We support individual initiatives that promote local art and crafts, and projects involving the disabled and less fortunate:
Orphanage School
Luang Prabang, Laos
Apsara
Arts Association
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
The Karenni
The Child Care Centre (CCC) is a small safe house for orphans and disadvantaged children in one of the Karenni refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border in the vicinity of Mae Hong Son.
"Karenni", meaning Red Karen, is a sub-tribe of the Karen people. The Karenni people are composed of diverse sub-tribal groups, which are ethnically closely linked. The Karenni originally hail from Mongolia. They migrated from Mongolia to the current Karenni State, also known as Kayah, on the Thai-Myanmar border.
The Karenni State has been independent for centuries until 1948. After Burma gained its independence from British rule Burmese forces invaded Karenni State in order to force it to join a Burmese union. Since then the Karenni have been fighting for the independence. This struggle is still going on.
The fighting in and around Karenni State has led to widescale misery and displacement of the population. Tens of thousands have been living for almost a decade in dismal refugee camps on the Thai-Myanmar border.
You can read more about the plight of the Karenni on the following websites:
http://www.karenni.org/about_the_karenni.php
http://www.unpo.org/member.php?arg=29
http://www.ahrchk.net/ua/mainfile.php/2002/281/
Meridith Nunu and the Child Care Centre
Mrs. Meredith Nunu, an elderly but very energetic woman, runs the The Child Care Centre.
Meredith herself is a widow and refugee and has been living in a Karenni refugee camp since 1995. After her village was burnt down and her husband was killed in 1994 by the SLORC, the acronym for the Burmese junta at that time, she fled to Thailand with her young son. She ended up in one the refugee camps along the Thai border. After having worked as a teacher in a nursery school she started taking care of a growing stream of orphaned and abandoned children in 2000.
Around that time we met her by coincidence in the Karenni refugee camp no.3 behind the Long Neck village Nai Soi. From that time Khiri Travel has supported Meredith financially on a monthly basis and we still keep on doing that. In 2002 the inhabitants of the refugee camp no.3 were moved to camp no. 2, which location is much closer to the border and therefore more dangerous for the refugees living there. Since then we have not been able to meet Meredith and her 41 children in the camp itself.
Meetings with Meredith and the children have to be arranged outside the camp.
On this webpage we will keep you updated regularly about Meredith and her children.
