Lessons on the Road to Freedom
New graduates from the school for refugees from Burma, led by the once-shy Law Eh Paw, who won a prize for improved confidence. Photo: Angela Wylie, The Age.
Earlier this year, The Age Saturday news editor, Liz Minchin, and photographer, Angela Wylie, travelled to Thailand and met with IWDA partner, Karen Women’s Organisation.
On a visit to Mae Ra Moe Luang Refugee camp along the Thai-Burma border, Liz and Angela gained insight into the Karen Young Women’s Leadership School, where they met with 28 young Burmese women who have just graduated after aquiring skills in community development, gender and women’s rights, leadership, advocacy and documentation.
Her father died when she was two, one of her brothers was killed by a landmine, and her home was burnt down by soldiers, forcing her family to make a dangerous border crossing through the jungle. Yet the first thing you notice about 19-year-old Day Wah Htoo is her smile.
Her wide, cheeky grin is matched by an irrepressible curiosity about the world outside her home: a sprawling refugee camp in the hills of north-west Thailand, just a few kilometres from the Burmese border…
Read Liz’s full article in The Age which was published on Saturday 7th August - IWDA’s 25th Anniversary.
Also take a look at the fantastic photo slideshow from the KWO Leadership School, by Angela Wylie with narration by Liz Minchin.
Tags: Karen Womens Organisation, Thai Burma Border
This entry was posted
on Saturday, August 7th, 2010 under Media, Recent.
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