Kind Kids create OUR BURMA BOOK

On Friday 13 November 2009, the children from Balgreen, Forthview, Pirniehall, St Mary's Leith and Tollcross Primary Schools who worked with 3 Burmese refugee schools to produce OUR BURMA BOOK, received a Kind Kids award. The award was presented by Edinburgh's Lady Provost and was for the children's kindness in telling the story of the Burmese people through their book and exhibitions. Well done, everyone. (Sorry it's such a poor photo. If anyone there has a better one, send it in!)

Run for Burma

Fortunately, Mrs Jenkinson and Ms Vacher were out at the race to capture all the highlights! Well done, Mr Wright and Mrs Thomson - we both agreed we could not have done it and that you both did really well...

though, personally I was a bit disappointed Mr Wright

decided not to run in his longyi as did some of the other runners!

This is the front of the 200 or so runners just been given the off!

Here's Mr Wright approaching the finish line looking remarkably fresh!

Closely followed by Mrs Thomson!

"Can I get ma cuppa tea now then?"

If I had been in a photo at the end of this race, I'd have been PURPLE!

Inspiring!

Run for Burma - the Edinburgh run

On Saturday 10 OCtober at 11am, Partners Relief and Development are holding a 5 Km run to raise support for Burmese migrants and refugees. The race starts at 11am and Forthview's own Mr Wright will be taking a 'slow jog' for Burma.

You can read more about it all on www.runforburma.org

You can read more about it all on www.runforburma.org




Afterwards at a free lunch event in St Stephen's Church at 1pm, Zoya Phan will speak about her childhood as th daughter of two parents who were involved in the Karen Resistance movement.

Zoya is from the Karen ethnic group. For decades the Karen have been under attack by Burma's military junta. Her father was General Secretary of the Karen National Union.

When she was 14 years old Burmese army soldiers attacked her village, and herself and her family were forced to flee for their lives. They hid in the jungle and eventually ended up in a Thai refugee camp.

She joined Burma Campaign UK in 2005 and was sponsored when she was a student by Burma Education Scholarship Trust.

In February 2008 her father, Padoh Mahn Sha Lah Phan, was assassinated by agents of the Burmese military dictatorship in Mae Sot, where Forthview's link school, Hle Bee is situated.

Come along and hear Zoya and cheer on Mr Wright.

Orng,a Burmese student, graduates from Newbattle Abbey College

Orng, is a friend of Ms Vacher and Ms Laing's. He is a BEST student (Burma Educational Scholarship Trust). He is also supported by Prospect Burma, who are the UK charity that use the money Aung San suu Kyi got when she won the Nobel Peace Prize, to support Burmese students in higher education. There is a link to Prospect Burma's work on the right hand side of this page. Prospect Burma also support Dr Thein Lwin's projects to train Burmese Teachers. We were very proud of him today. Now he is going to Glasgow University to study Politics. Well done Orng!

OUR BURMA BOOK exhibition - a wee video clip

Journalists from the Democratic Voice of Burma have made a lovely wee video clip of the exhibition opening. It's in Burmese so is great for our Burmese readers. Scottish readers can guess what it says. People to spot are Dar Dar Kyaw, Tominai, Si Si Win, Phyu Phyu Win and little Bobo from Hle Bee, Murray Forgie, Kyaw Win, Louise Laing and there are others.... If you can play an MP4, enjoy......

OUR BURMA BOOK opens in Chiang Mai

OUR BURMA BOOK exhibition opened in Chiang Mai on Saturday 22 August 2009.

The exhibition is in Lur Cafe, Soi 9, Nimanhemin, Chiang Mai.

Louise Laing spoke at the opening on behalf of the Scottish schools

and then Burmese and Shan children took part in an etching workshop

as you can see here.

More photos at www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com

Our artist friends who are putting on the exhibition

support the children through the etching process.

