Creating Safe Spaces and Sustainable Change Among Karen Youth in Northern Thailand
By Marisa Sittheeamorn
The Karen people are an ethnic minority group originating from Myanmar. For decades, the Karens faced direct military attacks, forced labour, enslavement and the destruction of their property. While they still make up about seven per cent of the current Burmese population, an estimated one million Karens migrated into the bordering nation of Thailand. Settling into small communities across Northern Thailand, the majority of Karen refugees now reside in Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son, Mae Sot and surrounding northern villages.
While Thailand offers Karen people safety from oppressive regimes and internal conflict, the effects of their past and ongoing mistreatment remain. Many families are broken, working to rise out of poverty or impacted by addiction. As a result, many children are denied a healthy home environment, lack access to clean water, adequate food and proper education.
The Raintree Foundation, a grassroots organisation based in Chiang Mai, aims to provide Karen children with safety, and a platform to improve their situation through education and self-driven projects. Focusing on child-based and community projects, the foundation currently serves Karen communities through several children's homes, foster and sponsorship programs, an eyeglass project and access to clean drinking water.
The foster program has had a tremendous impact on many Karen children living in Northern Thailand. “Children who have lost both their parents or can no longer live with family members due to sickness or lack of finances—they now live in a safe and protected home, where the focus is on them to have better lives and live healthier and more joyfully,” said photographer Erin Shepley.
Sometimes housing isn’t the issue. In rare cases, the foundation will come across children that have positive home environments but are lacking access to everyday necessities. In situations where the needs of a child are dire, the foundation has created a way to support them through sponsorship programs.
Images by Erin Shepley
During a visit to the village of Mae La Noi, staff members of the foundation met a girl named Suda, who was suffering from severe nutritional deficits. Suda and her two siblings were raised by their single mother, who was having difficulty feeding her family. Suda’s hair had fallen out due to a vitamin deficiency caused by a lack of fruits and vegetables in her diet.
Upon recognizing the alarming state of her health, the foundation immediately welcomed her into their sponsorship program, supplying her family with more fruits and vegetables. Despite the food donations, Suda’s road to recovery was not easy. It took almost two years before her hair finally began to grow back.
While the effects of the foundation’s work are not always immediate, their initiatives aim to produce lasting change. By encouraging the students to get involved in agricultural and local development projects, the foundation strives to help foster a self-sustaining community.
Images by Erin Shepley
Thomas Singer, a technician at the foundation, also emphasizes the importance of achieving independence—as his own work aims to empower the students for long-term, future success. In discussing the eyeglass project, a bi-annual event where one of the team members packs a suitcase full of recycled eyeglasses from Germany, Singer explains how the kids are expected to pay 5 baht (21 cents) to take home their favourite pair. While the cost is minimal, Singer says that requiring the children to pay for the glasses teaches them value for money and instills a sense of confidence that can be carried into other aspects of their lives.
Within the foundation’s foster program, children are assigned chores and household tasks to “learn about jobs and the different things they can create and sell so that they can support themselves independently [in the future],” Singer adds.
In addition to addressing the individual needs of Karen children, the foundation has also launched several enterprises including: growing and selling coffee, opening a guest house, and selling local artisan products created by the children and local community members. The proceeds from these projects directly fund the needs of the children, as well as covering the operational costs of the foundation. "Their efforts have definitely changed lives,” says Shepley. “Their overall mission is to help people help themselves, and they do that every day.”
Sometimes it is the smallest and simplest actions—a fresh change of clothes or playtime—that brightens a child's day and potentially changes their life. Raintree Foundation is committed to fostering self-empowerment through education and sustainable projects.
For more information on Raintree Foundation, visit their website to discover the organisation's current initiatives and support their important work.
