Story and written by
Kyaw Thein Kha
July 21, 2009
There is a Burmese saying that goes “Rubbish becomes Gold.” Almost all the people of Burma have probably heard the saying. I want to explain about the meaning of the word to non-Burmese citizens. Especially, something that has to be thrown or that is not useful anymore or that a person doesn’t want it anymore is called “Rubbish” or “Waste”.
Since it is called “Rubbish”, who would want to keep it? Finally, the rubbish is thrown out. Some things or materials are useful for people. Nevertheless, as the people don’t know how to use it properly, things become rubbish. Anyhow, it is sure that they’ll be destroyed since they are thought as rubbish. In this article, what I want to put up is not about useless rubbish. It is about the “The rubbish that has become gold”.
The name of the ‘rubbish’ I want discuss is “Ko Phyo”. He’s now 10 years old and in grade 2 at a Thai government school. His parents lived in Kaw Thaung (Victoria point) in the southern part of Burma. His parents passed away when he was young. After his parents passed away, Ko Phyo faced a very hard life and nobody fed him. Then, Ma Moe, a friend of Ko Pyo’s father who worked in a construction site, began to care temporarily for Ko Phyo despite her own tough circumstances at the time. She could only feed Ko Phyo by sharing the little food she had. The other workers in the construction site where Ma Moe was working also supported Ko Phyo as much as they could. Because of such sympathetic help Ko Phyo is still alive today. He was only five years old at the time.
One year after Ma Moe’s husband passed away, she moved to Tarlasak village in Phang Nga province in Southern Thailand. She brought Ko Phyo to Tarlasak with her and provided for him by working in a construction site. In those days, Ko Phyo went along with Ma Moe to the construction sites as if she were his own mother. He lived in the construction site and grew up there. He didn’t have slippers under the heat of sun in the construction site. He didn’t have toys, nor did he have friends to play with and was very lonely. He would sit in a safe corner of a construction site, and watched while Ma Moe’s worked. He was shy and did not like speaking to people because he was afraid of other people. According to a worker close to Ko Phyo, he would run away and hide when a stranger spoke to him. He would feel very sad if someone spoke about his parents. While he would smile around those he knew, he sometimes could not hold back his tears.
In late 2005, after the Tsunami, Grassroots-HRE set up a programme for the children of migrant workers and the victims of Tsunami. In the mean time, Htoo Chit, the director of Grassroots-HRE, informed the migrant communities that they could bring the orphans or the children of Tsunami victims to Grassroots-HRE to care for. The news spread very quickly by word of mouth. Finally, the news reached Ma Moe’s ear. In the beginning, she could not believe what she heard because she had heard about child trafficking. She could not irresponsibly hand over Ko Phyo to the hands of others. Ma Moe, was having a hard enough time providing for herself, let alone a child. Nevertheless, she could not bring herself to leave Ko Phyo to strangers who she could not instantly trust. After she had made detailed inquiries about Grassroots-HRE, she handed Ko Phyo to Htoo Chit. Then, Htoo Chit adopted Ko Phyo as his own son. Ko Phyo then began his education in grade one at a local Thai government school.
One day, I visited the Community Child Care Center (CCCC) of Grassroots-HRE in Htonkhamin ward, where Ko Phyo and other orphans live. There are about 20 children in CCCC, including orphans. I asked Ko Phyo for permission to see his room and he let me in with a smile. As I entered, I saw gold medals shining in his room, as they hung from the ceiling. I counted the number of gold medals and there were a total of nine. I asked Ko Phyo whose gold medals those were and he responded that he had won the prizes at his school games. He competed in the events for children under the age of nine. He took part in short distance, long distance, relay and hurdle races and he also won the first prizes in all events and was awarded gold medals. He also told me that he forgot about the other events in which he was awarded prizes and he said that he’d tell me about that later. He was also awarded gold, silver and bronze medals in the games when he was in grade one and two.
Ko Phyo was also selected as the brightest student and was awarded first prize in the whole grade one class of last year. It was unbelievable for me and I was surprised to know about his success. I was proud of our people and I was delighted. His success was all the more incredible considering that he was Burmese and had been studying in Thai for only two years. He was studying amongst only Thai students. Considering the difficulties that Ko Phyo has overcome, his life can now be seen as a success story. From the rubbish nobody wanted, to a gold medal student and athlete loved by his new friends and community.
Ko Phyo told me about his success, “I’m happy to win the prizes in the school games and to be chosen as the brightest student in the class. I do homework every day. I ask questions to our teachers on issues I’m not clear about and don’t understand. I’m not afraid of asking questions, but of being beaten. I’ll take part in the school games in the coming years. Now, I have to train together with my friends at school. I want to urge other Burmese children to study hard.”
