Thursday, November 17, 2011

A Day Out with Myanmar Refugee Kids

By Haider Yutim   
It was 'a day out' to remember for 28 Myanmar refugee children from the Zomi ethnic when they had a fun-filled event which was organized by International Movement for a Just World (JUST), an NGO that seeks to develop global awareness of the injustices within the existing system.
 
The children aged between 7 to 12, were fed with various fun activities including group games and futsal during the event held last Saturday evening on 12 November at 1 Utama Shopping Center's roof top. By the looks of those children, they seemed very excited being able to go out and spend quality time among themselves.
 
.Vice president of Zomi Association of Malaysia who's, fondly known as Khampi (left), when met by Malaysian Digest described this as an opportunity for those kids to spend their time outside.
 
"Because most of the times, they stayed at their apartments and studied there at night and sleep there... sometimes we just arrange the tables and let them do their activties there.
 
"So every day.. they spend it in their rooms and not allowed to attend public schools because going out for them is quite risky," said Khampi who is also in charge of the children in Malaysia.
 
 
Education Restores Their Hope
 
Through the organization, the children were also taught English, Mathematics and Sciene despite limited space and teaching materials. He said if. one drops by to their place, one can see that they don't have as much equipments as a normal teaching center has, but nevertheless the children are still fed with as much education they can get, as it is important to them because it restores their hope.
 
"Education holds their future... that's why we are trying our best for these kids," said Khampi.
 
Meanwhile, program co-ordinator from JUST, Helen Ng (left) during a brief interview said that this is the first time her organization had done such a program involving Myanmar kids. Nevertheless, she said this is not the first time they had done a program for children where two years ago they visited a children's home in Klang where they had donated food and spent time with them by playing games and singing songs.
 
.They even did a similar program last year where they visted a center for children, disabled and old-folks and spent time with them like they did in the previous center.
 
The kids were handled by a team of volunteers consisting of local youths as well as foriegners from Inter-civilizational Youth Engagement Program (IYEP).
 
"The adults will play with the children to make them feel wanted as they don't often get visitors and stuff like that, so we did that and we even had performances by splitting into two groups where one went to the old-folks and one went to the children," said Ng to Malaysian Digest where she said for this year they decided to do something different by taking the kids out instead of them going over to their place.
 
 
Malaysians Doing a Good Job in Looking After Refugees
 
.Commenting on the country's treatment towards refugees, she said although Malaysia does not encourage the entering of these refugees, but at the same time they don't turn them out and that Malaysians are looking after them very well.
 
"Hopefully within a year or two they would have a better policy... but for now whatever the Malaysians can do to help to look after them, that's what's happening.
 
"The Malaysian people are looking after them very well," said Ng.
 
 
PTA Should Help Out Too
 
.However, she said it would be great if all Parents-Teachers Association (PTA) especially in urban areas to hold special classes for these refugee children and the PTA can also collect funds to pay for those teachers who teach those children.
 
She stressed that it is important for them to have an education so that they can move forward as it is not their fault that they're here.
 
In Malaysia, life for a refugee is quite challenging as they cannot work legally and most of them live in fear of detention, despite having received a refugee card from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
 
.While there are services such as Zomi Association of Malaysia and such, to help the refugees, they still feel vulnerable every time they leave their apartments.
 
Nevertheless, for these children all they know is that they need to live, play and study like a normal children as they have yet to understand the meaning of 'refugee' or the reason why they're here as in a children's world, there are no conflicts, war or even racism like the ones exist in the adult world.
Source : malaysiandigest.com

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