NuPo Karen Refugee Camp

and

Mae Tao Clinic Orphanage and Boarding School

January 2015 Healing through Arts delegation Report

Background:

There are over 100,000 Burmese Karen refugees in nine camps along the Thai-Burma

border. The Karen are one of many Burmese ethnic groups that have been brutally

repressed by successive military dictatorships that have ruled Burma since 1948.

P.E.A.C.E. founder, Dr Phil West, first vis ited a Karen refugee camp in 2009. This was

the Mae La Oon camp. This vis it was a first step in establishing a PEACE project at one

or more Burmese Karen refugee camps.

Due to subsequent personal contact with Eh Paung, the former Camp Secretary of the

NuPo camp who now lives in Australia, it was decided that a P.E.A.C.E. project at the

NuPo camp was more practical. NuPo’s population is approximately 11,000.

PEACE vis its to NuPo subsequently occurred in 2012, 2013 and then in January 2015.

The first two visits essentially involved developing more knowledge about the needs of

the camp residents, the history of the Karen struggle, the general life and culture in the

camp and of course developing the necessary personal relationships with important

camp figures and organisations.

Members of the PEACE delegation, 2013

Map showing Bangkok, Mae Sot and NuPo

To Chiang Mai

The Karen and the polit ics of Burma: a (very) brief history.

The Karen are one of many ethnic communities in Burma who have faced severe

repression by military dictatorships that have ruled Burma continuously since

check1948.

Only in the past 2-3 years has a degree of democratisation occurred in Burma, but this

is far from complete and the military still controls most of the economy and social

institutions. In the meantime, tens of thousands of Karen continue to live in the camps

along the Thai-Burma border and may not feel safe to return for many years to come.

A majority of Karen are Christian, having been converted by German missionaries in the

19 Century. The second largest religious grouping is Buddhist – the majority religion in

Burma.

The first refugee camps were established in northern Thailand after mass political repression following elections in 1988 in which the opposition led by Aung San Suu Kyi

won around 65% of the votes. The military had allowed the election, but perhaps

thought they could control the process and ensure victory by compliant, military-aligned

parties. This didn’t occur and losing was too much of a shock! So Aung San Suu Kyi

was imprisoned under house arrest for the next 20 years and thousands of Burmese

were tortured, murdered, disappeared or imprisoned.

Now, a second generation of children are being born in the camps. Due to the

confinement and restriction of camp life, the younger generation of Karen are losing

traditional agricultural skills as there is no room for normal crop production at the camps

which are very cramped. Residents receive food rations from international aid. This also

develops an aid dependency which is very debilitating in the long run.

Many also have war and conflict-related trauma. At the height of the military repression,

hundreds of Karen villages were burned and people were forced to flee to the

mountains while being chased by the military. Elderly or s ick sometimes had to be left

behind and children died of illness and malnutrition. Their trauma and scars are deep.

P.E.A.C.E. in Mae Sot and Nupo, January 2015.

This PEACE trip took place between Jan 9-12 at the Mae Tao clinic Orphanage and

Boarding school in Mae Sot and Jan 13-17 at the NuPo camp, Thai-Burma border.

The trip was financially supported by a number of Rotary clubs and we sincerely thank

these clubs for their generosity: Rotary Club of Altona City: $600, Rotary Club of

Bendigo: $100, Rotary Club of Eaglehawk: $100, Rotary Club of Carlton North: $100,

Rotary Club of Tullamarine: $100.

The ideals of PEACE are empathy, care, love and sharing.

Healing occurs when these ideals are put into practice.

The healing work of P.E.A.C.E. is done through often basic and simple activities but

activities that the children in the camp and at the orphanage can usually never do due to the lack of resources: colouring in, painting, drawing and craft activities with balloons,

paper cups and other relatively s imple items such as ice-cream sticks, streamers,

beads, glitter-glue and so on.

Many activities may appear unassuming, but are structured in way so the activities have

a purpose relating to self-esteem, community development, sharing, skill and

development, co-operation as well as just feeling happy!

