The Mae Sot Education Project is looking to build a new generation of volunteers in order to continue providing support to refugee and migrant youth from Myanmar (Burma) living in Mae Sot, Thailand and to raise more awareness in Canada about the displacement of people as a result of repression and conflict.
The project was put on hold throughout the pandemic, but the migrant schools centres in Mae Sot have officially re-opened. Recognizing that the need for international support still exists in Mae Sot and Myanmar, members of the Project Committee are hoping that others will get involved to carry the Mae Sot Education Project forward.
The initiative was started in Sherbrooke in 2003, providing students from Bishop’s University and Champlain College – Lennoxville with the opportunity to work in collaboration with a number of migrant school centres in Mae Sot. The goal is to contribute to the educational initiatives that are implemented in support of the refugee and migrant Burmese youth that are living there as a result of civil war and military dictatorship in Myanmar.
“The younger members, as well as the more senior members, feel a level of concern regarding the future once these key members retire from the project entirely, whether that be in five years or ten years. We are trying to build a generation of volunteers that are maybe somewhere in-between students and retired professors and members of the community,” explained Loïc Mercier, one of the members of the Project Committee and volunteer. “That is definitely a certain challenge. (…) We’re not starting from scratch, but we want to keep that wheel turning once some of these key members retire.”
There have been challenges in establishing a democratic government in Myanmar that have led to a “series of military regimes and controlling governments” over the years, according to Mercier. Myanmar experienced its most recent coup in February 2021 and more civilians fled the country to Mae Sot, which is located on the other side of the border that runs between Myanmar and Thailand.
Mary Purkey, coordinator and one of the initiators of the Mae Sot Education Project, noted that international attention on what’s happening in Myanmar seems to have “fallen through the cracks” recently, shifting to other conflicts in Syria, the Ukraine, and Sudan. She said that a part of the mission of the Mae Sot Education Project is to raise awareness at the local and international level around the refugee crisis and that the Project Committee recognizes the importance of bringing new people on board to ensure that mission is sustained.
“I recognize that it needs to have a base in the community that goes beyond the base it currently has if it’s going to be sustainable in the future. All projects end at one time or another, it’s the nature of things, but there is need and there is opportunity. [There is opportunity] not only for the students there whom benefit from the presence of foreign volunteers, but for learning among the student community here and the larger community as well,” she explained.
The Project Committee’s partners in Mae Sot have expressed that the need for support and awareness efforts in Myanmar and Mae Sot remains, according to Purkey, so “why stop?”
“The message we’re hearing from people in Mae Sot is ‘please, get the international community, the Canadian government, the Canadian people, involved in putting pressure on the Myanmar government.’ I have to admit that it seems like a hopeless cause at times,” she said. “Among the people that we work with in Mae Sot, there is really a strong interest in renewal of a kind of democracy, certainly of civilian rule. (…) They really just need lots of support. Helping their kids to learn about alternatives to autocratic rule is a part of the mission of the migrant education community and it provides us with an avenue in supporting that community.”
Speaking about his experience as a volunteer with the Mae Sot Education Project, Mercier first went to Mae Sot in 2017 as a Champlain College Lennoxville student where he and other trained volunteers lived in a “traditional Thai house” for six months.
Once in Mae Sot, volunteers primarily help the migrant and refugee youth and teaching staff to learn English. They also help implement educational activities at the migrant school centres, an opportunity that he described as “life changing.”
“[We really got to experience a cultural immersion], where we really had the experience to live like the people from Thailand. I think that’s an important part of the experience as well. We are not simply there to be saviours or providers of our western philosophy or privilege. We are there to be curious about what their needs are and try to, as much as possible, provide that without interrupting or interfering with the work they are doing over there,” he highlighted. “(…) Now, I am a student at Bishop’s University and I have been a part of the Project Committee since 2020. I got to return this year with the volunteers from this batch of recruitment if you will. I got to visit the schools and see what their needs are for the coming year, as well as help the volunteers settle in their new role.”
Having experienced being both a student volunteer and a member of the Project Committee, Mercier noted that there are a number of ways for community members to support the Mae Sot Education project, whether that be as a volunteer with the Project Committee or as a donator.
He encourages anyone who is interested in getting involved in the project to check out the Mae Sot Education Project’s website for more information.
“One of the most encouraging things to see is that the new and upcoming generation, whether Generation Z or Generation Alpha, are much more optimistic about the future, or they at least have a sense that things are about to maybe get worse before they get better, but they’re certainly going in the direction of eventually getting better. I think we have as much to learn from our students as students have to learn from their teachers in that regards,” he highlighted.
