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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.