Happiness heals.

For the children in the camp (and the adults too), just knowing that people from other

countries are thinking about them and wanting to share with them and make their lives a

bit more peaceful and joyful, is very powerful and can have an impact that is deep and

long-lasting.

The team

The PEACE delegation this year was made up of PEACE Founder and President, Dr

Phil West, Ph.D, Art teacher and graphic artis t, Claudia Salazar plus two Bowen Therapists from Bendigo, Leanne Meeny and Samantha Hamilton. Bowen therapy

relieves physical ailments plus helps release emotional stress and pain.

The P.E.A.C.E. Team: Rear: Phil West and local camp contact person and Bendigo Karen

Community Leader, Eh Paung. Seated L-R: Claudia Salazar, Sam Hamilton and Leanne Meeny.

_____________________________________

One day, Leanne and Sam performed Bowen on a severely traumatised young woman

of around 17 who had only just arrived in the camp from Burma. She had been the victim of an apparent gang-rape by soldiers and was being cared for by the Karen

Women’s Organisation (KWO). She was not talking. For all of us, she was the most

traumatised person we had ever seen. Her eyes appeared as if hollow, she was

expressionless and you could actually sense the terror she had been through. It was as

though part of her humanity had been wrenched from her. After a therapeutic session of

Bowen, the girl actually smiled a bit and then asked if she could receive another Bowen

session the following next day.

Bowen in practice at the camp on a make-shift table in the school hall

The Art workshops.

Art, music and craftwork activities form the basis of the P.E.A.C.E. Healing through Arts

workshops.

Images rather than words best illustrate the PEACE activities carried out at the camp, however, a short description is necessary and informative.

Respect, concentration, behaviour and happiness.

The Karen children in the camp present an extraordinary symbol of our shared

humanity.

The camp children rarely have the opportunity to carry out the type of acti vities provided

by P.E.A.C.E. At all times they show deep appreciation and respect and express their

joy at the acti vities they are involved in.

Children as young as just three years-old deeply appreciated the activities or were just

so happy to be doing them that they concentrated in a way that many 16-year-olds I

have taught in Australian schools cannot!

However, the most remarkable expression of the community spirit of the Karen, their

sense of shared purpose and their grass-roots religious conviction is demonstrated in

how the children treat each other.

They always share and are very polite and respectful to each other. Not once did we

witness anyone grab something out of another’s hand or scream, cry or complain about

anything. And this observation wasn’t a ‘once off’.

During my last vis it, a group of pre-school children aged 3-5 were doing activities such

as colouring-in and simple craft activities for an hour. Not once did any child grab

materials off another, push another and not one child cried or had a tantrum or ‘hissy fit’. I really doubt that in Australia, a group of twenty 3-4 year olds could do art and craft for

an hour without one child pushing another, grabbing scissors or a pencil off another or

crying about something.

For me, this is a realisation of how spoiled our children are in countries like Australia.

Children who are used to almost nothing, seem to naturally share, respect their fellow

children and just enjoy the moment of happiness and joy without interfering negatively

with others. They also don’t have ADHD and other s imilarly-labelled emotional ailments

common in developed, industrialised nations.

This little girl was only about tw o years-old. How ever, she fully concentrated on her

‘maraca masterpiece’ for about 30 minutes. Her joy and fascination w ith using

colour textas, w hich she had never used before in her life, w as heart-warming.

The Healing through Arts Workshops:

The activities carried out by PEACE with the aid of our wonderful translators, included

song and dance and the following art/craft activities:

• Balloon ‘self portraits ’ and/or fantasy faces

• Bead necklace making

• Painting (acrylic and water paints)

• Colouring-in

• ‘Hearts of Hope’ activity featuring cardboard hearts on which children cover with

artwork and write message of love, hope and peace to others.

• Rubber Loop Jewellery

• Maraca making (two white cardboard cups placed end to end which contain rice

and which are then taped together and illustrated by the children).

