Ongoing conflict, including a 2021 military coup and the Rohingya genocide, has upended the lives of people across Myanmar, also known as Burma. The United Nations estimates that 19.9 million people, mostly women and children, within the country will need humanitarian aid in 2025. That’s more than a third of the population. Millions more have fled for safety. With your support, we’ve been helping care for some of the most vulnerable.

With help from your clicks, trivia participation, shopping for a cause, and direct donations, GreaterGood has a long-standing relationship as one of the primary funders of the Mae Tao Clinic (MTC), located in the Mae Sot area in Thailand, just over the Myanmar border. MTC provides health care to refugees, migrant workers, and displaced Burmese people.

Among the care provided is for pregnant mothers, who are at a substantially higher risk of mortality in this area than they are in the rest of Thailand. Infant mortality is also worse in this region. To date, you’ve helped us contribute to more than 45,000 safe births and helped their mothers get their children birth certificates. Having proper documentation is essential to this high-risk community.

Another way MTC cares for refugee and migrant children is through boarding schools that provide a place to live and education, which helps give them opportunities and limits their risk of trafficking or child labor. As part of the schools’ operations, they have a dry food program, which is currently providing more than 2,000 students with rice, tinned fish, yellow beans, oil, salt, and seasoning. To date, you’ve helped us provide more than 1.5 million meals for children at the boarding schools through this program.

You’ve also helped us provide the students, and other migrant and refugee children, with musical instruments and sports equipment, things that can brighten up their days amid the harsh realities in their lives.

Our CEO Tim Kunin made a trip to MTC in April to visit with students, staff, volunteers, and other beneficiaries. While there, he spoke about what stood out to him when he first became aware of the schools more than 20 years ago.

He said, “I was so impressed by how much you work and how impressive the school system is. It’s really been an honor of my life to be able to be helpful and for the dry food program to be able to help. Students who eat well learn better. My company and our charity and our donors, we are very excited to be helping.”

In addition to their first school, the Children’s Development Centre, MTC runs 23 more boarding schools for migrant communities in Thailand, along with 15 in Myanmar in regions with internally displaced people. They’re called Karen schools, named after the Kayin province in which many are found. Many of the students have a difficult time being separated from their families, sometimes even during summer break, but it’s often necessary for their own safety.

A representative from the schools says, “The reason why most of the students come to study in the migrant area and why they want to live in the boardinghouse is because of political crisis, like an airstrike, and also some places are conflict zones. That’s why most of the students leave; it’s not safe to be there… most of our students are from conflict zones and airstrike zones… the main thing for them about living here is to get safety.”

Many of the students end up with an attachment to the schools, returning to volunteer after they’ve finished high school and/or college. In fact, Kunin noted that at one of the schools he visited, 15 of the 17 staff members had been students.

One volunteer who graduated from the schools in 2023 says, “In Myanmar, I was so worried about my education and my livelihood... When I arrived here, I didn’t have to worry about that, and I can continue my education very easily. It is very comfortable, and I can reach my goal very comfortably. Since my childhood, I wanted to be a teacher, so now I think my dream is fulfilled. Now I can be a teacher in the learning center.”

Ultimately, she hopes to use her experience to apply to and attend a university.

As difficult conditions persist across Myanmar and people continue to flee, MTC expects to see an increased number of students next year. If you’d like to ensure they have the resources needed to provide for these students, click below!