I want to tell you of another child who had been rubbish. His name is Saw Yan Naing. He was in the same situation as Ko Phyo. Saw Yan Naing also was chosen as the brightest student in his second grade class in a Thai government school last year. He won prizes and was also awarded gold medals in the school games. Both of his parents are still alive. His father is a tuberculous patient and is staying in the Temporary Shelter built and operated by Grassroots-HRE. To learn more about the life of Saw Yan Naing, I visited the Temporary Shelter and had a conversation with his father. I taught English to the group of children, including Ko Phyo and Saw Yan Naing in the Htonkhamin ward in my free time. I introduced myself to Saw Yan Naing’s father as one of the children’s teachers. We subsequently had a conversation and he had the following to say:
“I have been paralyzed and infected with tuberculosis. I also feel numbed at night. I take regular medicine, but it’s not easy to recover. I handed my son over to Htoo Chit, as I don’t want my son to get infected. My condition makes me very sad. Because of my health problems, my wife, my son and my daughter have to live apart from each other. We don’t have a chance to live together. I have not seen my daughter for two years. My wife left me and she got married with another man. I fell down when a woman came and asked for my little daughter to take away and I slipped into a coma and was hospitalized for six days. My friends urged me to ask Htoo Chit to help my son. I finally agreed and Htoo Chit accepted the responsibility to care for my son. My wife has probably given my little daughter to others by now. I miss my daughter very much. I want to live together with my family. I feel sad when I see the children of others, but because of my health condition I know I must accept the fact that I cannot see my children. I feel unhappy if I think about my son and daughter, but I need to be calm about it. Saw Yan Naing’s younger sister is so cute and she turned six this year.
He told his son, “When you become an adult, you may want to see your younger sister and so you must remember her name.” He added, “I cannot stop feeling attached to my children, and I worry because I know I might die soon. Even if I am not going to die yet, I don’t want my son to have a life full of misery like I did, so I decided to hand him over to Htoo Chit’s care. Htoo Chit’s organization will educate him and he will have better prospects than I ever did. All my trust for the future of my son is in the hands of Htoo Chit and his organization. I feel happy to see my son in their care. This organization is helping a lot of people. The children are supported and a school truck, pocket money and food are provided. I’m delighted to see the activities of this organization. Myself, I have also been provided a tremendous amount of help by this organization. It is for this reason that I trust it and why I handed my son over to GHRE’s care. The children under the support of this organization benefit by learning computer and English language skills. His own parents fail to serve their responsibility for his future. Now, my son is living in better place than his own parents had’.
He continued, “There was a time when I looked for my little daughter wherever I went, I looked for her at the hospital, but I didn’t find her. Some people say that she is now in Hawnaw. I’m not able to go there as it is far and I am ill. It was strange when a woman came and asked for my daughter and I had a breakdown. She was my wife’s friend who had helped us when my daughter was born. Because I knew that neither my wife nor I could take care of our children, I said to her, “It’s up to you.” Now they are separated. My son has seen his younger sister. He didn’t know when the woman came and took his younger sister, as he was playing somewhere. I feel sad for both of them. The two children are apart from each other now and they don’t have a chance to meet. I don’t know where to go and find my daughter. I’ll leave a will in which I’d write who took my daughter before I die.”
When I heard him speaking about Saw Yan Naing, I knew that those words came from his heart and were said with great emotion. Saw Yan Naing often visits his father, but he cannot stay for long, because his father fears that Saw Yan Naing might contract Tuberculosis. During his visit, Saw Yan Naing tried to tell his father about his success in school, however he was simply turned away by his father. I then told his father that his son was chosen as the brightest student in the class and that he had won prizes in the school games and was awarded gold medals. The father didn’t know about his son’s success. I could notice the tears from the eyes of Saw Yan Naing’s father, a demonstration of the happiness he felt when he heard about the news of his son’s success.
Saw Yan Naing told me about his success, “I’m happy to be chosen as the brightest student in the class. I’m even happier to win prizes in school games. I tried so hard to win prizes in the games. I also studied the lessons regularly when I got home from school and I did my homework regularly. At the end of the year after we had taken our exams and handed in our homework, the teacher went through the exams and homework to choose the best student and I was chosen. The teacher said that I’m clever and asked me to study hard again. She also encouraged me not to worry about being a Burmese in a Thai school and encouraged me to continue to study hard to assure my success.”