• Own hand ‘ trace, cut out & colour-in’ activity.

• Finger panting

• Mixed art posters

The NuPo Cam p Special Development School (SDS)

The NuPo camp has a population of approximately 11,000. There are of course some children w ith physical and/or intellectual disabilities in the camp. PEA CE met the teachers and learned

about specif ic needs of the SDS school and ran a Healing through Arts program.

In essence, the conditions are atrocious and the school has almost no materials. PEA CE would

very much like to provide support to this school. Here are some photos.

Above: Fun with stickers, ice-cream sticks, glitter glue and other items that the children

don’t hav e access to in the camp. Despite how creative the Karen children are, there are

no regular art classes as part of the school curriculum as the materials are simply not

av ailable. Below: Balloon faces and posters.

Hearts Across the World: A P.E.A.C.E. initiative ready to go GLOBAL!

In recent years, two shocking acts of violence occurred in other countries that resonated

with ordinary Australians: The Norwegian youth camp massacre and the Newtown high

school shootings in Connecticut, USA. These random and tragic acts of violence

prompted PEACE to take action to show support to the survivors and the families of

those killed.

PEACE liaised with a number of schools in Australia and the school children made

cards with message of support plus a canvas mural to send to the affected

communities. The purpose behind this project is for the ideals of PEACE to positively

impact our local children as well as the children touched by the particular tragedy.

• The young people and families personally affected by a shooting, massacre,

random murder or terrorist attack are going through grief, loss and trauma.

Receiving messages of love and hope from unknown children from the other s ide

of the world can help their healing process and to perhaps understand that the

world ‘out there’ is not so bad after all. The act of solidarity is quite s imple, but

can be significant.

• For the Australian children, they can express their feelings about what happened while also opening their hearts by sending messages of love and solidarity.

Young people at the best of times, but especially now with the shocking violence that is

occurring everywhere, cannot really understand why these things happen but still feel

grief and shock. Even if they would prefer not to hear or learn about the incidents, the

news and images are all over the TV and social media. There is no escape. Often the

young people can relate to the incidents - such as the school or youth camp shootings

or the murder recently of the 17-year-old school girl s imply walking through a park

lis tening to her i-pod or the young teacher murdered just before her wedding day.

At such times, young people can be shocked, angry but also feel sadness and fear.

Being able to express their feelings and take direct, individual action makes them

realise that they can personally make a difference and have an impact across the globe.

Stemming from these initial actions, the idea of heart-shaped cards was

developed by Dr West based on the centrality of the heart symbol in the

PEACE logo.

Thus, instead of just a usual flat (and boring) card, a heart could literally

be ‘sent’ across the world. Related actions based on the theme could

be developed. For example ‘Hearts for Hope’ (perhaps after natural

disasters) and ‘Hearts to Heaven’. This latter idea was developed after the recent

murder of the young schoolgirl and the school-teacher bride-to-be in NSW. The idea is

that the affected communities (school children in these examples), could make their

PEACE Hearts that could then be attached to helium balloons. Thus, the Hearts

containing their ‘heartfelt’ messages and artwork could literally be ‘sent to Heaven’. This

would be a beautiful and symbolic act during time of grief.

The Hearts Across the World idea was put into practice during this recent trip to the

Karen camp. A sample of around 20 Hearts were made by school children in Melbourne

with artwork and messages of peace and love for us to give to children in the refugee

camp.

At the camp, children made hearts to decorate their community hall, for the PEACE

delegates and to be passed onto Karen children in Australia. The Hearts activity truly

showed the deep spiritual and emotional impact this idea can have. This was most

clearly seen when the children made hearts for the PEACE delegates. The children

really took the task ‘to heart’ (excuse another pun) and produced beautiful and heartfelt

artwork and messages.

One girl who did her

heart for our

professional artis t,

Claudia Salazar,

unexpectedly produced

another drawing for

Claudia the next

morning.

