The Prevention, Education and Training program addresses the problem of addiction in five camps on the Thai-Myanmar border, by providing treatment cycles for addicts, prevention education to schools and communities and by training addiction workers.
The Karenni Social Development Center (SDC), based on the Thai/Burma border, will trial a microfinance project that will help the organization generate a small income, and enable the students to learn valuable vocational skills.
This project will provide community training manuals on drug addiction prevention and support to members of the refugee communities living on the Thai-Burma border and to people displaced ultimately within the country of Burma, also known as Myanmar, itself.
Refugee Empowerment International has funded EarthRights International alumni small projects with great success for a number of years. EarthRights International founded the first EarthRights School (ERS) in Thailand in 1998 catering to refugees from Burma, teaching the skills necessary to actively participate in rebuilding their societies both outside and within Burma.
For a 3rd year Refugee Empowerment International will support WEAVE’s ongoing work supporting women’s capacity development among the displaced Burmese ethnic women along the Thai-Burma border.
Borderline Women’s Collective, Gallery and Tea Garden, located in Mae Sot, Thailand began in 2004 with three women’s organisations seeking to establish a shared marketing space for women from Burma and others living along the Thai-Burma border to sell their hand made items.
In 2007, there were 150,000 camp based refugees and around 2 million other people from Burma trying to survive in Thailand. Many of those who were outside the camp system had great difficulty accessing health care, especially for serious conditions or for mental health support. This emergency house provided shelter, food, counseling and self-help activities for these vulnerable refugees.