Wednesday: Hsa Thoo Lei

Wednesday morning was a treat.  We spent with our good friends at Hsa Thoo Lei, who put on a wonderful display of dancing, and especially of the Karen dancing which is so elegant, so vigorous and so vital a part of the Karen  national identity.  Steve Gomersall's 'Brighter Futures' students made a fluent presentation in English of their work and the work of Brighter Futures.  Steve stood by, quietly glowing with pride at their success, as well he might because they were terrific.  It is young people like the amazing Karen dancers and the accomplished 'Brighter Futures' graduates who make the case for everything Thai Children's Trust is trying to do on the Thai Burma border.  These are hard-working, high-achieving young people who deserve their education and try to make the best possible use of it.

The border is a place for campaigns.  The theme of the Ts and jackets at Hsa Thoo Lei was child trafficking, something which these kids know more about than they ever should.

After this, a meeting with BMWEC.  Normally I report visits not meetings, but I want to make an exception in this case.  BMWEC is the Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee.  It is a federal organisation of migrant schools with, at present, 39 members plus seven boarding houses.  The managing committee is elected by the member schools.  As organisations go it may not be perfect, but it is nonetheless broadly functional and democratic.  BMWEC is striving with the support of some donors to find a way to enable funds to be more evenly and fairly distributed among the migrant schools.  This is not an easy task.  There are different ways of achieving the goal.  Some of these are more attractive to the schools, others are more attractive to donors.  There is a long way to go before the BMWEC members, who are facing the daily realities of inadequate income, truly understand the position of the donors and (very importantly) vice-versa.  But when you have seen, as I have, schools attempting to operate on 15% of their required budget, and met teachers who have not been paid for four months or more, you cannot dispute the urgent need for progress.

A functioning BMWEC could help signpost donors to schools where the need is greatest.  A functioning BMWEC could provide reliable facts and figures to give authoritative support to applications for extra funding.  A functioning BMWEC could help thousands of children get the education they deserve.  There are lots of reasons why this is difficult, but none of them stacks up against the potential benefits.  It is absolutely vital that donors and BMWEC work together to find the way forward.

There will be an open meeting between donors and BMWEC in March.  This is an important initiative by BMWEC.  Let's hope it produces the results we all hope for.