Her amazing drawing

represented the

emotional link

developed between her

and Claudia through the making of the heart.

The emotion relating to

her happiness and joy

at our visit and the

activities and fun she

had enjoyed came to

the fore. This is better

described by images of her artwork. The image above shows the first PEACE heart

which features drawings of Claudia and herself. The following page shows a close up of

the second drawing.

Below: An example of another PEACE heart. The words are s imple but expressive and

beautiful: ‘I miss you’, ‘I am happy today’, ‘Sing=love’

The second artwork featuring a beautiful drawing of Claudia (‘teacher’) and the young girl

The Boarding school at the NuPo Camp.

The children of the Boarding School are unaccompanied minors. Some have lost a

parent or were separated from family when fleeing military violence and were sent

across to the camp for safety and to receive a basic education. Life in the Burmese

villages over the border is precarious, there is usually no education available and

military repression is still occurring. In the Boarding School, the older children look after

the younger ones (some are siblings) and there are a number of adults who act in a

parenting role. The children arise at around 4:30, tend a communal vegetable garden

for about an hour, then have a shower and breakfast and start school at 9:00.

PEACE at NuPo and beyond: The next steps.

After three trips to NuPo, PEACE now understands the community, has developed

strong links with the camp leadership and is therefore ready to expand our role and our

support to the people of the camp.

This report is not the place to provide all details about planed future support and a

detailed breakdown of possible budgets, but the following provides a guide and

approximate costs in order of priority.

1. Support for the Special Education School

The school is in quite a dilapidated state of disrepair. Materials, educational aids and

resources and general equipment are almost non-existent but the staff and volunteers

are committed and do their best. Suffice to say that the children do not receive a very

high level of educational intervention, physical therapy or sensory stimulation.

Boarding school children tending the vegetable garden. Below:

Children in class

How PEACE could support the SDS:

- Provis ion of specialist stimulatory educational equipment and toys. Most would be

sourced in Thailand while some items unavailable in Thailand would be brought

from Australia where feasible.

Approx. cost: $2,000 for initial year, $1,000 pa thereafter

- Provis ion of specialist rest/posture equipment and related health and physical aides.

Good second-hand items would be purchased if possible. Most items can probably

be purchased in Thailand.

Approx. cost: $5,000 for first year, $1,000 pa thereafter

- Materials and labour to repair the building including new leaves for the roof. The

roofs of the bamboo dwellings in the camp are made from large leaves which need

replacing each 12-18 months.

Aprox. Cost: $1,300

One weekly free lunch for the children and staff

Approx. annual cost: $3,000

- Funds to enhance the teacher’s salaries and for volunteer support.

Approx. cost: $1,000

- Costs for ground transportation (of purchased equipment) in Thailand and related

costs (fuel, insurance etc)

Approx. cost: $500

PEACE would also like to support the volunteering at the camp of some Special

Education teachers/retired teachers or final year Special Education Students and other

related professionals (physio-therapists etc) to work with the children but also provide

‘train the trainer’ programs for the staff and parent volunteers.

TOTAL approximate cost to support the Special Development School: $12,800 for the

first year, $7,800 thereafter.

Some of these costs probably appear quite low, however, costs in Thailand for most

items are of course much cheaper than in Australia and the costs in the camp are

extraordinarily low as it is not a ‘real’ village in Thailand and there is no real economy

as such.

2. Support for the Camp Boarding School and Dormitories.

This support would include money for Dormitory building repair (Including much needed

waterproofing for the rainy season) and to enhance safety for the children.

Approx. cost: $1600 for the first year and then $1,200 annually thereafter,

- Art, craft and musical supplies for the dormitory and the school

Approx cost: $4,000 in first year and $1,500 annually thereafter

TOTAL approximate cost to support the Boarding school and dormitories: $5,600

for the first year, $2,700pa thereafter.

3. Support for the crisis intervention and general work of the Karen

Women’s Organisation (KWO) including physical infrastructure repair to

their small office and purchase of supplies/aids/tools/equipment.

