Imagine how difficult it would be to go to school and study, with no access to computers....At Hlee Bee, I was able to take my laptop, so the children and teachers could hear themselves singing on "Radio Scotland" and see pictures of Forthview's assemblies.
They don't have a computer of their own at Hlee Bee, but Mrs Laing gave one teacher a laptop, which he keeps safe; charges up the batteries; and brings in to school - as he need to keep it in his house in case police come to the school at night and take it away.
Yesterday I spent the day with a group of 14 Burmese nursing students whom BEST supports, studying at university in Thailand.
They are all from inside Burma and are a small, desperately under-funded group, who are struggling with their course work because their Thai Teachers' English language skills are poor.
They have to compete with 2000 ‘ordinary students’, who also vie for the time-limited use of the 20 computers in the University Library they need for their studies.
They have difficulty accessing the internet safely after long hours study and professional practice at the teaching hospital – which is an hour-long bus journey from where they stay.
Their days start at 04.00 in the morning and finish sometimes as late as midnight!
One thing they identified that would really help them to study safely and better manage their time, would be an individual computer and printer each. This is something their friends, who come largely from middle-class Thai backgrounds, all have with unthinkingly, with access to money and resources.
One thing they identified that would really help them to study safely and better manage their time, would be an individual computer and printer each. This is something their friends, who come largely from middle-class Thai backgrounds, all have with unthinkingly, with access to money and resources.
The Burmese students ‘get by’ on less than £100 per month to live on, after their basic university costs are paid! A simple computer and printer - nothing fancy - here in Thailand costs £325.
They have sacrificed so much already to study. They have the complexities of securing visas to study as Burmese in Thailand, as well as the separation and loss of contact from their families back home.
They have sacrificed so much already to study. They have the complexities of securing visas to study as Burmese in Thailand, as well as the separation and loss of contact from their families back home.
Now that phone lines and internet have been switched off by the soldiers in Burma, they fear the worst, but still hope desperately for change.
They have all chosen to become nurses because the Burmese military government chooses to spend most of its money on guns - not books and medicine - so poor people cannot get help when they are ill or have to hide in the jungle, and nurses cannot get proper qualifications inside Burma.
BEST are going to try to raise this extra money to help them.BEST are having a fundraising lunch at Newbattle Abbey College on Saturday 27th October, where our Burmese friends and some Forthview children will be talking about our experiences and what we are doing in Scotland to support the Burmese people on the Thai-Burma border.
We will post more details here and on BEST's blogspot nearer the time!
Forthview and BEST are trying to dowhat we can, listening to what Aung San Suu Kyi says when she asks of us: "Please use your liberty to support ours!"
We hope that other people will try to help us, help them, too!
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