Htoo Chit, the father and care-giver of the children, had this to say:
“While Ko Phyo and Saw Yan Naing were chosen as the brightest students in the class, there are also other children in our community who have been recognized as exceptional students. Our children do not study only in Thai, they also study Burmese and our organization trains them so that they can improve in all subjects. We also have wonderful teachers who have systematically trained our children to have strong work ethic and who encourage them to study diligently among the Thai. I think our Burmese children have achieved these successes within the Thai schools because of their strong determination to succeed under such difficult circumstances.”
Then, Htoo Chit told me about his plan for the future education of the children, “Thai universities are much cheaper than other international universities, so if these children can continue in their education within the Thai system, then I hope we would be in a better position to continue our support for them until they graduate. Thai schools now grant equal rights for the children of Burmese migrant workers and Thai children. Over the past ten years, Thai schools have begun to accept the children of Burmese migrant workers. Thai and Burmese human rights activists have campaigned for Burmese children to be accepted in Thai schools. Now, it is not as difficult for the children of Burmese migrants to enroll in Thai government schools. In 1996, the Thai government prescribed the principles of education for Burmese migrant workers’ children, stating that they still have a right to equal opportunity for education, regardless of whether or not the children possess a National Identity Card. The principles are the result of the campaigning and activities of Thai and Burmese human rights and child rights activist groups that had been working tirelessly for more than ten years on this issue.”
Htoo Chit added, “We started to send the Burmese migrant children to Thai schools in 2006 because of these new policies. Our organization could send the migrant children in our communities, to study in Thai government schools in 2007. We encouraged our communities to send their children to Thai school because in our opinion, the current policies of Thai government schools for the migrant children are very good. Their new policies allow Burmese migrant children to study in Thailand until they graduate. Therefore, our organization sent 50 of our children to Thai government schools in 2007.”
The parents of some migrant children working in Thailand are in non-secure situations as they don’t have any documents which can prove they have a legal status in the country. So, they allow their children to be under Grassroots-HRE’s care for the safety and education of their children. The children study hard because they are aware of their circumstances. Every year, Burmese children won first, second and third prizes in Thai schools. These children are worthy jewels for the future of Burma.
Story by
Kyaw Thein Kha
July 18, 2009.
It was very hot in the crowd and the cell was very noisy with crying children and chattering. Some were Mon and Burmese and I saw some Karen and Chin, too. I looked over all around the jail for a place to lie down, as I knew that I had to spend three days and two nights there. Then, I found a space near the window that was good enough for me to spend the two nights there. I spread my longyi (most of Burmese men in Burma wear longyi instead of pant or jeans trousers) on the cement floor. After a few minutes, a Burmese broker and Thai staff entered into the cell and took our pictures. We had to fill out forms and have our finger prints taken, before being deported to Burma.
Now my anxiety had disappeared as I was with the people who are in the same situation as me. I talked with three boys who were supposed to be about twenty five. They said that they had worked in Malaysia for five years and they had been in that cell for one week. They also told me that they had already paid all the money to the brokers in Kuala Lumpur to be deported to Burma. As their broker in KL had not given the specific amount of money to the hands of the brokers who were working with the Thai immigration officers in Thai-Malaysia border, the Thai immigration officers had not transferred them to the hands of another brokers who would transferred them into the Thai immigration in Mae Sot. So, the boys had been detained in the cell for such a long time. When they called the broker’s number in KL, he didn’t answer the phone. The boys told me all about their situation with sad faces and I knew that the boys were cheated by the broker in KL. But I didn’t tell them this as I didn’t want to scare them. I, myself, was so sad to know all about their situation. If they encountered such a problem in KL, I would be able to help them. But for now, I was in the same situation with others who were being detained in the cell and would be deported to Burma.
In the next morning, the broker who brought me into the cell brought a bottle of drinking water and a box of fried rice. If I compared him with the other brokers, he was better than others. The jail authorities also fed us three meals per day. The curry was only soup, mixed with the cucumber and gourd and a boiled duck egg. The rice was packed in a plastic bag. We had to eat the same curry in every meal. Some people could buy fried rice and some other better food from outside as they could save some amount of money before they planned to go back home to Burma. They could ask someone outside to buy food from outside. One person helped them to buy food from outside, but the detainees had to give him some extra money for his service. There were some other mobile food stalls outside the window. I still had forty five Malaysian ringgits (about US$12), and some coins in my pocket. I bought Thai papaya salad and sticky rice through iron bars of the window. I remembered the days when I ate papaya salad and Thai noodle soup with the children when I worked as a volunteer in children’s home in Thai-Burma border in 2005.