The KWO is a wonderful organisation that works in all the camps and supports women’s

education, development, health, maternal health and issues surrounding family

violence. They also support women in emergency situations who enter the camp/s from

over the border after trauma of violence, family deaths or sexual violence.

Total approximate cost: $3,000 initially and $1,200 pa thereafter.

__________

General administration costs, volunteer support costs and manager travel costs: approx.

$2,500 per trip and $10,000 annually for costs in Australia (design & printing of

promotional materials/flyers, volunteer training, printing, telecommunications etc).

So far the trips have been each 18 months to two years apart. However, to properly

develop the programs and to maintain the important personal relationships that already

exist, three trips per year for the program manager would be ideal. Volunteers fund their

travel and accommodation/food costs. Thailand is of course in our region and travel

costs can be reasonably low if tickets are purchased well in advance. The main cost in

Thailand is for vehicle hire. Again, this is about a third of the cost compared with

Australia. For example, in January 2015, our four wheel drive hire with full insurance

was $50 per day.

Cont.../

TOTAL approximate cost of ALL support for PEACE activities and project

partners in the camp:

For the first year: $21,400;

For each subsequent year: $11,700

PLUS admin costs of approx. $17,500 pa (3X$2,500 per OS trip plus $10,000

admin costs in Australia).

TOTAL for ALL PEACE Project costs and admin costs = approx. $38,900 for

Initial year and $29,200 for each subsequent year.

___________________________________

Support for the Mae Tao clinic Orphanage and Boarding school.

PEACE also visited the famous Mao Tao clinic which is in the Thai town of Mae Sot.

The clinic is really now a large hospital that services thousands of patients each week.

It was established by Dr Cynthia Maung over 20 years ago as just a few huts in the dirt servicing poor Karen women who had fled the military repression. The PEACE

delegation in 2013 vis ited the clinic and Dr West has a direct connection with Dr Maung

through a Karen relative of hers who lives in Melbourne. Dr Maung was the recipient of

the prestigious Sydney Peace Prize in 2013.

One of the PEACE volunteers in 2013 was a post-grad Prosthetic engineer and

following our return to Mae Sot from our visit to the camp, stayed for six weeks at the

Clinic as a volunteer at the Prosthetics Lab.

The Clinic also runs the Orphanage and boarding school. Similar to the Boarding school in the camp, the children at the Mae Tao facility are also unaccompanied minors

however; most are also orphans as a result of the armed conflict.

Although the refugee camp is the first

priority of PEACE’s work, the Mao Tao

school also has limited resources.

PEACE developed a great relationship

with the school, the principal and the

general staff and PEACE would like to

support these children too for the

provis ion of art and craft supplies and

Photo: Children at the Mao Tao orphanage

during a PEACE Healing through Arts w orkshop

develop and on-going relationship with the school and orphanage.

Establishing a Child Sponsorship program will also be investigated.

PEACE’s principal area of work is related to the provis ion of arts activities and

programs to support emotional healing of war-derived trauma. We do not heavily

support infrastructure. We will do this in the camp to some extent for our specific project

partners who are in dire need such as the Special Development School.

However, PEACE would like to support the orphanage in the following way:

- Provision of art and craft and musical supplies for the school. Approx. cost: $2,000

for first year, $750 pa thereafter.

- Once-off provis ion of equipment to properly and more hygienically stock the kitchen

and for the construction of some shelving and cupboards. Approx. cost: $1,500

TOTAL for supporting the Mae Tao orphanage and boarding school: $3,500 initially,

$750 thereafter.

PEACE delegations would of course continue to vis it the orphanage and school and

would like to provide medium to long-term volunteer teachers and other professionals to

work at the Orphanage.

Below: Photo show ing inside part of the boy’s dorms which were destroyed by fire a few w eeks after

PEACE’s visit. Right: photo of the ‘kitchen’ in w hich the food for all the children in cooked.

