Karen Refugee Camp Mae Ra: Volunteer Work on the Thai/Myanmar Border by Steve Grove At the Karen Refugee camp Mae Ra, seventy kilometers north of the Thai/Myanmar border town of Mae Sot I met Monchu, a Karen man. Monchu had big eyes, straight black hair, and dirty teeth. He spoke a little English, and told me he taught at the Junior High school here at the acmp. We wandered through a maze of bamboo bungalows. The homes were framed on logs stilts that propped them a meter or two off the ground. Their roofs were made of thick, dry leaves, and the walls of bamboo stems, cut in half longways and lined tightly together. The homes blanketed the foothills of a large mountain, whose gray stone cliff face made a stunning backdrop behind the camp. From the road, this massive collection of bungalows looked like a beautiful mountain city built of natural materials in the Thai forest. It is a crowded, trash-filled maze, where shoeless, dirty children run unattended and adults wander aimlessly with nothing to do. The Karen people have been fleeing persecution in Myanmar (or Burma, as it was called under British rule) for over 25 years. The Karen here in Mae Ra were subject to mass forced relocations, the destruction of their villages and economies, and even forced labor back in their homeland. Many sat helplessly while their villages were burnt to the ground. The Thai military started setting up refugee camps around twenty years ago. Before the fall of 1997, permission to enter the camp was generally easy to get. But recently, with the massive influx of Karen, the Thai policy has changed to deny asylum to all new refugees except those “temporary fleeing fighting.” The Thai Military’s definition of “fighting” doesn’t always match up with the Karen definition, and refugees often find themselves shifted around by yet another group of men with guns when they cross the border. With no electricity and no plumbing, the refugee camp at Mae La shuts down early at night. But during the day, it is alive; and nothing less than a small city. Small lean-tos, much like the homes, sell small necessities like soap, bread, and fish. Other items include cheap plastic bottles of orange kool-aid, small sweets, and clothes the refugees make on their own looms. The economy of a refugee camp. Buddhism and Christianity are the main religions, while a smaller number are Muslim. Each group here at the refugee camp has their own temples, mosques, and churches. Yet all buildings are constructed from the same materials; bamboo, dried leaves, and logs. An outsider couldn’t tell the mosque from the temple from the church. One of the bigger problems the refugees at Mae Ra seem to face is a lack of purpose. Helpless to change their country’s plight, they have nothing to do but sit around the camp and wait. And when over 40,000 people sit around a wait, problems arise. Drug use has become a problem for some Karen who have nothing better to do, and are looking for an escape. And with the number of refugees increasing, the challenge to provide education and medical care in the camp is becoming more and more difficult. Despite the problems the Karen refugees at Mae Ra face, they seem to have found some happiness amongst the difficulties. Monchu says he is thankful to the Thai military for helping the Karen, and also says the work of the volunteer organizations is good. There is a warmth among these people, a warmth that many people in Thailand have, but that is all the more important here in Mae Ra, where sticking together is the only way these refugees can find community so far from home. My hope is that of the Karen at Mae La – that someday she’ll be smiling on the other side of the border, safe in a homeland she has yet to see.