The civil war in Burma has affected every facet of Karen life, especially
education. This means education in the
formal sense and in the community sense too. Raykaw Htoo, senior medic at the Jungle School of Medicine Kawthoolei (JSMK), mentioned that every child that has grown up in Karen state or in a bordering refugee camp has been significantly affected by the war (personal interview, Jan 21, 2015).
When it
comes to formal education, Doctor James Ryan claims that most Karen people have about an elementary level
education (phone interview, May 21, 2015). The Burmese government very
strictly regulates what the people can and cannot have access too. Since the ceasefire in 2012, the Burmese government
has provided books, but they are very biased towards their own interests. I had a conversation with Toh Poh, the Medical Director of JSMK, and he said Karen often recognize this, but don’t have
many other options (personal interview, Jan 15, 2015).
Dr. Ryan told me that the other
option for Karen education is missionary and aid groups that come in from
neighboring countries and provide books and some education (phone interview, May 21, 2015). Still, these groups are relatively small, and
can only make so much of an impact by themselves. The more successful groups seem to be the
ones that “teach the teachers” instead of just teaching groups of kids as they
come. Toh was saying that this way the teachers they leave
behind continue to make an impact even after the groups inevitably leave (personal interview, Jan 15, 2015).
Raykaw said a lot of
these foreign groups focus on teaching medical practices in Karen state. In order to teach anything regarding
medicine, the students will often have to learn basic math, principles of
biology, and other fundamentals that people in the west might consider basic
(just like they consider surviving in the harsh jungle environment easy) (personal interview, Jan 21, 2015).
Which
brings us to community education, a field in which the Karen flourish. Like Raywak himself, they are experts on how to thrive in the
jungle, how to build a house in days, how to make their own clothing, and how
to cook with what they have. From a
young age, Raykaw and other Karen boys and girls learn the tasks and jobs required to be a part
of a Karen village (personal interview, Jan 21, 2015).
References:
Dr. Ryan, James. Interview by Luke Ryan. Siloam Springs, AR, May 24, 2015.
Poh, Toh. Interview by Luke Ryan. Kawthoolei, Karen State, Burma, Jan 15, 2015.
Htoo, Raykaw. Interview by Luke Ryan. Kawthoolei, Karen State, Burma, Jan 21, 2015.
From my experiences travelling through Karen state (a month recently and several weeks here and there in 2007), there seems to be a huge thirst for education, but they simply can't get access to the resources they need. Missionaries (medical, educational, and religious) are generally the only external groups that are actively engaged in getting educational resources inside the jungle where the Karen want. This is excluding the Burmese government, who the Karen all know have ulterior motives with what books they do and don't give.
ReplyDeleteThe other option seems to be what bleeds over from the enormous refugee camps just on the other side of the border. This means a mixture of what they've made and what Thai curriculum has to offer. But the Karen are very proud to be Karen, and they don't like the idea of raising their kids on a Thai education. As a whole, I would say their goal is to develop their own education system. Modern, but Karen at its heart.
They also learn a lot from Thai media. They have limited but some access to Thai television, internet, and advertising, especially on the border. Like anyone else, a lot of information (useful or not) can be gained from the media, especially one as active as Thailand's.
I traveled to Karen State for a month this last time at the request of the Jungle School of Medicine Kawthoolei (JSMK), a field hospital in the conflict zone in Karen State. I worked there under Earth Mission, an aid group very active in the area. There I shot and eventually edited together several short videos in preparation for a trip three key staff members of JSMK were going to make across the US.
ReplyDeleteAll of these staff are Karen and had never been to America, so they wanted me to help them tell their story as they saw the supporters that have been helping them financially for so many years. Earth Mission made all this happen.
As a filmmaker, I really wanted to focus on telling the story of the Karen. Dr. Ryan essentially runs JSMK, but he told me he didn't want a "white hero story" that we often see. He wanted a story about these specific Karen people that he sees as the real heroes, and so that's what I focused on.
Most of my references here came during my extensive interviews in the jungle with Raykaw and Toh (they don't go by last names there, even in formal situations). I keep in regular contact with them anyway as we have become pretty close friends, and received permission by email to use any of this information from both.
Dr. Ryan is my father, so I talk to him often about this kind of thing.
I've been to about sixteen countries, lived in five, and have an undying love for American culture and American people, but the Karen people are by far the most impressive I have ever seen. My Dad has been working with them since 2002, and loves it.