More about refugees..

My worst fears were not confirmed by the bean counters. By the time some allowances had been made our estimate of the cash available for the care of each child rose to the dizzy heights of five pounds and a few pence. This covers food, clothing health, education - everything. Not for a day, not even for a week, but for a whole, entire month.

Today there should be a picture of the camp if the technology works. There is also a picture of a lady from the SAW women's project learning to weave. This project helps women and children with HIV. They live in Thailand illegally, in conditions slightly better than the camps. This house and its people desperately need the help of a team of volunteers with paint, skills and a willingness to work. Money to improve the kitchen and the plumbing would be essential. Ten ladies and ten children would be eternally grateful.

Finally a word about school uniforms. We were told today that recently 22 children were returned to Burma in a group. This is too many to ransome back. We were told quite matter-of-factly that the boys would be impressed into the army as soldiers or porters. The girls would be 'Trafficked'. 'Trafficked' is a euphemism for sold into a brothel. Uniforms help children avoid arrest. Five pounds to buy a uniform seems like a great bargain. Five pounds a month to live on seems like an insult to humanity.

Umpium Camp

Umpium Camp clings to the hillside high in the mountains which separate Thailand from Burma. Someone said there are 10,000 bends in the road from Mae Sot which means I have been around 20,000 bends today, safely, thanks to our expert driver, Khun Aye. There's probably a joke in 20,000 bends. There are few jokes in Umpium.

It is a temporary shelter. This means no permanent buildings. Everything is made from bamboo , grass and palm. It must be a mudbath in the rainy season. There is no running water, no electricity, no floors to the main rooms. 10,000 people live here 'temporarily'. But for some temporary has stretched to 15 or 20 years.

We met 100 children in one of the boarding houses. Funds stretch only to 2 meals each day. The stories the children have to tell are heartrending. Almost all we spoke to were Karen and have been sent away for safety when their villages were raided by the Burmese army.

These kids have no shoes. They have only the clothes they stand up in. They have no toys. They have nothing like enough food. They have no medical care. They have no future.

They are welcoming, happy, smiling and generous.

I am not going to say what the budget is for their care, because we need to check the figures to make sure that our calculation is correct. If it is right, I promise you won't believe it is possible. But the kids are the living proof it is happening. If, of course, you call this living.

Photography is prohibited in the camp so I was not able to get anything on the mobile phone camera that really does the children justice. There will be some pictures tomorrow.

Visiting Paw Ray

Paw Ray is a remarkable lady. We met her yesterday as she celebrated International Children's Day outside the Has Thoo Lei School and Orphanage outside Mae Sot, on the Burmese border. She had cooked lunch for 3000 children. Normally the school holds 500, the Orphanage 160, but yesterday was special. The celebrations cloak a grimmer reality. Many of the children are malnourished. The school can afford to provide lunch for them (cost 8p) only twice per week children with no uniform may be arrested and returned to Burma as illegal immigrants. A uniform costs five pounds. More tomorrow.

People in this Blog

Kru O in action

The ladies from Helping Hands Pattaya - Bronwyn, Kylie and Rosanne - without whom there would be no POT involvement in the Lunch Farms or the Tsunami - and who are now helping us reach Burmese communities near Maesot.

Sally, me and some friends from the School for Deaf Children in Pattaya