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.
Teams who had been working in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border for many years and successfully developed capacity inside the camps, were now facing a new challenge created by mass resettlement as trained people moved away. At the same time, human rights atrocities continued inside Karen State Burma.
After 20 years of civil war, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in January 2005 between the Sudanese government and southern rebel groups provided an opportunity for displaced persons and refugees to return home or resettle in south Sudan.
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.
Bienvenu Shelter was established in 2001 in a suburb of Johannesburg as a refuge for Women and Children refugees. The shelter provides accommodation and nutrition support while providing them with skills to prepare them for eventual return to their countries.
Since refugees began returning to Angola in 2002, Moxico province in eastern Angola received over 185,000 returnees. This represented 50% of the total number of returnees to Angola. This design and tailoring project was implemented in Luena in Moxico Province.
Like many states within Burma, the Mon state has been struggling to establish their right to self-determination since 1948. A cease-fire was declared but many people are still deprived of their basic human rights.
Since 1982, there has been an ongoing conflict in Casamance, located in southern Senegal. It is estimated that over 5,000 people have been killed, and over 60,000 people have been internally displaced, with about 15,000 people seeking refuge in The Gambia and Guinea Bissau.