From July to September, the Thailand-Myanmar (Burma) border is faced with strong winds, and torrents of rain, rattling buildings and flooding many neighborhoods. For the displaced Burmese children staying with their parents in the remote areas outside of Mae Sot, the rains mean further disruption to their already limited opportunities for schooling. Throughout the year, many children in Pho Phra, Mae Sot help support their family’s meager salary by staying home to care for younger siblings or working with their parents in the fields, picking flowers and harvesting corn. Since 2012, PLE has supported informal evening classes in basic literacy and numeracy for these out-of-school...
April 2014 - In April and May 2014, 158 youth graduated from the academic portion of the five PLE-supported higher education centers: English Immersion Program (EIP), Global Border Studies (GBS), MNEC Post-Ten school, Wide Horizons (WH) and the Teacher Preparation Center (TPC). These higher education centers were conceived in direct response to community requests for students to learn the skills they need to work in schools and community based organizations along the border. Students who are migrants and refugees often can only access school through Grade 10 with little opportunity for education beyond that. Higher education centers fill the need to provide meaningful education to young...
March 2014 - In November 2013, World Education (WE) sat down with the Wide Horizons (WH) coordinator and teachers in a tight circle in the coordinator’s bamboo hut for the regular weekly meeting to discuss school business, community projects, and that perfunctory category: “Any Other Business.” At that point, the meeting became anything but regular, as the WE staff member revealed that WH would be asked to provide $20,000 in cost share funds for the next school year. Wide Horizons is a 10 month intensive study and field work course for community development followed by a one year internship with a civil service organization. The program...