I took a bath in the bathroom as my whole body was sweating and I smelt bad, but there was no soap. The bathroom was built together with toilet. I had to breathe the bad smell of the toilet and there was no cup to take water from the tank, but I could use the cup from the toilet if I wanted. I didn’t know how the other detainees took a bath and which cup they used when they did, so I asked the mobile food stall owner outside the window for an empty drinking water bottle made of plastic. I asked her to cut the bottle from the middle part. She gave it to me through the window. Then, I could use the bottom part of the bottle as a cup when I took a bath, but I still didn’t have any soap. At least I could wash and was now fresh.
By now, I had stayed in the Thai immigration cell for three days and two nights. On the afternoon of the third day, a broker came into the cell and called each of our names and asked us to stand in lines. Some detainees asked him if their name was written on the list. I saw that the three boys were also asking the broker about the list; it was a list of detainees who would be deported soon. The broker said with a loud voice, “Is there anybody here whom the broker Ko Myo brought?” The detainees who were brought by the broker ‘Ko Myo’ raised their hands. Then, the broker checked the listed detainees one by one. My name was also on the list. The three boys encouraged me, “Don’t worry, brother. You’ll have to go together with those people and be deported soon.” I asked them if their names were listed to be deported and they said, “No.” I was very sorry to hear about that.
The brokers and the immigration authorities separated the detainees into two groups – those whose names were listed to be deported and whose names were not. The broker collected 200 Baht from each detainee. He said that the collected money would be used to buy food on the way. We had to stand in lines and were asked to get on a truck. The truck had good ventilation. I was thinking about the 54 Burmese victims, who died in the enclosed truck when they were smuggled to southern Thailand from Burma in April, 2008. It was an international headline and caught international interest. A man who could read Thai in our group informed us that “Thai Immigration” was written on two sides of the truck and we didn’t need to worry about the police in checked points. I counted all the people on the truck. In total, there were sixty five people who would be deported to Burma.
It had already been about seven o’clock in the evening when the truck started to leave the immigration cell. The driver drove the truck non-stop all the way. At about 10 pm at night, the driver stopped the truck near a Seven Eleven shop. He gave us a pack of food each. I opened the paper in which rice and curry was packed. The curry was the same kind of food that we ate in the immigration cell. None of us complained about that although we had paid 200 Baht for food on the way. Instead, we ate all the food as we were so hungry; we were also very excited to be deported to our land where we would arrive safely.
Then, the driver started the journey again and drove the car non-stop through the whole night. At about seven o’clock in the next morning, a pregnant woman in our group could not resist her abdominal pain and she asked us to ask the driver to stop the car. We strongly beat the truck’s frame from behind so that the driver could hear us and stop the car. We were very lucky as some people in our group could speak Thai. The driver stopped the car near a petrol shop and contacted a hospital. After a few minutes, an ambulance arrived and the doctors and nurses checked the pregnant women and said that the baby had died in her uterus. The woman was to stay at the hospital for necessary treatments, but we all had to wait until our driver received a letter of recommendation from the medical superintendent. The letter was to be shown in the Thai immigration office in Mae Sot. The driver brought sixty five people on the truck, but now one was to be left at the hospital. He’d be able to transfer only sixty four of us to the hands of Thai immigration office in Mae Sot. This is why he needed to bring a letter of recommendation from the medical superintendent. The sister of the woman in our group was also pregnant, she cried loudly as she was sorry for her sister and also worried about abortion or if the baby was dead in her uterus like her sister. All the women joined together to comfort her, and then, she stopped crying.
The truck, on which sixty four Burmese were brought, set forth on its journey and it arrived in Mae Sot, the town on Thai-Burma border, at 7 pm. The truck stopped at the Mae Sot immigration. We all had to sleep in Mae Sot immigration cell for one night. Early the next morning, the immigration officer asked us to stand in lines and we had to give our finger prints again. In the mean time, a Burmese broker woman who was supposed to have a good relationship with the Thai immigration officials came to us and said that we were going to be deported to the hands of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA). DKBA is a breakaway group of Buddhist former soldiers and officers of the Karen National Liberation Army, one of the larger insurgent armies in Burma. Since shortly after their breakaway in 1994, the DKBA have enjoyed a ceasefire with the Burmese army. More than 3,000 Karen villagers have recently fled to Thailand because of the fighting between DKBA and Karen National Union (KNU). According to the woman broker, DKBA would check us and they would keep all our mobile phones and cameras. So we kept all our cameras and phones in the hands of the broker. She said that she’d return us all those things after we had been checked in DKBA and passed its check point.
We all were locked in the Thai immigration truck and deported on the bank of Moi River (Thaung Yin River) which separates Thailand and Burma. A boat man who was believed to be a soldier from DKBA was ready on the boat, waiting for us to bring to Burma. We all got on the boat and the man rowed; finally we were all deported into the hands of DKBA soldiers in Burma’s side. Part III, to be continued …………..
