On behalf of youth of Burmese migrants and their special needs in Phang Nga Province, Thailand.  FED’s Youth Outreach Project is a unique learner-centered education project embedded in a social movement in education taking place here in S. Thailand with globally networked partners, supporters and stake holders.

In Phang Nga Province, Burmese children in the thousands have now been able get primary education…. It all started with one learning center Htoo Chit and a few other Burmese set up after the Tsunami. And as the children grew and learned, the community wanted a place for some of the youth of promising intellect or living in the face of special circumstances (the vulnerability of some children and youth). The Youth Outreach project is the first center of learning for migrant teenagers in Phang Nga, probably in S. Thailand, whilst Phang Nga Province is the leading example in Southern Thailand of public, private, government, and third sector loosely collaborating to open the doors of learning to Burmese children and Youth.

In its almost third year of operation, the Youth Outreach project has drawn together diverse people and ways of knowing. Advanced learning for migrant children is at the core of the YO mission, as well as supporting and furthering the FED’s reciprocating relationship of peace and understanding with the Thai community. This relationship is widely valued by the larger community, The Royal Thai government and provincial/local governing apparatus. The support of international funders is critical to this local relationship. It’s a truly global reaching out in many directions; enough people have decided that at least some Burmese migrant children have the right to “go to school,” even as generations struggle with the crises and human rights challenges of human migration.

Not merely an alternative, safe place to being subjected to unjust social, labor and quality of living standards from a young age, the Youth Outreach Project is proactively focused on a people’s children’s future. It is both a peaceful assertion of socio-cultural identity, and the adaptation to the realities in a new land where change and challenge are a constant. Natives to a land whose government de-educates people to control them, and living socially or geographically isolated in a new country, Burmese are systemically alienated from their human rights and freedoms all human beings deserve. As one must make a stand for one’s own rights first to have any rights, YO Project’s approach to learning is to help Burmese migrant youth to seize control of their own destiny by developing the critical tools and self-discipline of an inquiring and creative mind, self-esteem, leadership skills, and both theoretical and practical ways of knowing that empower change.   Therefore, how migrants determine to provide and define education is of the utmost importance. At the same time the knowledge, skills and internationally diverse support of teachers, volunteers, and donors is crucial to how we learn and access education at Youth Outreach.

Physical Place of Learning

EBO’s funding for building rental has helped ensure a safe, secure venue of learning and compassion for the immediate future. This building was once a private home with a gate wall and garden surrounding it offering privacy and safety for the children. There are two classrooms, a library, computer room with 5 computers utilizing internet access (critical to self-managed and guided research and access to knowledge media), a living room that is an office for teachers and staff as well as assembly room. Some of the students are also avidly gardening vegetables, as part of the Young Enterprise Initiative originally, but when our young entrepreneurs learned over the last 6 months that they did not have the necessary time,  land , and, production and market for adequate profit margin, it has since become the kitchen garden and supplies students families with some fresh vegetables.

Learning Resources

Stationary, notebooks, textbooks, CD, an overhead projector, and stereo are a significant contribution or our budget, and indispensible to learning. The projector enables teachers to design lessons, presentations, worksheets, etc. outside of class on their personal computer and interface with the class like a whiteboard or blackboard, speeding up the rate of learning, and improving visual aids for learning.

It must be clarified that funding for “Chemistry Equipment” is emended to “science experiment” equipment. The funds can be spent when Class II students in groups complete proposals for an experiment/science project. Groups must complete a directed, self-researched/read approach to disciplines within the sciences, e.g.: plant biology, flight, anatomy, electricity, etc.

Recreation Equipment

Sports and games are enjoyed by migrants and for some football tournaments are one of the few time migrants around the entire District come together!  At YO sports and many other games, even occasional chess or instruments studies are enjoined informally by the students sometimes during their lunch break. Outdoor ball games are something of a tradition on the last day of classes and exams for main school breaks.

Physical Access to Venue

Because of the often geographically isolated homes of migrant children, accessing a place of learning can be especially difficult for Burmese migrants here. In addition, Phang Nga province continues to uphold a martial law banning Burmese from using motorbikes, using cell phones, hanging out in larger groups, and staying out late. However, the motorbikes is the one, currently, most rigorously enforced. Funding for pickup truck transportation links outlying geographies together, in a physical center, building community and an identity, around education and development. In light of this, the wider impact of EBOs funding of transportation is tremendous.

Young Enterprise Initiative

This project has experienced initial success through learning/ experience. The students have found their initial assessments and approaches extremely challenging. For two years now, YO students, in groups, have been cultivating vegetables and selling to teachers, staff, etc. Yet other groups, when provided a little plot and all the agricultural inputs, turned to subsistence… eating at lunch time in YO or bringing home to their families! As with the venture of capital in the real world; the investors need guidance, information. Therefore, this project must indeed reach out to surrounding community and utilize volunteers, of whom FED is fortunate to often work with in many other projects. Product development is a challenge for Class II. Business planning, and budgeting for investment returns are still only understood theoretically. They have been looking at and begun networking with local markets now.