Refugees from Burma are finding it difficult to stay, difficult to go home. In Thailand, funding cuts to refugee camps have left over 100,000 displaced people from Burma to choose between trying to survive in deteriorating conditions and returning to a country not ready to receive them. The refugees are spread throughout 9 camps perched on Thailand’s southwest border with…
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Hoping to bring relief displaced Karen people whose camp no longer has a source of funding, the Karen diaspora across the border in Thailand staged an emergency fundraising benefit over the weekend. Over 100 people attended the September 30 fundraiser in Mae Sot, which brought together artists, musicians, and Karen culture organizations. International donor funding for the Ei Tu Hta…
Read More »Despite appeals for emergency funding, a displaced persons camp in the northern Karen State has received no additional cash and anticipates its finances have dried up by the end of September, officials said. At the beginning of September, the Ei Tu Hta IDP Camp Supporting Committee submitted letters to international donors requesting that financial support be extended. The committee told…
Read More »Karen State health officials this week completed the third and final round of vaccines for children living at an internally displaced persons camp, but were unable to inoculate everyone due to uncooperative parents, health officials said. Around 400 children under five at the Myaing Gyi Ngu Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp were inoculated against tuberculosis, tetanus, chickenpox, diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis…
Read More »Over 200 children at the Myaing Gyi Ngu internally displaced persons camp have received their first ever inoculations this week, amid a joint vaccination drive by the Karen Department of Health and Welfare and the state health department. Between July 4-6 children under five were given a slew of vaccines protecting against tuberculosis, tetanus, chickenpox, diphtheria, pertussis, hepatitis B, pneumococcal…
Read More »Today, while the peace dialogue in Nay Phyi Daw resumes for its second round, displaced Karen villagers in remote areas of northern Karen State staged a protest over the Burma Army occupying their lands and preventing their safe return. The protest took place at Ei Tu Hta, an internally displaced people camp situated on the Salween River in Papun district.…
Read More »As the Karen National Union prepares to elect a new leadership body this week, displaced Karen families joined a local environmental group in lobbying for the next chairperson to reject hydropower proposals. On March 14, International Day of Action for Rivers, Karen Rivers Watch held a demonstration on the bank of the Salween. Members of the Ee Tu Htat and…
Read More »Medic Saw Baw Mu Say puts on his rubber gloves and says as he prepares to start cleaning a cut on a patients admitted to the Law Mu Thaw-Ler Mu Per Clinic. “We have treated more than 500 people in less than two months after opening the clinic.” Saw Baw Mu Say reaches for dressings from his simple three story-wooden…
Read More »Lives in limbo for over four years, many hope the new government will prioritise peace in Kachin so they could go home MYITKYINA, Myanmar (Myanmar Now) – For more than six months in 2011, Ywe Ja refused to leave her home in Myanmar’s Kachin State despite heavy fighting around her village. It was where she was born, and she had…
Read More »Villagers from villages along Eastern Donna Range gathered at Htee Mae Wah Kee village in Myawaddy Township on October 4th to show their support for the three Karen armed groups who have decided to sign the ceasefire agreement with the government. The Karen armed groups – Karen National Union (KNU), Democratic Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) and KNU/KNLA – Peace Council…
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