Childlife-A future for street children

The new project: school for life

The old project
 
Situation before the project was started
We have collected data on 63 street children in Mae Sai, but the actual number is higher. The majority of those children who still have a family come from the Akkha(hill tribe) village called
" Akkoeh Akkha", which is located on a hill 4 km away from Mae Sai, in the Shan State, which at the moment is part of Myanmar.There village consists of 65 huts, but there is no electricity, water, school, kindergarten, doctor or work.
Most of the villagers grow vegetables and send their children and wives to Mae Sai to beg for some money.Some villagers deal with drugs,others work on fields and construction sites, but their wages are not enough for life. All villagers are Christian Akkha, an ethnic minority that is discriminated
against both in Myanmar and Thailand. Opium and alcohol abuse, prostitution, violence in the family
as well as poverty, illiteracy and no access to health care are the main problems in "Akkoeh Akkha".
We have data on 23 girls and 40 boys
5 of the children are orphans
1 child doesn't have a mother anymore
11 don't have a father anmyore
the father of one child is in prison in Myanmar
60 children are illiterate
16 children sleep in the streets every night
The other children sleep with their families in Myanmar, but often sleep in the streets of Mae Sai ( where they are
beaten by police and guards) ,when they can't bear anymore the violence and abuse in their families. We think that
about 7 children have AIDS, but we have no data, because we can't afford AIDS tests. 60 children beg for money,
three children collect plastic and paper and one child sells cigarettes from Myanmar.
To the complications since 12.02.2001: Mae Sai evacuated ( February 12th 2001)
All-clear after the first shock( Febr. 18th 2001) Border CheckPoint Reopened (June 24th 2001)
to the projects