We are very grateful to them for their hard work and creative input to this project.

www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com

Sheila Laing's daughter, Louise, has gone to Hle Bee School in Mae Sot for a few months to teach English and Emotional Literacy and to cuddle Burmese babies! You can read about her journey on

http://www.ilovemaesot.blogspot.com/

Today Louise spoke at the opening of OUR BURMA BOOK exhibition in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Shan school children were taught how to etch by an artist at the opening and the Democratic Voice of Burma were videoing the whole event. More to come on this.

Isn't it amazing how this wee Forthview link that started way back in 2005 just keeps growing and growing....

Uniform target for March 2010

Hle Bee School now has 14 students in Grade 6. In March next year, these 14 children will leave Hle Bee School. We hope that they will all attend a Burmese high school/learning centre in Mae Sot starting in June 2010. The education in the learning centres is free but it costs around £20 to kit a child out with a full set of uniform/shoes/bag etc.


We have said to Thazin that we will pay for each child to be kitted out for high school in the hope that it will help those families who are willing to allow their child to attend high school. So the target we need to raise by March 2010 is £280. Shouldn't be hard.....

Ideas welcome....

Safely home and news re Migrant Learning Centres

Just home - well actually just finished cleaning up house after arriving home! Great flights. Dreadful 6 hr wait in Amsterdam when we were so so tired but that's not surprising considering the total journey took 27 hours. Thanks for all your good wishes.

Our good friend, Philip Campbell, who has been a VSO worker in Mae Sot and hopes to return there in 2010, has emailed to tell us that he was involved in the writing of the Thai legislation on Migrant Learning Centres and that he sees the legislation as being positive.

We will phone him once we have slept and keep you all posted on this site.

Night night.............. Sheila

Bad news for Burmese Migrant Learning Centres

(see previous post before you read this one....)

Last week the Thai Ministry of Education held a meeting with the Burmese Learning Centres/schools in Mae Sot to inform them of a new legal regulation that is about to proceed through Thai parliamentary processes and is expected to become law by the end of 2009.

The regulation is called

Regulation of the Office of the Prime Minister

On Education Provision for Individuals with no Civil Registration

Or Thai Nationality

By Non-Governmental Organisations in Migrant Learning Centres

We have an unofficial translation of this document. Here is a summary of its content. If you want to see the main document, email sheila@lovehart.demon.co.uk

1. A National Committee comprising the Prime Minister’s Secretary and senior members of the depts of Education, Police, Royal Thai Army, Immigration Bureau, Special Branch, National Security Council, Dept of Employment, Bureau of the Budget etc will assume responsibility for the registration, standards, content of education and direction of the migrant learning centres in Thailand.
2. Local Area Committees will be established throughout Thailand to carry out the policies of the National Committee to ‘control the establishment, dissolution, merger and termination of migrant learning centres’
3. Migrant learning centres will only be allowed to exist if:
- they are administered by a Thai person with a university degree with enough assets/funding to provide for the migrant learning centre
- 20% of instructors have a university degree
- they teach Thai as main communication, Thai History, Thai culture and customs and the democratic government under the Thai constitutional monarchy.
4. Several clauses state how to dissolve a migrant learning centre and a wide range of reasons for doing this exist.

What does this mean for Burmese children in Thailand?

As we understand this, it seems to spell the end for most of Mae Sot’s 50 migrant learning centres and the end of education for most of the 10,000 children learning in these migrant learning centres. Only the wealthy and well connected will survive. What will become of the rest?

The Thai Government issued a policy in 2005, ‘Education for All’ which gives all children regardless of status a right to education (in a Thai school). However in practice it is too difficult for Burmese children to attend Thai schools because of costs of uniform, extra classes, language and also because of the prejudice and discrimination that exists towards the Burmese in Thailand.

Will most migrant centres have to revert to being covert, hidden and underground?

When is a school not a school? When it's a MIGRANT LEARNING CENTRE...

I need to blog this to explain the next blog post!

In Thailand, migrant learning centres are not allowed to call them schools by the Thai government because they do not meet the criteria to register as Thai schools. To do this, they would need to meet Thai standards of building and education, which are way out their reach.

