Takako Fukatsu
20 years ago, in 1981, I was living in the northern part of Thailand near the Mekong River, at the border of Thailand and Laos. At that time, I was working as a volunteer Japanese language teacher to the Laotian Refugees who wanted to resettle in Japan.
As my work in the refugee-camp prolong-ed and as more people were escaping from their home country Laos, by swimming across the Mekong River at night to come into their border, I started to have a question in my mind, over and over again : "What is producing refugees, or "what is causing refugees?"
This on-going question was never answered until one day I had a chance to visit another refugee camp, situated in the south-east part of Thailand; holding refugees from Cambodia. I visited a child-care center called "House of Hope", ran by a Japanese NGC called "Caring for Young Refugees".
Being very frustrated with my own work at the northern camp and not being able to find the clue to the facts of the refugee problem, I threw the same question at a women running the Child care center.
"Who (do you think) is producing refugees?" and "What (do you think) we humans can do, to stop people from becoming refugees?"
The woman quietly said : "You know? Children know how to live in peace. We can start from children."
To me, this answer was totally unexpected and new and very intriguing.
Now, 20 years have passed since then. I took the Montessori training in Tokyo with Maria Montessori after I came back from the refugee camp and I have become the director of "Caring for Young Refugees" since 3 years ago. I also joined the first assembly of the “Educateurs Sans Frontières” in Italy two years ago.
I was very grateful to be asked by the organisation committee of this congress, Patricia Spinelli-Délivré and Victoria Barrès, to speak about the children from Cambodia but I felt it would be more appropriate to have the woman who has started the child care center in the refugee camp and gave me a simple but powerful answer to my question which changed my life completely since then.
Because, of their initial brave action, those thousand of children from Cambodia had the chance to develop like a normal human children with decent childhood. Hopefully, these children who must now be in their mid-20's living in many parts of the world; including here in France, will never be the one who will produce refugees again in the future.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is the great pleasure for me to introduce to you the founder of "Caring for Young Refugees", Yukie Sato.
Yukie Sato
Cambodia is a former French colony until 1945 and became independent in 1953. It is located in the southern part of Indochina peninsula, surrounded by Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.
My encounter with Cambodian refugees took place in late 1979. 1 was in Tokyo when devastating Cambodians fled to Thailand for safety. The stories told by them about the atrocity of Khmer Rouge to the people shocked the world. I was compelled to see the people and to understand the situation. I took a leave from my work and flew to Bangkok in November.
Since the camp was closed to unauthorized persons, I became an assistant to Japanese journalists and was able to interview the volunteers coming from many countries.
It was near the eastern border of Thailand with Cambodia. The people were fear stricken, sick, and gaunt, and helped down from trucks exhausted. Only few could walk. There were about 20,000 people in the camp. And an average of 30 people were dying daily. The fighting had not stopped in the area where they came from.
Those were the people who survived the torture, execution, illness and the exhaustion of forced labour by Khmer Rouge regime, responsible for the deaths of more than a million people. They emptied the country's cities, abolishing commerce, religion, the arts and families.
The majority of people were farmers and all were given refugee status upon arrival. This meant that they are under the protection of the international community pending permanent solutions. There are 3 possible ways to settle the problem of refugees : 1) integration in the host country, 2) resettlement in. the third country, and 3) repatriation to homeland.
The life in the camp was depending totally on the help of the international community. They could sleep under the roof, receive water, food, and medical/health services, but they were confined and not allowed to go outside the camp gate, nor the way to earn wages except some jobs that NGO's or UN and government agencies provided with a pay of a nominal sum.
When the emergency period was over, the abnormal life became their routine life. Many were anxious to find the information on missing members of their families, at the same time; they were desperate to leave the camp to go abroad for a new life. No one wanted to return because the fighting was continuing in Cambodia. Some had relatives in abroad, which could become their sponsors for resettlement, but majority of people did not have such links and were depressed.
Heads of families had lost the direction since they no longer could earn for living. The morale of people was low and their strong family ties shown in the early days begun to deteriorate. It was critical that so many children in the camp had long been cut off from schooling or never had opportunities to attend schools in Cambodia. It was under this climate; urgent needs of education opportunities for children were finally met.
