With the Covid-19 lockdown in Mae Sot, along the border with Burma, the residents at the Burma Children Medical Fund's B K Kee Patient House in Chiang Mai are unable to return home.
What to do, how can we use this time to help the residents? The solution was to help and give life-long skills.
The B K Kee team initiated sewing and English lessons classes -- skills patients and their caregivers could use when returning to Mae Sot. B K Kee's staff put out a call for support in their new ventures. BEAM Education Foundation's Vocational Training Program came to their aid though their Certificate Sewing Program run at the BEAM school by Michele Maclellan. CMIRC's B K Kee Project Champion Bill organized a trip to B K Kee for Michele to meet the team to establish the type of support needed.
Michele and her team from BEAM are extremely well organized and were able to support the B K Kee team, taking sewing machines, together with all other needed supplies. Classes were established for Tuesday and Thursday each week for the month of March with each class lasting for two hours.
Meanwhile, in other news from BEAM.......
The request for applicants has been sent out into the community for the BEAM New Year 2021 - 2022, (below is a copy of their Newsletter; note that the live links in the image aren't active)
Most students of 2020 – 2021 now have heads in books in preparation for exams in April, as with last year there are some serious challenges for students residing in Myanmar with no reliable internet access and borders closed with Thailand. But with the support from BEAM, together with their determination and earnest intentions, these obstacles will be overcome; it just takes time.
This year there is a very high demand for university places, with delays, and changes to the system because of Covid 19 many students were unable to apply, let alone find sponsorship, so they have waited a year to apply. With this awareness many students are planning to write the exams early giving them time to make their applications.
There is more to the story which is not going to make the editors publication date, so do not miss next month’s CMIRC Bulletin for the concluding installment.
This has been a fantastic experience for all in having different CMIRC projects come together, supporting each other’s needs.