So although we call Hle Bee and Say Ta Nar schools, they are not schools, they are MIGRANT LEARNING CENTRES.

Sheila and Geoff leave Thailand .... 28.7.09

Today is Tuesday and Geoff and I leave Chiang Mai tonight at 7pm to head for Scotland. We will arrive in Edinburgh on Wed 29 July 2009 at 3.40pm - we hope!

It's been another awesome year on the Thai-Burma border with our dear friends, who are like family now. One highlight has been watching 5 other Scottish teachers working here in Burmese schools/migrant learning centres with hopes that this can grow even more.

However, the dark side is that the struggle to make a living for many of our friends is probably getting harder. What will happen to the Burmese living in Thailand in coming months as the Thai government change regulations on work permits, why are they doing this, what's their agenda? What will happen to the Burmese schools under imminent threat of closure by Thai Education Authorities? Will Hle Bee get more funding from its funder?

And the big question... when will democracy come to Burma so the heart desire of most of our friends can be realised... when can they go home to the Burma they love?

Feeling sad..............

Gifts and Goodbyes

The school caretaker's wife and baby present Sheila with

a lovely lamp with a teddy under it.

People who have nothing

yet give so kindly.

When the teachers and students came to pick us up from DK hotel

they gave us these Karen tunics.

Fiona and Irvine, there's one each for you too.

When we got to the bus station in the pick up truck

of the school's Thai landlady,

the tuk tuk appeared too.... much to our delight.

21 folk hugging, waving and saying goodbye....

as we smiled then wept our way out of Mae Sot.

(Well Geoff didnae greet but I did!)

Au Revoir, Mae Sot...

We'll be back next year, won't we Geoff?

Kids, let's make a path....

On Thursday at the end of school, Thazin decided to make a path to Grade 5 and Grade 6 classrooms because that horrible gritty sand you can see was making a mess of the floor. "Students, let's make a path!" 20 mins later a path is made! They don't hang about at Hle Bee.

The School Animals

The school's animals fascinated us.

Chickens and tiny fluffy baby chicks....

Ducks and ducklings....

Fiona even saw a snake on the way up to our room in the hotel,

she declares she was too busy being terrified

to get a good photo of it.

We got this CRAB though......

And as for the school dogs and the school's neighbour's dogs.....

Irvine would love to tell this story.

Bo Bew the white dog is Hle Bee's dog

and here you can see he has come to teacher training session...

...along with his girlfriend

who he was constantly, let's call it, 'harrassing'!

Not what you really want at teacher training...

The girlfriend got bored with training and trotted off....

... where she goes, Bo Bew follows.....


On Saturday, Bo Bew was bogging filthy
so he got a row.

On Sunday, he went fighting
so he got tied up!

Bad Bo Bew!

Caption Competition 1

Any ideas for a caption for this interesting photo?

Clue... it's NOT

"Ohoh, the imodium's wearing off!"

Geoff says, "That stick I'm standing on has just started moving!"

Over to yous.

YOUR SUGGESTIONS.....

"Look! In the two minutes we've been posing for this photo,

the builders have put up another building!!"

"Someone's hair is crazier than mine!"

Last day in Hle Bee

Well imodium is a wonderful drug, enabling me to complete my teaching of Emotional Literacy and say goodbye to Hle Bee without fear. In fact, I could do a TV advert for them if they wanted.

Grade 4 have missed out on our input this year and the teacher was really keen to learn about Circletime. Grade 4 are a cracking class, full of sparky bairns. Interestingly the oldest boy in Grade 3 is 16yrs old. He's really tall, funny, confident and smart but he only came to Hle Bee from Burma via Malaysia last year and had not attended school so he is working his way up through the grades. Children are not placed in their year groups so he will probably finish high school age 20. That's the way it works here.

Geoff and 2 of the girls as we leave.

