Eh Htoo 5 December 2018
Living in a poor refugee camp produces difficulties, and it is hard to develop a good community. People have little knowledge to share with each other. I lived in a Thailand refugee camp from 1999 until 2016, but I did not see the living condition change much. However, there can be great and fun times in the refugee camp even though people have to go through problems. People who live in refugee camps have little education, the risk of fire, and the risk of fatal illnesses.
First, in a refugee camp, it is rare to know people who have completed education in my community. As a result, they have to work harder than people who have an ability to read and write. For example, my neighbor who lived close to me had a big family, but only two people had studied because the rest of the family had to work for living. As a result, a big family has more difficulties than a small family. Also, in the camp there were only a few teachers who had enough experience to teach at school because most of them only finished the twelfth grade. Because the few teachers there had little experience, sometimes students got little knowledge from them. My neighbor said that it was not common to see people teach because they got low income support. For example, most teachers who teach in the refugee camp received only 1200 baht in Thai currency, which is $40 a month. The difficulties of the refugee people are hard to believe for some people.
Next, living in a poor building in the refugee camp will cause a risk of fires that some people have not experienced before. In the Thai refugee camp, the buildings are made of wood, bamboo, and dry leaves. Therefore, people have to be aware of fire because refugees cook with dry wood and charcoal. I remember that when I was studying in grade eleven or twelve between 2010 and 2013, the refugees had to face a huge fire in the camp. I believe that around 150 houses caught on fire. When the houses caught on fire, students who had been taking an exam had to run home to help fight the big fire, and the teachers also ran to stop the fire. Furthermore, I remember that some students took water bags, sand bags, and long bamboo sticks to fight the fire. It was hard to call firefighters because the refugee camp was far from town. However, I saw a firefighter who came after the fire had calmed down because he had to drive at least one hour and 45 minutes to arrive in the camp. Later, I heard from my teachers said that a group of donors from a grouped named the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) came to help households that had difficulties for living. However, some neighbors from houses that did not burn and I helped people with some food as much as we could. Actually, we did not have a lot of food, but we cooked some rice and pumpkin with egg curry to share with them. This is such a sad story in the refugee camp.
Most importantly, living in a refugee camp will have some problems like some diseases that make people sick until some people die in the community. At first, because of few jobs, most people go outside of the camp to work, so they can make some extra income for living. Most refugees worked on the Thailand and Burma border, which had a lot of land for farmers’ crops. When people went to work outside and came back to the camp, they brought different kinds of diseases. For example, some diseases like malaria, diarrhea, and HIV were common illnesses that refugee people brought into the camp. Some diseases like diarrhea and malaria can be cured, but HIV is hard to cure. Even though malaria and diarrhea can be cured by a doctor, sometimes these illnesses can kill sick people who do not receive the doctor’s help or medicine on time.
I got malaria one time when I was seventeen years old because I went to the Thailand-Burma border where my parents used to work on a farm. As I learned in a health science class in high school, if mosquitos bite people, and people drink dirty water from a mosquito’s birth place, people can contract malaria. When I had the sickness, I had a headache, and my body was so feverish until my lips were dry. As a result, I had to take medicine for one week, and I am lucky that I did not go through a more terrible condition. However, my cousin who works at the hospital said that many people had died because of malaria and diarrhea.
In conclusion, less education, risk of fire, and some illnesses kill many people in refugee camps. When I remember the place where I grew up with difficulties, it is sometimes hard to talk about it out loud, and it is hard to share with other people. The difficulties will not only happen in my refugee community; in other countries they will have same problem like we do. If some people have never been to a refugee camp before, they should visit that poor place and gain a new experience in new place. Especially, some people who study history should go visit many refugee camps, and they should make some interesting notes to show in the future.
