Global Neighbors Donors visit EBCSP

Global Neighbors Donors visit EBCSP

On November 12^th, 2012, nine Canadian donors from Global Neighbors visited the Eastern Burma Community Schooling Project (EBCSP) in Mae Pa and met with Teacher Preparation Center (TPC) teachers and their students in Thailand. 

These donors provide school materials, clothing and dry food for students at both migrant schools along the Thai-Burma border and Internally Displaced People (IDP) schools. During this visit, they also had a chance to see TPC’s new buildings and student dormitories, which they had financed. Some representatives from the Karen Teacher Working Group (KTWG), which is a founder of the Eastern Burma Project, also attended the meeting.

The KTWG chairperson, Naw Ler Htu was delighted to meet the visitors and she expressed her gratitude to them for their great work. She also told them about various aspects of KTWG’s projects. She said, “KTWG is a CBO organization and it is difficult to find adequate funding to run our two post-ten schools (KTTC South and KTTC North) along the Thai-Burma border; particularly to cover the cost of food and school materials. 

We have many students and it is constantly challenging for us to run both schools smoothly. However, the assistance of Global Neighbors in supporting us through purchasing items such as dry food, school materials, clothing and other goods for our schools has been invaluable in helping us to meet our costs and objectives. These materials are essential as we support our students in their studies and now we do not have to worry about being able to provide adequate nutrition for them. Our students are happy and they have learnt to cook dry food in many different ways.”

She concluded, “There are many other beneficial things that we get from Global Neighbors for our school. We are delighted to work with you as our partner organization and we really hope to develop this relationship in the future.”

During the meeting the Eastern Burma coordinator and EBCSP members presented some information about TPC and the Eastern Burma program. The TPC students wore their ethnic traditional clothes and they sang the TPC school song for the donors. The donors described their work to the students who asked many questions. The donors were delighted to meet the students and to have an opportunity to see their traditional clothes and chat to them about their lives and studies.