Reflection on Going Home Where We Belong Program 2008
Although we had to start our Going Home Program for 2008 very late for the reason thoroughly explained by May Oo, we are pleased that we could successfully finish it by mid August 2008. And for this accomplishment, I would like to thank all the members of the Going Home Team, friends and colleagues at KSU, and leaders from Mutraw District/ Brigade 5 and Mergui-Tavoy District/Brigade 4 of Kawthoolei for their enthusiastic corporation and commitment to the Program.
We drove northbound on Thailand’s highways overnight from Bangkok to Mae Sod in the pick-up truck generously lent to us by the Mergui-Tavoy District. After a one-day break and arrangement for further trip in Mae Sod, we drove another seven hours toward Mae Hong Son Province where the homes of the Karenni refugees are. Twenty minutes on the backs of two motorbikes trough muddy and bumpy-jumpy track took us to the heart of a Karenni refugee camp known as Camp 1. Camp 1 is the largest Karenni refugee camp and is also one of the most populated or cramped refugee camps along Thai-Burmese border.
Our mission in Camp 1 was to hold a workshop on Understanding Local Government in cooperation with Karenni Students Union (KSU). The participants were mostly from KSU, Karenni Leadership and Management Course, Social Development Course, and other local organizations. Many of them were young post high school students, pursuing their further education in refugees-run training institutions in the camp. Their participation was quite encouraging although the topic of the workshop did not seem much relevant to their immediate futures. And this is when the need for more Going Home programs by more of us who have been away from home caught my attention again.
Most of the participants were dreaming about resettling in the United States and other so-called third countries whether alone or with their families. Rumor also had it that the US was willing to take at least 15,000 or all of the refugees in the camp of around 20,000 populations, and a significant number from some 6,000 residents in Camp 2, another Karenni refugee camp.
These refugees left their home for many miserable reasons and fled into Thailand for refuge. Now many more reasons have compelled these refugees to seek a safer and better life to wherever circumstance takes them. They have little clue of what lies ahead, and even fewer clue on how they would ever be able to come back or go home once they resettle in another foreign land further away from their home. Probably these are the main reasons why some of them are hesitant to make the decision to resettle. But for some, the home has been left behind, and there is very small hope of returning to it; so why not grab the opportunity that seems to promise a better life in the future? Maybe this opportunity will give us and prepare us with some necessary tools to come home and rebuild it when there is a chance. Exactly. This is not a bad reason to leave home, and it is indeed an important thing that should be done as soon as possible.
Last year the Going Home Team witnessed our people fleeing from home into Thailand due to the war and oppression in our homeland. This year the Team witnessed our people in refugee camps heading to yet other foreign lands due to the gloomy life in refugee camps in Thailand.
We leave our home further and further away from us. We seek better and brighter life. And of course, we all say that we want to go home and be with our people, help them, work with them sometimes in the future. At the same time we know and feel that it is not easy to make this dream a reality. But we won’t dream if we think we can’t make it. Our home misses us. It needs us. And most of all, it welcomes us back. Let’s go home, my Karen/Karenni friends.
Neineh Plo
Co-founder
Going Home Where We Belong
