RESCUING REFUGEE CHILDREN
Our Children's Feeding and Education program helps young Hmong refugees survive their harsh life in limbo.
What is the need?
Fleeing political purging in Laos, around 8,000 Hmong people are now homeless in Thailand, disowned by everyone and living on the roadside, sheltering under sheets of plastic for protection against the rain and sun. One third of these are children aged 10 or less, innocent victims of their homeland's battle between communism and democracy. They desperately need help.
Living in crowded, unhygienic conditions, many have fallen sick with malaria or diarrhoea and died.
The Thai government has no policy to open a refugee camp to house these illegal immigrants. Laos did not recognise these Hmong as Lao citizens, and has reportedly deployed troops along the border to prevent the Hmong refugees being sent back to Laos.
The Hmong say that if they were sent back to Laos, they would fear for their lives. They'd be forced to hide out in the wilderness or be systematically killed or tortured by the Lao military.
How do we help?
Samaritan's Purse is working together with the local Sangtawan Children's Home Foundation in Thailand to feed and educate Hmong children aged between 5 and 10 years old through special day programs.
• Each day we take in 100 children, reaching 500 children each week.
• Each group of 100 children is split between 2 teachers.
• We teach the children basic reading and writing in their native Hmong language.
• We give them a nutritious lunch.
• We teach the children basic health and hygiene in order to improve their lives.
• We follow a schedule to help bring some sense of order and security into their lives, starting with music and singing.
How it's changing lives:
If ever there was a need for a roadside `Samaritan', this is it. These 8000 stranded people, `beaten up' by life and left with hearts bleeding on the roadside, now have a beacon of hope through our program because:
• Their children will be schooled, fed and know how to care for them themselves.
• Most of all, their children will have hope knowing that someone, somewhere, cares.
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