For many decades, continuing problems in Burma have affected its inhabitants in many adverse ways. Burma's people have been forced to illegally immigrate into Thailand to look for safety and jobs.
The Huaymalai Safe House was established in 1993 to deal with the increasing numbers of sick and mentally ill people among those being deported back to Burma for immigration violations. These people were cared for until they were well enough to return to their families in Burma. The numbers of deportees admitted to the Safe House has declined in recent years because deportees are now handed over directly to the Burmese authorities at Three Pagodas Pass.
However, there remains a chronic caseload for which there are no easy solutions. Most of these people are stateless, many have no idea where they are from and would be unable to survive without the support and care given by Safe House staff.
The small influx of deportees still referred to the Safe House, often includes young women and men rescued from abusive work environments. Generally the patients are Burmese or belong to ethnic groups from the border regions.
The Safe House is supported mainly with funding from the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC) and TEAR Australia, as well as by donations from missionary and humanitarian groups and private individuals.
The Safe House is managed by Paw Lu Lu with the help of her Husband Nan Doe, her son Chana, and their staff.
Paw Lu Lu, who was nominated in 2005 for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Burmese refugees, is also actively engaged in organizing schools and clinics for the many out-of-camp Karen refugees in remote villages in the Sangkhlaburi district and along the Thai/Burma border. Paw Lu Lu is also active in many national women's organizations, and is a board member of VisionTrust International, which sponsors school tuitions for local children. Paw Lu Lu and Nan Doe are also active in their church and in their community and they frequently host fellowship meetings in their home. They also arrange speaking engagements for visiting pastors, missionaries, and church groups from around the World, often personally translating the messages into Karen and Burmese for the audience.
Over the years Nan Doe has been active in evangelical work among the Karen refugees in the Sangkhlaburi district, and in various refugee camps along the border including Ban Don Yang refugee camp where he helped organize a Bible school.
Both Nan Doe and Paw Lu Lu are familiar with the struggles faced by the refugees from Burma, having faced those same struggles, persecutions, and tragic losses themselves during their lives in Burma.
Each day they take what the Lord provides for them to work with, and do with it as much as they can for as many needy people as possible. Basic health care for out of camp refugees and primary educations for refugee children are high priorities which they seek solutions for in order to save lives, and to build a brighter future for these refugee communities along the border.
The Safe House consists of the main facility which houses the patients, and the nearby Home Compound. The Safe House has several dormitories where the patients are housed, a central multi-purpose area, a kitchen, and a large vegetable garden.
The patients are encouraged to join in on the gardening, backstrap weaving and handicrafts, and the animal husbandry program in order to earn some extra money.
The nearby Home Compound consists of Paw Lu Lu and Nan Doe's family home, an adjacent building for local elderly folks with no family to support them, and an adjacent children's home for the children of the Safe House patients, local orphans and abandoned children. The children attend a nearby Christian school, and are being raised in a caring Christian environment by housemother Toe Lwee Wah and Paw Lu Lu. Paw Lu Lu's family, the elderly folks, and the children function as an extended family unit, and they gather together often for Bible lessons, fellowship meetings, and to hear messages from Christian visitors.
Huaymalai Safe House Background
Paw Lu Lu
"By the early 90's, Burmese hilltribe refugees who were seeking safety and jobs in order to care for their families, illegally immigrated into the Sangkhlaburi district of western Kanchanaburi province, and many who were lacking proper identification were picked up by the Thai authorities for immigration violations. If they were unable to appeal their immigration status, they would eventually be deported back to Burma.
At the location on the border where they were released, those who were healthy scattered, looking for shelter and safety. However, many of them suffered from some type of illness; some were drug addicts, some were insane, some were pregnant, and others suffered from malaria, beri-beri TB, HIV, etc. Often, a Non-Government Organization (NGO) worker would follow the vehicles carrying the deportees to the border, and then send the sick to a nearby border hospital.
The people with mental problems would often wander around, inadvertently scaring villagers. Some would find their way to the hospital on their own, whereas others would be sent by the villagers. Several patients needed long-term medical care but could only be treated at the hospital for a short period since the hospital needed space for new patients. Furthermore, some patients had chronic diseases and needed a place that could permanently take care of them.
In early 1993, we had a leadership training day at our church, and when the National Women's Council (NWC) leader, Ajan Silinat and the others learned of the situation faced by these people who were unable to take care of themselves, they decided to learn more about the nature of these problems. They learned that besides those who were sick, injured, or mentally ill, some of them were women who were pregnant, or had small children, but did not know where to go for help.
When the NWC leader returned to Bangkok, she had a meeting with TBBC and Church of Christ of Thailand(CCT) representatives, and they made the decision to set up the Safe House here in Huaymalai.
On my cousin Olivia's recommendation, since I had experience working with patients and medicines, and since I could speak Burmese, she suggested to them to have me work at the Safe House. When they offered me the position, I said that I would be happy to work there because in the past, we had always wanted to help people like that, but we had no money to help them. But now, we would have a good opportunity to help these people and we are willing to take on the task.
And so, the Safe House was established on the 1st of November 1993 to provide shelter, treatment, and care for long-term patients and permanently disabled persons. In addition to border patients, there are villagers who have chronic diseases but have no family to take care of them, HIV patients whose families have rejected them, and women who have been battered by their husbands. We have in our facilities a mixture of ethnicities including Mon, Karen, Burmese, Malaysian, Chinese, Shan, Thai, Indian, Aka, Cambodian, and Arkan.
In 2004 we established a separate home for the elderly people in the area who have no family, so that they have a safe and caring environment.
Sometimes patients come to the Safe House with their children. After their parents have recovered, the children leave the Safe House with their parents. However, some patients stay long-term, permanently, or have died of their ailments.
Their children have lost many opportunities that other children have, and ended up wasting their youth. Furthermore, the children had to live in the Safe House with patients who have mental disorders, and people that often did inappropriate things (curse, drink, beat their family, sleep with different people). The children observed these things and began to imitate the bad behaviors. For this reason, the children’s situation motivated us to establish a separate children’s home in March 2005, where the children could live in safety. We also provide the children with a supplemental education, teaching them Karen, Burmese, and English language skills, and encourage them to study from the Scriptures."
Blessings
We have been blessed with funding for the various beneficiaries in the Safe House compounds by such organizations as:
* Thailand Burma Border Consortium, which funds the Safe House and the Safe House staff, and also provides food and medical needs for the elderly home residents, and supplies the rice and medical fees for the residents of the children's home;
* TEAR Australia, which funded the water supply, also sponsors the loom weaving, back strap weaving, and sewing classes, and provides for a nearby pre-school which allows mothers to work or attend classes;
* God's Kids, which funded the building and upkeep of the Children's home and kitchen, sponsors the salary of the woman who is its housemother, and provides for the children's school fees, uniforms and supplementary food items other than rice;
* The Brackett Foundation, which sponsors children in the area to attend school, and supplies us with learning materials;
* VisionTrust International which sponsors many of the children's schooling costs in the community; as well as an anonymous donor working through Vision Trust who has helped fund the building and operational costs of the elderly home and its staff.
