Burma

Exiled Charity Loses Funds in Wake of Reforms

By LAWI WENG Tuesday, February 7, 2012

People work in the Sangklaburi Safe House garden. (Photo: http://sangklaburisafehouse.org)

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A chronic shortage of funds means that people living at the Sangklaburi Safe House in Sangkhlaburi, Thailand, receive less than 10 baht's (US $0.32) worth of food each day as workers struggle to find more donors.

An official from the safe house said that many donors are now sending their contributions inside Burma due to the recent wave of political reforms. She therefore finds it difficult to feed her patients.

There are around 60 people at the Sangklaburi Safe House. Some have mental problems, some are HIV-positive, while some suffer from preventable diseases such as tuberculosis. Others are simply decrepit old men who have been abandoned by their families.

There are two buildings at the safe house which offer separate living quarters for adult patients and the elderly. One house spends just 300 baht a day on food, and the another only 190 baht a day.

Four non-governmental organizations provide funds for the safe house every year—the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), TEAR Australia, God's Kids and the Branch Foundation.

The TBBC was a major source of income for the charity, but after losing around 30 percent of its own funding this year, the consortium was forced to encourage the safe house to search out other donors instead.

“It is very hard for us to manage our budget for the whole year while commodity prices are going up in Thailand,” said the official. “We are worried that we are going to lose our staff and cannot run this safe house without them with these low donations.”

The safe house currently has 12 staff members, who each receive only 3,500 baht ($113) a month. Even though the management understands that workers have difficulty supporting their own families with such low wages, it cannot provide a better salary without more donations.

“Our staff members have beautiful minds and are very tolerant of the patients. I am very proud of them,” said the official.

Sangklaburi Safe House is located close to the Thai-Burmese border in Huai Malai, Sangkhlaburi District, Kanchanaburi Province. The charity was set up in 1992 to help migrants in Thailand who were deported to the Thai-Burmese border.

Sangklaburi Safe House is a community residential health facility and treatment clinic for displaced and stateless people with health issues such as HIV/AIDS, mental health problems and terminal illnesses. More than 1,600 people have been helped to return to an independent life since the charity opened its doors.

People from a number of countries, including Thailand, China, Malaysia, India and Cambodia, take refuge here. There are currently four Chinese residents who suffer from mental problems.

Naw Paw Lu Lu, an ethnic Karen woman who ran the safe house from 1993 until her retirement at the end of November 2011, said, “In my life we have had so many problems. When we were in Burma, we had to flee all the time and saw so many people suffering and being tortured.

“We all pitied each other but often we couldn’t do anything for each other because we were all in trouble. That is why I am happy to help people at the safe house. We know each others difficulties.

“Many people’s stories are incredibly sad; however, there is also a lot of humor at the safe house,” she added.

COMMENTS (4)

Garrett Wrote:

18/02/2012

After using the word "patients" in my own comments above, I have to agree with Lea that to some extent the label can be misleading when applied to all residents at the Safe House, but it is important to remember that there are three seperate facilities, the Safe House, the elderly home, & the children's home.

I lived & worked for several months in Huay Malai with Paw Lu Lu & her family & I am not aware that anyone was simply a resident at the Safe House, they are all there for health & mental health related issues.
As regards the elderly, they either had no surviving family, or their families are too poor to support them, so they are not patients, but residents.

The residents of the children's home are either children of Safe House patients, Burmese ethnic minority orphans, or they came from refugee families which could not afford to feed them nor provide for their educations.

Some of them have long-term medical issues such as HIV for which they receive treatment.

Lea Wrote:

15/02/2012

While containing many of the facts, this article has been over-edited to remove a couple of important truths. The SSH residents are mostly people displaced from Burma - the other nationalities mentioned are in a significant minority. Secondly, having been to the SSH many times, I have to protest, yet again, at their being labeled 'patients'. The Safe House is the home of almost all of these people, so for them it is not a hospital. They live there - they are residents. Persisting in calling them 'patients' takes away what dignity that have managed to regain.

I agree that it is a quite amazing place, and the staff are exactly as described. The outcomes for many of the people who have lived there and moved on, and for those who continue to reside there, have been nothing short of miraculous - given their woundedness and lostness when they came.
I salute the work, and I hope that there is a giving response to this story.

Garrett Wrote:

10/02/2012

It is truly sad to see the Safe House lose its funding from the TBBC, which only a couple of years ago was preparing to use it as the model for similar facilities all along the border.

This article, which I notice has been edited, barely breaks the surface of what the Safe house is all about, & I hope readers will go to the Safe House website to learn more, & hopefully get involved in any way possible. (sangklaburisafehouse.org)

Having originally been built on rented land, the Safe House is in dire need of funding to purchase a dedicated piece of property to rebuild on, which can also support increased vegetable gardening, animal husbandry & fish raising programs, & fruit tree orchards which could not only help them to be more self-reliant in providing nourishment for the patients, it could also yield a surplus which could be sold or traded for other needed supplies, generate discretionary funds for emergencies, or help feed the needy in the community.

Please Donate!

kerry Wrote:

09/02/2012

Please explain to your donors carefully that you (and all vulnerable and traumatised Burmese people) still need help.

The difference between the people's lives and the lives and bank accounts of the military and families is why the 'power dance' of the current 'government' (and USPD 'anxiety about ultimately losing power, which is inevitable and irreversible) is all the more incredulous.

At the end of the day, the people know everything.