Thankyou for visiting!!

Friends, we apologize for the one year delay since our last website update. Hopefully the delay in time will make this new site even more interesting. In this new site we, Angela and Richard, would like to share our experiences from the last year, as well as try to give you more information about the refugee situation here along the Thai-Burma border.

We have learned a lot in this last year working with the Karen refugees from Burma. We have struggled continuously with our roles here, not only as foreigners, but also as development workers. The challenge has been helping the people without creating the long lasting dependence that plagues refugees around the world. It is especially tricky in a long-term refugee situation such as this, in which many families have been in camps for more than ten years. In fact, 2004 marks the 20th anniversary of the Burma Border Consortium (BBC), the organization that provides for the basic needs of the refugees. Because the refugees from Burma have been in Thailand for so long, the focus has shifted from emergency relief to development work.

We try to live by the old adage, "Give a man a fish, he can eat for one day. Teach a man to fish, and he can eat everyday." In attempting to do this, our focus is certainly on the refugees returning to their homeland. Of course, nobody knows when this will happen, but it will someday. While some organizations are providing the essential day to day needs, we are trying to provide the essential tools necesary for their lives now and especially after repatriation. We consistently ask ourselves, and the people we work with, "What will happen when the aid organizations are gone?"

This has been a mentally challenging year in this aspect, and by no means are we in any position to say that we are now fully able to "teach them to fish" so to speak. As mentioned earlier, we are continually challenging ourselves to work towards this goal. We are open to feedback and comments about our work. In fact, it is important for our work to see ourselves from another's point of view.

Creating this site is actually a great opportunity for us to take a look at our work from the last year and put it into words. It also gives us the time to think again about what we have done and what we can and should do in the years to come. We are commited to the people here for as long as we can see in the future.

Thankyou for visiting and taking the time to become better educated about the Karen situation. Our old site will remain the same. Please click this link if you would like to visit it and see our old photographs ...

http://alongtheborder.tripod.com

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