A bright light from a wee window...

Before I left Chiang Mai for Bangkok, I revisited Dr Thein Lwin’s Teacher Education and Migrant Worker Learning Centre in Chiang Mai, having been told that one of my former students is now working there as a computer teacher, whose sister it was who visited Forthview in August.

The Learning Centre has 240 students who work in and around Chiang Mai for often very low wages; because their employer knows that they have no papers or legal rights to be in Thailand, having had to leave their home very quickly, often with only their clothes and a small bundle of possessions.

Here they learn computing, English language and Thai language, hoping that this will improve their chances of getting a better job in the future.

What a small world it is - and how glad he was to read and now hear of his sister’s experience at Forthview; and also relieved, knowing that she will be safer here in Thailand rather than in Burma.

He and other students have been reading Forthview’s blogspot and I am constantly stopped by people everywhere I go, pointing at my lapel and asking about the badges and the saffron ribbons: in Maesot, Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

I have given so many badges away to Burmese people who work invisible to Thais and tourists alike: staffing hotels and restaurants; selling goods in the markets; everything from maids to musicians, hiding their Burmese identity for fear of being sent back to a place no longer safe to call home.

They see and pont at the badge: “Daw Suu good person – very good person…” – then after checking no-one was listening: “I’m from Burma – I worry about my family”.

They take a badge and hear Forthview’s story and share theirs with me – sometimes proudly pinning it on their shirts, or simply slipping it in their pockets to show their friends later on.

One man told me how he and his family had walked for ten days to cross secretly into Thaland – walking only at night – hiding in the jungle during the day from the patrolling soldiers who had burnt their village after stealing all their food and belongings.

All that is left of their homes wrapped in cloth bundles and carried on their backs as they waded across rivers,

Once they finally managed to illegally cross the border to relative safety, they were now getting help from local Thai monks and other Burmese migrants, who had made similar dangerous journeys, who shared their food with them so that the children wouldn’t go hungry.

I also went to a meeting where representatives from the UN gave an update on current events inside Burma – or as much as they knew or could say!

Hearing the experience of Diplomats and comparing this to the stories I was hearing from Burmese friends on the border, helped me gain a clearer picture of what is actually happening. Sadly theirs is a story that receives little accurate coverage in the media here or at home.

This blogspot is a wee window on a very human story of suffering, courage, hopes and fears of people, who we are so proud to call our friends.

It is a window that Forthview, along with countless others around the world, are making sure stays open as a reminder to our leaders that the Burmese people must not be allowed to suffer alone again.