July, 2008

"Aroon is a very unlucky boy." The words of Opportunity for Poor Children (OPC) Director Kham Chuen were still ringing in my mind after two weeks of volunteering at this orphanage/centre for disadvantaged children in Mae Hong Son. The first day I met Aroon, he was living on the streets in filthy rags and eating at a nearby temple once a day. The boy, who is estimated to be about 9 years old, told me that his mother had died of diabetes and his father was always drunk and beating him.

"My father tries to get me to steal but I don't want to," he explained, "I want to be a good boy, so I run away when I see him coming." Aroon cannot read or write, or even count past 20 - yet these simple words of a young boy quickly brought tears to my eyes. Aroon's father is still causing problems for him by trying to remove him from the care of OPC to sell him for 2,000 baht. One can't even imagine what the purchaser would have in mind for Aroon.

Despite all this, Aroon's luck is changing for the better. He is enrolled in a local Thai school, has a safe bed at night and three meals a day at OPC. When it comes time for donations and support in Thailand, children like Aroon are part of a forgotten - or perhaps entirely unknown to some - segment: minorities from Burma (Myanmar), including the Tai Yai (Shan), Wa and Karen.

The 43 children at OPC range in age from about 7 to 14 and are here for various reasons. Goong has lost both is parents to AIDS and is himself HIV positive. A bright and energetic boy, he loves to go swimming and get lots of hugs. Although one volunteer wanted to adopt him, his legal status makes that impossible. Mak is one of five children and his mother is unable to support him since being left by her husband. There are also two brothers at OPC who were brought to the centre to escape being taken from their homes and used as child soldiers by the Burmese army - the oldest of the brothers is only 11.

Parents have heard about OPC via word-of-mouth in their villages and come from across the nearby border with their children, hoping Kham Chuen will allow them to stay. The centre has reached maximum capacity and it pains the director to turn new children away, knowing they return to a life without education and full of poverty and uncertainty. At least 100 more children are waiting for a chance to get into OPC.

One woman arrived the day before school started to bring her two daughters to OPC for the first time. She explained there is no school in her village in Burma, and they had to pay off both the Burmese and Thai authorities to cross the border. She said, "I want my daughters to have an education for themselves, so that they can stand on their own." There are a hundred more households in her village with four to five children each who do not have the opportunity to go to school.

Education is the key to keeping children out of the hands of human traffickers seeking to exploit them sexually or otherwise. "We are changing the course of these children's lives by providing them with the opportunity to go to school and live in a safe environment," according to one OPC volunteer. Before starting OPC in 2002, Kham Chuen worked with an organisation against child trafficking through media and documentation. He wanted to help the children more directly though, and started with mobile teaching at construction and farm sites. An investor donated a building, the construction of which was completed in August 2003. With this and support from other donors including the Swiss Embassy in Bangkok, OPC was able to open a learning centre. In May 2005, the local Thai government began to allow all children (regardless of nationality) to receive a formal education; and the children at OPC began to go to Thai schools.

While OPC cares for the children to the best of their ability, lack of funding leaves them with a small dorm space, annual flooding on their land from monsoon rains, not enough beds and not enough rice. Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) stopped funding monthly rice and cooking oil supplies for OPC and the shelter is now struggling to feed the children. "Since the beginning of 2008, TBBC has had a funding shortage and therefore we have had to look at ways to reduce our expenditures," explains Sally Thompson, Deputy Executive Director TBBC, "This has been made worse by the global food crisis."

Potential donors are welcome to visit the centre in person and should contact the office before arrival. If you'd like to make a donation of goods, please contact OPC to see which needs are most urgent.

Names of all children have been changed to protect privacy.

OPC

www.@opportunityforpoorchildren.com
k_zuen@hotmail.com
khamchuen@opportunityforpoorchildren.com
Tel 061-986-480 or 053-612-926
(evenings and weekends)

P O Box 91
Mae Hong Son Post Office
58000 Thailand