future.

Inside the makeshift camps operate several international NGOs in various fields.

Them are providing through international funds, a minimum standard of living for people.

In July 2006 our volunteers have visited the Tham Hin Camp with the Tentative to have a meeting with representatives of Education and the Teachers and decided, in accordance with the finance charge of the field, through the official channels and on the advice of UNHCR officials, to supply the installation of water filters, for the daily use, in the “school zones”.

This small operation, is the first marginal contribution to the Communities of Burmese refugees, who live confined in “temporary camps” from over 10 years.

They also visited in November 2006 the Camp Ban Mai Nai Soi.

There were meetings on this argument to valorize of the commitment and support to those engaged in activities ‘for the Community and involved in education; especially the members of the “Committee for the Defense of the Women” that made an important work of assistance and comfort to the victims of violence by husbands.

(Starting to Understand)

- A lump in the throat which gives the perception of being in a universe of souls without freedom.

- A circle of hell in which no one can imagine a sin that justifies its presence: “gazes with no hopes” they wander in a restricted space by the massive presence of other human beings.

- The Feelings are full of melancholy in the understanding that here, all children under 10 years was born to the world in captivity, without any expectancy, desire and/or dream.

- Feeling like a part of an air of inevitability that, with its stench, turned our view into gray.

- The expected flow out of the mud-colored water, which unexpectedly produces in the women, the proud for their care.

- The willingness of a teacher to let know the world on a world map, drawn in chalk on a blackboard, where no dot is a destination for anyone.

- The understanding that the constant presence of suffering, and its acceptance, transform the “hospital air” in the only one medicine.