Saying goodbye to these astoundingly brave and dedicated teachers,

who have had no pay this month at all

because the funders haven't recommited yet.

They are all wearing blue because it's Friday

and the King of Thailand likes people

to wear blue on Friday

in honour of his wife.

It's yellow on Monday in honour of him.

People actually do this!

Trotting through the last day!

You thought you'd escaped the toilet stories this year. I thought you may have too. Despite the fact that Irvine was what he called 'uncomfortable' on the 3hr stretch of the bus from Tak to Chiang Mai, I have sailed through the 3 weeks with no toilet events worth recounting....

.... and then at breakfast I felt nauseous and it started..... not a lot of fun.... especially as it's 12 noon here and I am meant to be teaching and doing a goodbye assembly from 1-4pm this afternoon..... watch this space... well metaphorically.... I promise no photos!! Hee hee..... yuk!

Emotional Literacy in Grade 1 at Hle Bee

Today, Yan Yan and Than Thaing and I put up our Feelings displays that our classes were working on earlier in the week. The children loved seeing their friends' photos on the wall. We used the words to teach emotions in Burmese and in English.

I had given Yan Yan the P1 Feelings section of the Creating Confident Kids programme that Forthview and St Frances wrote, to read at the beginning of the week so today I said I would show him how to use Circletime to help his children talk and listen and share their feelings. The children were superb and Yan Yan picked it up really fast. First they said how they were feeling today, then they gave their reasons.

"I feel worried in case my mother hits me."

"I feel angry because my parents did not give me any money to buy a sweet at school."

"I feel worried in case I make a mistake in my work."

See, how they took to it like ducks to water.... speaking of which .... the school has its own mother duck and 3 little ducklings... I always wanted a duck!

Back to the subject.....

One boy in Circletime said he liked lions so we are all being lions... and loving it!

Scottish tourists in Myawaddy, Burma

Today we visited Myawaddy, the Burmese town across the river and border from Mae Sot. We have never been inside Burma before. Here are photos of the journey.

Just left Thailand.

"Are you sure you want to go to Myanmar?"

the Immigration officer asks us.

Off we go onto the Friendship Bridge

that links Thailand to Burma.

Across the River Moei

Others cannot legally cross the bridge

so this is the alternative way to go.

We are about to enter

The Union Of Myanmar.

First we are asked if we've been in contact with Swine Flu.

Then we pay 500 baht each (£10)

and we leave our passports.

"Go and visit our beautiful pagoda."

So we do and here it is...

Then off to a Burmese tea shop

where we are brought Burmese tea

and surreally watch Gone with the Wind on the TV.

Myawaddy benefits from 24hr electricity a day

because many deals are made with Thai traders.

We visit some Burmese friends.

Off the main road,

we find Myawaddy to be a lot quieter than Thailand,

much less cars but so many bicycles, trishaws and motor bikes.

The area we visit has a lot of green trees and plants

which make it pleasant.

However, there are no pavements and the main roads are full of holes and bumps.

It's really muddy.

We like the quietness though.

Every posting has to have

a beautiful Burmese baby.

Then off on motor bikes to the market.

Aarghh!

Not our normal mode of transport.

In the dark, covered market

are many narrow lanes and

there we find

many tailors sit and sew garments for customers

in this dark enclosed space.

Back on the motor bikes

to a new pagoda in the south of Myawaddy.

Mae Sot is in the background of this photo below.

The view over to the Karen mountains in the south of Karen state.

This new community in the foreground

like most of Myawaddy

has no piped water.

Instead water sellers come round

selling water to the households.

We go back to the Friendship Bridge

where the Burmese Immigration Officials

laugh at my attempt to count to 10 in Burmese,

then give us our passports back.

As we walk back over the bridge to Thailand,

we see these women doing the washing

in the muddy River Moei underneath us.

Then back into Thailand

and to the comfort of water and electricity

in our hotel.

As we go into DK hotel,

we see a guy cycling

with 20 dozen eggs on his bike!

Amazing day.

We've been to Burma.