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Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee (BMWEC)
The Hussman Foundation currently supports 22 schools and funded core administrative costs for the Burmese Migrant Workers Education Committee. The BMWEC began in 2000 in an effort to promote the education of children from Burma living without legal status (and in many cases stateless) in Tak Province of Thailand (along the Thai-Burma border). Given the lack of documents and language skills, these children have been unable to access formal schools. Consequently, many informal community efforts have been initiated to provide basic literacy and math skills to children. The majority of migrant schools supported by BMWEC are for primary education, however secondary schools have been established and access to higher education negotiated for outstanding students.
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Shan Women's Action Network (SWAN)
SWAN needed interim support for their Basic Education and Literacy Program for Shan Refugees in Northern Thailand until the five year grant from the Norwegian government came through. The Hussman Foundation provided a bridge grant to continue the operation of four nursery schools (367 children) and basic education and literacy classes for over 1,000 refugee children in eight different sites. The funds also allowed SWAN to provide hot lunches to 267 children at various schools where many were malnourished, publication of school textbooks in their native Shan language and contribution towards SWAN's administrative expenses. The temporary grant allowed SWAN to continue their program without interruption until long-term funding was secured in January 2006.
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Wat Fa Weing Inn Pre-School
Wat Fa Wieng Inn Pre-school is located right at the northern Thai-Burma border offering a safe place, health services and early childhood development programs for refugee and migrant children (without documentation) while their parents went to the fields to work each day or those orphaned by the war and displacement. The pre-school has also provided basic national language skills for ethnic minority children and has had increasing success in negotiating their acceptance into formal Thai primary and secondary schools The Wat Fa Wieng Inn Pre-school has grown from 49 children in 1996 to over 250 children in 2005 as a continual influx of refugees and migrants have crossed the border from Burma into Thailand. The Wat Fa Weing Inn Pre-school is open year-round and offers a nutritious hot lunch to the children each day. The parents have been very involved in the school through in-kind donations and labor to build and maintain the schools (which have had to move numerous times over the years due to the unstable environment). The Hussman Foundation has supported the pre-school since 2005.
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Burmese Migrant Teachers Association (BMTA)
BMTA represents over 40 schools and 300 teachers working with refugee and migrant children from Burma residing without documentation in Tak Province , Thailand (along the Thai-Burma border). These schools have been informally established by migrant communities often taught by educated adults with no formal teaching background. With the help of the Hussman Foundation, the BMTA began in 2005 to facilitate the exchange of curriculums, teaching experiences and resources as well as the expertise among teachers from the migrant population and beyond (with educational institutions and organizations throughout Thailand , Southeast Asia and internationally). BMTA has begun to conduct school visits to work together with teachers in the classroom and learn more about the needs of the students and concerns in the community. BMTA has also begun issuing formal Teacher ID cards which the Thai Authorities have agreed to respect avoiding harassment and arrest as undocumented migrants.
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Karen Teachers Working Group - Karen Education Assistance Program
KTWG-KEAP provides teacher subsidies, basic student health, school materials and emergency support to all schools in Karen State of Burma unable to access government support due to the forty-five year civil war. During the academic year of 2005-2006 there were 855 schools with 2,266 teachers and 43,000 students. The Hussman Foundation is one of several donors supporting KTWG-KEAP, working together to coordinate the support to these schools to ensure consistency and avoid overlap. See the www.ktwg.org for more details.
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