For more than 20 years, hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers from Myanmar have lived inside Thailand along the Thai-Myanmar border—next to their country yet far from their homes. Below are first-hand testimonials of participants in our youth empowerment project along the border.
Htet Lin Thu: Educating and Empowering Migrant Youth
My name is Htet Lin Thu, and I am one of the Vice Presidents of the Youth Network Group. As a youth leader with Help Without Frontiers Foundation/Rays of Youth, I’m very proud to have worked as a youth facilitator for six months on the CWS Online Safety and Protection project. I want to thank the Japan Platform and Church World Service for supporting Rays of Youth in carrying out social activities. The Online Safety and Protection project has had a strong impact, especially on migrant students and young people, like a guiding light for their future. Today, technology and smartphones are an essential part of young people’s daily lives, and they widely use social media on their phones. While social media has benefits, it also has negative effects, with many young people spending too much time on it and neglecting their personal goals. This project focused on giving young people the knowledge they need to navigate the online world, and I believe it’s a truly meaningful project.
Thanks to this project, schools, students, youth and parents in migrant areas gained valuable knowledge about the online world. As youth leaders, we also received training that improved our skills. We used this knowledge to organize training sessions at migrant learning centers, create educational videos and lead campaigns. Achievements include delivering online safety training at seven migrant learning centers and organizing the 8th Youth Day event at two migrant learning centers: Sauch Kha Hong Sar Learning Center in Mae Sot and Thoo Mweh Khee Learning Center in Phop Phra. The Youth Day event was successful, and we shared online safety knowledge with the participants. Our campaign was also effective, with the target number of participants attending the event. While we had many successes, we also faced challenges, such as the short timeline, which required us to complete our goals quickly. Initially, we planned to hold Youth Day at the Otop Center in Mae Sot, but due to unforeseen issues, we had to move it to two migrant learning centers. This meant adjusting our plans, but we still achieved our goal of reaching the target participants.
Through this project, we addressed some needs and challenges in migrant areas, although we couldn’t reach every region. If we had another chance to work with the Japan Platform and CWS, I would aim to provide online knowledge not only to students but also to children and youth who aren’t in school. This would include online education, life skills, practical knowledge and IT training to help them use technology meaningfully. We would also like to hold workshops and campaigns in villages and conduct field studies to understand their real needs. We are very grateful for this opportunity. As young leaders, we are proud of this partnership. This project has benefited many people in migrant areas and allowed us to carry out meaningful activities. On behalf of migrant youth, students, our organization and all youth leaders, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the Japan Platform and Church World Service for their support. Your assistance has brought invaluable benefits to everyone involved.
Naw Prim Rose May Thwe Noe: Strengthening Communities Through Online Safety and Protection
My name is Naw Prim Rose May Thwe Noe. I am a youth network group member who joined Rays of Youth in 2024, and I am a youth leader who had the opportunity to participate in the Protection and Online Safety project from the beginning to the end of this project. Although the project timeline was short, I gained a lot of new knowledge and experience from the six-month project. As a youth leader who participated in such a very beneficial activity, I would like to express my gratitude to donor organization Japan Platform and Church World Service for supporting this project. As the first phase of the project, I attended the Capacity Building Training for Youth Leader held on April 21-22 2024. By attending this course, [I gained] knowledge of the social environment, and I was able to learn about human rights and better understand more about the problems and risk situation that are happening in the migrant region and learned the ways to solve them.
During this six-month project, we, as youth leaders, had the chance to take on leadership roles and lead activities. Sharing knowledge through peer-to-peer training in Migrant Learning Centers was very effective. Each year, new students join migrant schools, so there is always a need to share knowledge. This peer-to-peer work is a great learning activity for us as young leaders and very helpful for the migrant community. However, because the project was short, I feel sad that some communities and schools could not participate in this knowledge-sharing. If given more time, I would like to help share knowledge with migrant students, as well as teachers and parents in their communities. We would like to thank all the donor organizations for giving us the chance to do these activities. We hope to continue with more development and awareness projects for our migrant community.
Manaw Phyu Wai: Strengthening Safety, Leadership and Creativity
My name is Manaw Phyu Wai. I am a high school student at a migrant school in the border area and a member of the Rays of Youth Network Group. Through the Protection and Online Safety project, which is supported by Japan Platform and Church World Service, I’ve had the opportunity to participate in many activities, working closely with other youth members at every stage. I want to thank the donor organization and Rays of Youth Project Officer for their invaluable support in making this project possible.
During the project, we completed five main activities, and Capacity Building Training was one of the highlights. In this training, expert trainers share with us about online safety and child protection. Over the five-day camp, I gained valuable knowledge to share with new arrivals including children and youth from migrant learning centers. The skills and information I gained from this training helped me to educate and empower other children and youth in migrant areas. Another important activity was Creative Media Training, where I learned video production, scriptwriting, filming and editing from professional trainers. I am proud of the educational videos we made for newly arrived children, and I am thankful for the chance to develop these valuable skills. We also held regular Youth Network Group Meetings to plan events like National Youth Day and organize peer-to-peer training. These meetings helped us work together and carry out our activities smoothly. In the peer-to-peer training activity, I had a chance to share with younger students about online safety, sexual reproduction health and rights, Thailand traffic rules, child protection and reporting platform. For National Youth Day, I helped guide participants through activities on online safety and children’s rights, including a role-play drama on game addiction. It was a good opportunity to help set up and lead these events.
Looking back on the project, I see how valuable it has been for children and youth in migrant areas. It strengthened young leaders and helped us share important information to protect newly arrived youth from potential dangers. This experience has been a good opportunity, and I am proud to have been part of it. I am very grateful to the staff and teachers who created and supported this project, giving youth in the border area valuable opportunities. I am excited to join similar projects in the future and continue to support youth in this region. Thank you again to everyone involved, including all organizations that supported this project from beginning to end.
To learn more about the work of CWS Thailand, click here.