Many members of these organizations are currently working inside Burma. In order to protect the members from reprisals, photos cannot be published on this website.

The KED Karen Educational Department

This group of Karen refugees focuses on the foundation and maintenance of schools in the villages outside the refugee camps. There are hardly any schools yet and one generation of refugees has already grown up without education.

Members of the KED are often teachers themselves as well as volunteer in this project, which relies on donations only.

They run their schools in simple bamboo huts. During the rainy season the roofs are leaking, the ground is wet and muddy. Children are sitting on bamboo shoots and are learning Burmese, Thai, English and some Maths. More than hundred children are often taught in one room by up to 4 teachers.

If donations permit, teachers receive about 50 cents a months as a salary. But the children are more important and the money is spent on them first to provide them with a daily meal, books and writing material.

The KYO Karen Youth Organisation

This group of young people intends to offer a new perspective to their youth. It's offering various activities in the camps and the villages in and outside Burma. It's a dangerous effort, because the military resents these activities and the members of the KYO risk serious consequences. They are offering sports and other activities like traditional dancing as well as courses on social studies, economics and modern technologies. The KYO also runs projects aimed at helping refugees to earn a living.

The KWO Karen Women Organisation

Women are sometimes a weak part of a community, especially in a country crippled by civil war. Some Karen women have therefore founded a strong organization, which is supported by women's organizations all around the world, among them W.E.A.V.E.

The members of the KWO help women by running workshops about all kinds of topics and women's homes inside the camps as well as handicraft workshops and souvenir shops.

They focus on self-contained projects and can produce a small income for the workers. These projects are started by donations for material, machines and training and can after a while finance themselves. The projects are usually about weaving, sewing, embroidery, handicraft and candle production.