EDUCTION

• Karen Refugee Committee- Education Entity with the support of World Education Thailand is now recruiting for the position of Social Sciences Teacher and Mentor for its Global Border Studies Program me in Nu Po Refugee Camp on the Thai-Burma border.
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• University of Utah to partner with refugee camp

  SALT LAKE CITY — When a group of University of Utah researchers first visited refugee camps on the Thailand/Myanmar border two years ago, the idea was to better understand Utah's Burmese refugees — not more about their culture, or even about the trauma they had been through before fleeing their own country, but the transformative experience of living in the camps, sometimes for decades.

  Those researchers, under the auspices of the University Neighborhood Partners, returned this summer to the Thai/Burma border, this time hoping to set up a more permanent relationship between the refugee camps and the U.

  Next spring, University Neighborhood Partners hopes to send a team of a half-dozen U. students and community professionals to two camps, one in the north of Thailand, one in the south. The camps house various ethnic groups, including the Karen.

  The future for many camp residents has changed since Utah's refugees were resettled during the past decade. Beginning in 2005, the Thai government no longer registers Burmese refugees as refugees, which means there is no longer hope for resettlement in other countries and thus no hope of being reunited with family members who left.

  "Social service agencies say there has been an increase in suicide attempts, alcoholism, substance abuse and partner violence," says Rosemarie Hunter, director of University Neighborhood Partners.

  "What I continue to hear," both among Utah refugees and the Burmese still in the camps, "is that they struggle with the separation of families," says Trinh Mai, an assistant professor in the University of Utah's College of Social Work.

  Mai was part of the research team, along with Yda Smith, U. assistant professor of occupational therapy, and Salt Lake artist Ruby Chacon.

  The team hopes next year's visit will allow students and community members to learn about camp conditions, as well as provide training to camp residents on requested topics such as occupational therapy for victims of stroke and brain injury, and social service case management.

  Despite challenges, the residents are resilient, Hunter says. "With next to no support, they're doing amazing things," she says, including "the lengths that individuals and families go to for education."

  The residents have created their own high schools and even universities, taught by camp members who have master's degrees. The university in the Mae La camp — as with all camp structures, the Thai government requires they be made of bamboo, since the 25-year-old camps are technically "temporary" — is working to develop new programs and gain accreditation.

  "We're currently exploring if the U., through the College of Social Work, could be a partnering institution," Hunter says.

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  Academic helps to bring degree level study to refugees on the Thai Burma border

   

  On the Thai Burma border, in the Nu Poe Karen refugee camp, higher education is being offered, centred on four online modules covering study skills and geography, all written and supervised by an Anglia Ruskin University academic.

  Anthony Russell, a senior lecturer from the Faculty of Education, is the academic adviser to Ireland's Dundalk Institute of Technology's (DKiT) 'Global Borders' initiative.

  The course, entitled 'Peopling the Globe', deals with study skills, migration, population, culture and ethnic issues. This work grew out of Anthony's involvement with DkiT and Ulster University in the European Union funded 'Borderlands' project, which looked at the history, geography, literature, cinema, politics and archaeology of borderlands. However, the study skills module also drew upon Anthony's work on reflection and skill acquisition in Anglia Ruskin University's online, BA (Hons) Learning Through Technology and MA LearningThrough Technology programmes.

  In addition to writing the modules Anthony has weekly synchronous, online sessions, (Skype and Moodle) with Catherine Daly, the volunteer teacher, from DkIT, in Nu Poe. They discuss progress and Anthony advises on teaching strategies, next steps and assessment.

  'Global Borders' is offered in conjunction with 'World Education', which is seeking to help the 1.4 million people displaced from Burma. Anthony works closely with both Niamh De Loughry, of World Education and Margaret Clarke, the project leader from DkIT. In February he will go to the Nu Poe camp to teach, and to discuss the future direction and development of the project. 

  
  

  Manpower and UNHCR empower refugees resettling to the US

  
  

  MAE LA REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand, July 22 (UNHCR) – A single mother of two, Karen refugee Ah Ywa Paw, 26, decided to seek resettlement in the United States so her small sons can get a good education.

  
  

  She's already set a good example for them by being a successful student herself in a skills-building pilot project designed to equip Myanmar refugees in this camp in northern Thailand to work in American offices. It's a partnership between the UN refugee agency and Manpower Inc., a world leader in the employment services industry.

  
  

  "I was told that the course would teach me how to work in an office and would improve my English," said the young woman, who already speaks three other languages. "I realize that I've learned so much from this course. I learnt how to submit a leave request, how to use a photocopying machine and other basic skills. My English language has also improved."

  
  

  Under the pilot project, 19 refugees – seven women and 12 men – have completed six weeks of classroom training in the camp. Through videos, role-playing and live instruction by specially-trained instructors and Manpower staff volunteers, refugees learned all the basic skills needed to work in any office in the United States. A further 30 refugees will be accepted for a second six-week course due to start in July.

  For refugees who live in thatched huts in a jungle, the subject matter – taught in English – was rather exotic: planning a day in an office, buying food in a cafeteria, socializing with co-workers during lunchtime, reporting on progress at work, making photocopies, filing documents, transferring telephone calls and other essential office skills.

  "The trainers were so patient with us," Ah Ywa Paw said, exuding quiet confidence. "Students in the training have different educational background and some just could not catch up. But the trainers did not mind explaining the lessons to us. I just wish that the course lasted longer than six weeks".

  Simon Matthews, country manager of Manpower Thailand, observed that it was important to teach the refugees the skills they would need to get along with their bosses and co-workers in a culture that will be new to them, as well as actual jobs skills.

  In all, 38 Thai Manpower employees volunteered their time to act as instructors and coaches, while much of the training was conducted by ZOA, a Netherlands-based refugee care organization, using materials prepared by Manpower staff.

  The pilot project was aimed at refugees selected for resettlement to the United States under the world's largest resettlement programme, which has seen more than 55,000 Myanmar refugees depart from camps in Thailand since 2005.

  The genesis of the project was a visit to a Thai refugee camp in 2007 by UNHCR's Council of Business Leaders, executives of some of the world's top corporations who advise UNHCR on how to be more business-like in carrying out its humanitarian work. David Arkless, then Manpower's senior vice-president, was deeply impressed by a young articulate Karen refugee who was about to be resettled to the US but was worried about finding a job while he studied.

  Arkless put his mind to matching up resettling refugees with Manpower offices in the US and eventually this training scheme was born.

  Zar Ki Rah, 19, is in much the same position as the young refugee man Arkless met three years ago –she wants to study in the US but knows she might need to find a job to support her parents. She's hoping Manpower will help her with job placement as she begins to carve out a new life after 11 years in Mae La camp.

  "I am good at mathematics and computer," she ventured shyly. "With these two skills combined, I think I will do a good job being an accountant."

  Under a second phase of the project, Manpower plans to link up 15 of the first group with Manpower offices in their new American cities for continuing counselling and advice on how to find and hold a job.

  Ah Ywa Paw has seen her younger sister go ahead of her for resettlement in the US and get a job as a saleswoman in a greeting card store.

  This week it's her turn to take her two sons, seven and two, to the US and the UNHCR-Manpower project gets her endorsement: "For other refugees who have already been accepted to the US, I would like to let them know that this training is a very good opportunity for them to learn English, which is the most important skill to have when arriving in the U.S."