Displaced people in Myanmar worry for future

It is not a good start in life to be born a displaced person. Nor does it augur well for your future if you are forced to flee, leaving your home and school behind. And when you are elderly or in poor health, it’s not fair that your land and other resources are taken away by fighting.

This is the fate of thousands of displaced people in Myanmar’s northern Shan and Kachin states, who are caught up in conflict between government troops and rebel groups. The violence in this area, next to the border with China, goes back to the 1960’s. But a 17-year ceasefire had given people some peace. Then after outbreaks of fighting in the last 4 years, the agreement collapsed this summer.

Rosemary Pikko of Caritas Karuna – the Caritas member in Myanmar – is desperate for an end to the conflict. “It has created huge needs among the displaced people,” she says. “As Caritas, we give them cash grants, firewood for cooking and heating, tube wells and better drainage to improve sanitation. In the rainy season it’s really muddy and difficult. But our resources are limited and when people are displaced they lose everything, especially access to any form of income.”

Caritas has established programmes to tackle the lack of work and money. Cattle farmer Brang Aung lost his cows in crossfire but he’s adapted his skills well to raising pigs. Caritas helped him build a sty near the camp he lives in. Land here is in short supply for pasture and all sides in the conflict have sowed many mines. Caritas has rented some fields to house the most recent arrivals, as space is so tight. People have been injured when they’ve tried to return to harvest crops they were forced to leave behind when they fled. So for now, it’s best to keep safe within the area local to the camps.

Weaving cloth for sale in the local market is another way to bring in some income. The looms are part of a Caritas programme which helps jobless and landless displaced people generate cash. Ja Mai was a teenager when she fled her home in 2011, as the ceasefire began to unravel. “It’s still not safe to return to my village, and I worry about the responsibilities I have had to take on. I support my three younger sisters with the money I make from my loom.”

Although Caritas Karuna’s Rosemary Pikko is full of praise for the resilience of northern Myanmar’s displaced people, she is worried about their future as the years pass. Since the summer, the camps have been further swollen by new arrivals from the most recent fighting. “The culture of living in a camp is now growing among the younger ones and the society as a whole is worried about the future. The older people are fed up with being crowded into small spaces and with losing their land. Their land is rich – jade, gold, virgin forest – and so is their culture. I am afraid this all will be lost. The fighters are competing for access to mining and no one is looking after the environment. ”

Alongside culture and community, education is another thing lost in the traumatic upheaval of displacement. It’s a child’s future. So, Caritas has made building schools a priority and is providing desks, chairs, teachers’ wages and student kits. The kits are really important to parents of displaced children. They have so little money, many parents are worried about being able to pay for the basics – for pens, pencils and paper. The student kits have at least taken that stress away.

It’s also important to the displaced families that their children are kept together as a community. The Chinese border is close by and there are fears about trafficking and exploitation. All sides in the conflict have also forcibly recruited some children and there are reports of torture and human rights abuses. Rosemary Pikko of Caritas Karuna says many families feel protected in the camps as Caritas and the Church are there for them. She says, “The Church compound was the first place of refuge for some people. “

Lu Nan is one such child. Now she is 15 and likes studying English most of all. When she’s older she wants to be a singer – performing in English, Burmese and her native Kachin. Like her classmates, Lu Nan is studying hard in the simple, wood-built school in the camp. Kaih Tnag, who is also 15, says, “I like school, because I learn here. I would like to be a schoolteacher myself.” But that means further study – in a stable, peaceful environment.

Northern Myanmar is a remote area and focusing attention on the plight of its displaced people is difficult. There is much human suffering in the world at the moment, competing to be noticed and given respite. It’s hard for displaced people like Laphai Nan Lum to maintain their hope of a better future. “I haven’t given up,” she says, “and I’m very thankful to Caritas for so many things. But, I miss my home and I am worried I may never return – it’s been 4 years now. I want to go home.”

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