So the NEW TOTAL for ALL support including support for the Mae Tao

orphanage would be: $42,400 for the initial year and $29,950 for each year

thereafter.

__________________

Hearts Across the World Project (incorporating ‘Hearts for Hope’ and ‘Hearts to Heaven’)

The Hearts Across the World idea proved a great success in the small ‘trial’ at the

camp. The heart is a universal symbol of love and hope across all religions and

cultures.

PEACE envisages that this beautiful idea could become global if the right support and

marketing is done and one or two celebs come on board as Ambassadors. But there is

nothing to stop this program being put into practice immediately. As well as being

enacted in Australia after tragedies such as the murder of the Melbourne school-school,

the hearts could also be made by children from schools and other organisations and

sent to children suffering loss and grief after school massacres or acts of violence and cruelty such as the recent university massacre in Kenya or the kidnapping of the

schoolgirls in Nigeria.

This could become universal and the project trademarked, logos copyrighted and sales

could generate income for the project.

For example, at community festivals or events, PEACE could run a table for the ‘Hearts

Across the World’ program. Kids/parents would purchase a blank heart for say $2 and

the children would complete a finished heart on the spot which would be sent to say a

refugee camp. Additionally, because of the very strong emotional appeal of the PEACE

Hearts, Children could also purchase extra hearts to take home as the hearts could be

used as Mother’s Day cards, birthday cards and so on. There would surely be potential

for retail sales or for partnership by a large retailer during a designated ‘International

‘Hearts for Hope’ Day’ or similar.

PEACE wishes to get Hearts Across the World s tarted as soon as possible !

A quote from Precision Forme Printing shows that the production of 2000 A4-sized

Hearts would cost $750. This is less than 50c each. Obviously cost per-unit is reduced if

more are printed. The Hearts would be blank on one side and the other s ide would be

lined in part but also present information about PEACE and partners (eg a Rotary Club)

with logo/s. These promotional markings on the card plus contact information would be

suitably visible but appropriately subtle.

__________

Summary

The trip to NuPo was very successful particularly in terms of:

• Strengthening relationships made during previous trips

• gaining further understanding of the needs of the people and how PEACE can

best support the NuPo community.

The resilience, strength and uncomplicated religious convictions of peace, love and

goodwill towards others of the Karen was a joy to witness.

Their happiness and delight in having an opportunity to extend their creativity,

imagination and to express their feelings through participation in the Healing through

Arts activities was a raw emotional experience for all involved. The power of The Arts

to awaken, inspire, increase self-love and bring hope, joy and to relieve trauma

was strongly evidenced.1

Above all, the practical application of the Hearts Across the World program

demonstrated that this idea is very powerful and opens up creativity, passion, raw

emotion and the manifestation deep human love and compassion. The practical ‘testing’

of this idea has inspired PEACE to commit to make this project a Global reality with

hoped-for participation by Rotary, UNICEF and other international organisations.

1Up until now, the healing through arts activities of PEACE have not been based on formal Arts Therapy.

PEACE is not philosophically opposed to formal therapy and would appreciate the involvement of

formally-trained therapists in further development of our programs. However, the lived experience of

PEACE in the camp and in workshops PEACE has carried out in Cambodia and Colombia, demonstrate

that a less formally interventionist approach which essentially provides traumatised children the chance to

have fun, be creative, imaginative and cooperative with others is amazingly healing and therapeutic.

‘HeArtwork’ by a 15

Year-old Karen child at

NuPo Karen refugee

camp, January, 2015

Thank you for reading this report

Dr P West, Leanne Meeny, Claudia Salazar, Sam Hamilton

March, 2015

How to contact PEACE:

Dr Phil West: 0435 611 324; e: admin@peacethrougharts.org.au

FB: facebook.com/creativepeaceforchildren

We look forward to the PEACE Healing through Arts and the Hearts Across

the World idea being supported by YOUR club!

We look forward to your support, suggestions, ideas and participation!

We will contact you shortly.