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A kindergarten closes in the Thai jungle: a heartbreaking symbol of the refugee crisis
August 01, 2024
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I recently received a message from my former translator Suntimar, who was forced to flee Burma with his wife and children after the coup in 2021. "The Bamboo Kindergarten my kids go to is closing down because no funds."
It was just one sentence but somehow encapsulated the sad reality of the war in Burma and the plight of more than six million people who have been forced to flee their homes in the face of the world’s longest ongoing conflict.
It is the rainy season in Thailand, with torrential downpours lasting for several hours each day. Along the edges of the farms, you will find ethnic minority people from Burma living under plastic tarps. The lucky ones have bamboo huts. During the day, you will see mostly old people and children because the parents have gone off to seek work as labourers, earning about US$8.25 (300 Thai Baht) per day. They don’t know when or if they will be able to return to Burma. They do not qualify as refugees and can never be resettled in a third country. Most have no ID, many have no citizenship, and few have a legal right to live in Thailand, knowing they could be deported at any moment.
The one bright spot in their lives was that their children could attend the Bamboo Kindergarten where they received love, care, food, and education.
The children I saw seemed to be very happy. They are safe and well fed. They have toys – astonishing for some of them. They see bright colours, yellow, blue, and red, not just jungle green and brown. There are pictures on the walls, not just a plastic tarp with a dirt floor. They are leaning to read and write.
And now, the Bamboo Kindergarten is closing.
Among Burma’s displaced are roughly 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs), and about 1 million Rohingya refugees are taking shelter in Bangladesh. Additionally, 120,000 live in refugee camps in Thailand, with about 80,000 currently being interviewed for resettlement in a third country. However, these refugees are official refugees living in designated UN camps. The camps are generally associated with a particular ethnicity, and the Shan, one of the largest ethnic groups, do not qualify under the UN to have their own camps. No one actually knows the number of Shan and other Burmese ethnic groups living in Thailand, but by some estimates, there are at least 2 million. They do not qualify for UN protection or for resettlement, and most do not have any legal status in Thailand.
Most of the displaced Shan in Thailand stay in the northern provinces, particularly in Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and Mae Hong Son, as these areas are closer to Shan State in Myanmar. Additionally, many Shan live in Tak Province, especially in Mae Sot, which borders Myanmar’s Karen State. The Shan tend to remain in Northern Thailand because their language and culture are similar to that of the Northern Thai, making it easier for them to find work and communicate with locals and employers. These areas are dotted with makeshift camps, unofficial camps, or collections of families and people with no legal status.
Ms Mo Kong Sai Loong Moung is the coordinator of the "Bamboo Kindergarten" Suntimar. Its proper name is the Maifai Krungjaw Nursery Education Project Help for Disadvantaged Children, located in Wiang Haeng District, Chiang Mai Province, just across the border from Shan State, Burma. She explained that the project was founded because the children living in the camps and the surrounding area were faced with a number of serious problems.
She explained that the families are living in abject poverty, and while the parents go out to the fields, the children are left unattended. “Their parents are poor, have no nationality, and live from hand to mouth.”
In 2007, some village and camp committees from Krungjaw camp collaborated to help open the school as a temporary childcare centre for the large number of 2-6 year old children living in the camp and surrounding area. The school was constructed from bamboo (maifai in Thai), and thus it was named Maifai Krungjaw Centre, the Bamboo Kindergarten. It began operations in 2008 with 45 children and two teachers on the grounds of Wat Fha Wieng, the camp’s Buddhist temple.
Today, the Maifai Krungjaw Nursery Education Project supports 115 children with five teachers and one cook. The students learn English, Thai, Shan (Thai Yai) language, mathematics, environmental studies, and Thai-Shan culture. Although the majority of the displaced people in the area are Shan (Thai Yai), the school has students from numerous ethnicities, including Lisu, Chinese, Palaung (Ta'ang), Pa-O, as well as Thai children, orphans and children who are disabled or living with HIV.
According to Ms Mo Kong Sai, “They all can coexist and study with different kinds of children. That makes them happy. They have harmony and will not be racist or tribalist.” All of the children study for free and receive free lunch, which is crucial because their parents cannot always afford to provide them with sufficient nutrition. The school also provides transportation because many of the children live on the farms where their parents work, far away.
The number of Burmese crossing into Thailand has increased considerably since the coup. China keeps negotiating ceasefires around its investment projects, but they never hold. When fighting resumes, people are forced to escape to the jungle, joining the 2.6 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Burma. Most casualties at this point in the war are caused by airstrikes and long-range artillery, which the ethnic resistance armies cannot counter. Consequently, even IDPs sheltering in the jungle have become targets for government bombers and attack helicopters.
Both the Myanmar army and the Shan army have instituted conscription for both women and men –another reason people flee. Additionally, ethnic resistance armies that practice conscription often force underage boys to join. The threat of teenage sons being conscripted is a significant push factor. Eventually, people lose hope that things will improve in Burma and cross into Thailand, where they face a new kind of suffering: poverty, hunger, exploitation, loss of status, and fear of deportation.
In the face of this growing humanitarian crisis, Maifai Krungjaw Kindergarten is on the verge of closing due to a lack of funding. This school has been a lifeline, providing food and education to children who have fled conflict and hardship. Without the school's support, these children will be left unsupervised all day while their parents work in the fields, exposing them to risks like rape, abduction, and other forms of abuse.
To keep the school operational, it requires about US$1,200 per month to cover children’s lunches, shuttle services, and salaries for five teachers and one cook. It's amazing how much good targeted, local programs can do with small amounts of money.
However, the number of children in need of food and education in the border region is growing every day. Even if we save this one kindergarten, it only helps 112 children while hundreds of thousands still need assistance. This isn’t meant to discourage aid but to highlight the enormity of the problem and the urgent need for significant international intervention. Local and private efforts, though impactful on a limited scale, must be part of a larger, coordinated strategy led by international support.
The National Unity Government (NUG) is a widely supported government in exile, waiting to return to Burma and hold democratic elections. At this point, the most effective way to address the refugee crisis would be international intervention to end the war, eliminating the push factors that drive people out of the country. This includes imposing severe sanctions against China and Russia, who are providing the military junta with weapons and money. It will also necessitate international recognition of the National Unity Government (NUG) as well as direct military aid to the ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) supporting the National Unity Government.
Rather than resettlement in a third country, most of the ethnic Burmese sheltering in Thailand just want to return to a free and democratic Burma where they can raise their children in their traditional culture in safety and with a brighter future. After more than 70 years of war, it is clear that this can only happen with the help of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful nations.
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Antonio Graceffo, PhD, China-MBA MBA, is a China economic analyst teaching economics at the American University in Mongolia. He has spent 20 years in Asia and is the author of six books about China. His writing has appeared in The Diplomat, South China Morning Post, Jamestown Foundation China Brief, Penthouse, Shanghai Institute of American Studies, Epoch Times, War on the Rocks, Just the News, and Black Belt Magazine.
Image credit: inside the Bamboo Kindergarten / Antonio Graceffo
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