We recently traveled to Mae Sa Lid located on the border of Burma and Thailand to help bring clean water and deliver basic medical supplies to help the Karen Refugee communities. Thousands of Karen people cross the border every month to escape the horrendous fighting and tribal cleansing in their country.  They want to go back to their country as soon as its safe but for now it’s too dangerous to live. We visited 3 different refugee communities and got to hear some of their stories.  Their situation was eye opening to say the least. These refugees are unable to work because they do not have a Thai identity card, but they have no way of making money to support themselves. They live off the land but they lack food to eat, especially in the dry season, and they have no access to clean water.

At our first stop, we met a Karen lady named Tessanee who used her personal land to start an orphanage for Karen children and housing for widows. There were about 50 students and 15 adults that currently live there. She used her land to start an orphanage for Karen children and also to house widows and single moms. As soon as we arrived there was one little girl that just clung to us and followed us everywhere we went.

Tessanee is an amazing lady with great faith and is completely dependent on God to supply their needs. She has started a school so the kids can receive a basic education. She has also created job opportunities for the widows and students through weaving scarves, making handcrafted jewelry, and painting beautiful greeting cards. But she needs more people to take them back to their country to sell and raise funds to feed everyone in the camp and continue buying materials for the jobs. We purchased some scarves from her to help financially support their work and plan to sell them at some of our upcoming jewelry parties.

While we were there we gave Tessanee some medical supplies to use for the camp. She also introduced us to their newest addition, Syrah, a sweet little baby that was dropped off just a week before. One of the widows in the camp offered to tend to her day and night.

The second community was just down the road and there we met  Pastor Jimmy who is also a Karen refugee himself. He and his family live on the land and have created a camp for 130 refugee families that live in the mountainous jungle. He rented land from a Thai man to have a base for the families to come for a church service. They are in the middle of building a church. He has also started a fish farm so they can raise fish and feed the families. Pastor Jimmy has had many opportunities to move to another country. Most of his family has left, but he says God has called him to stay because the people need him.

We saw a great need to help them with clean water. To see the brown muddy pond from which they drink turned our stomachs. Pastor Jimmy told us, “we pray and then we drink.”  The clean water machine we had would be perfect for them so they could make chlorine at the camp and then deliver it to families all over the mountain. We also gave them basic medical supplies and along with another team that accompanied us on the project gave out blankets, rice, and Bibles.

We also traveled to a refugee camp of people right along the border that had only been in Thailand for less than 6 months. They lived under plastic tarps and had very little means for basic living. The refugees tell us that they hear gun-firing everyday. The Thai government is urging the refugees to go into refugee camps but they don’t want to go because it means they give up their freedom. Upon being registered in the refugee camp, they must stay and have no chance to go back to their own country once it is safe. 

We want to thank all of you for being part of this project!  We were able to touch hundreds of families and literally bring them new life through your generosity!