Situation in Burma

A military junta has controlled Burma for close to 50 years, during which time the country’s economic and educational systems have deteriorated so much that more than one million children have been deprived of an education, as have many of their parents. A large number of them belong to the Shan ethnic group.

When Shan families can no longer survive in Burma, where their homes are burned and rice fields confiscated, they flee to Thailand. In Thailand, they do not have official refugee status and are not the recipients of international aid, but are considered migrants and work at the worst jobs the country has to offer. They receive subsistence wages, seldom enough to allow them to feed their families and send their children to school. Without an education, the children are at great risk of being lured into the sex and drug trades in Thailand.