With help of UNESCO Regional office in Bangkok, experienced former teachers, who survived but still fearful came forward, and organized Education Development Center. The first official Cambodian education institution in the camp was set up and the teachers organized 3- shift programme with great enthusiasm. They built a row of small huts for classrooms made of coconut leaf for the elementary level children, who were equally eager to learn. The slide shows the first alphabets chart in Khmer language printed in colour, which Caring for Young Refugees produced in coordination with EDC.
The aid agencies in the camp also started to introduce a variety of skill-training programmes for young people.
The camp lacked everything that an ordinary life at home once could provide. But the children were born and growing day by day in their needy environment. It was a serious concem that their today's growth would be a basis for the development of tomorrow, and their adult life.
My nagging question- was how to meet the basic needs of these young children and where to start. I took the answer in my reflections of the early scenes in the camp when relatively healthy children were completely left out from the coveraLre of the relief activities. Adults were either still unwell to keep their eyes Cambodian Refugee Children in Thailand: Community Based Childcare in the Closed Environment Yulde Sato
The camp was in an early stage of installation and the volunteers and refugee workers were digging a row of communal toilets. A stream of trucks were unloading relief goods or construction materials, but taking little notice for the safety of children from remote villages. There was a heap of hospital deposits and other waste materials dumped together in the pit during the emergency operations. On top of the rubbish, several small children were scavenging like animals hunting for feed. The children needed a secure, clean, and caring environment.
In designing the early childhood care programme which would be built around the practical life exercises, my plan was to involve the entire community members including siblings and the elderly to participate.
It was a challenge primarily to discourage the attitude of total dependency. But it was also aiming at encouraging to learn or to teach skills among community members such as traditional weaving, basketry, carpentry, the language', and the above all, to promote the understanding of early childhood care and development. It was planned in such away that at the childcare center there should be spontaneous interactions between the children and the community members as they work. Our policy line was "Children first, but act together with the community".
This policy fit well in the camp. Several aid agencies had their childcare programmes as something like, "Keeping kids occupied while mothers learn or work to get the pay." They prioritized mothers' convenience, as well as the agencies interests to run successful programme, rather am out of
sen-bus concerns for the development of children. Agencies often measured their success for the projects by the number of beneficiaries' attendance.
CYR's childcare center, which people named it "The House of Hope," was built in mid-1980. Every stick of bamboo was carefully chosen in different diameters.
The building was meant to create maximum effectiveness in giving as much natural light and deep shade under the strong sun. It had spacious playrooms, and a playground in the center, surrounded by the weaving rooms and the carpentry work-shop. At the childcare center, children were free to see their parents at work, while mothers occasionally come to see their children. The emphasis at this stage was on meeting the needs of both children and parents, who had gone through the traumatic experiences over the flight from Cambodia.
They saw its significance as they spent more time with the children, seeing how they play, and devoted to give children as much as they could. The object shown in this slide is one of many examples the community adults prepared children with utmost care.
How did culturally appropriate programme take its shape? CYR as an outsider had to start from zero in terms of culturally appropriate approaches. The observation in early days of the camp life taught us that it was essential to run the training programme simultaneously with childcare care programme so that Cambodians could operate the childcare center eventually.
We also learned that the Cambodian children were sk-dftd in manual work and taking social responsibilities when they are still young. The children helped household work as a mature member of the family. It was the environment that a child, just over 2 years old, could imitate his father cutting the firewood with his big heavy chopper. It was necessary to adjust our angle of childcare matters according to the realistic assessment.
Children of 6 or 7 years old were important caregivers next to their mothers. it was equally important to meet the needs of older age group as part of the early childhood care programme components. We added some after- hour activities for them and supplied reading materials.
These children shown here were older and mature at taking social responsibility in caring the younger siblings. But this is also the age group whose early childhood was spent in the time of disorder and insecurity in Cambodia. Iley took delight in playing at the House of Hope. They were also important supporters of the various activities often Mped younger siblings.
The difficulty in preparing the childcare training programme was to find eligible persons, with some experience in teaching children who could read and write. Education institutions had been closed since 1975 when Khmer Rouge took over the country. In rural area of Cambodia, the rate of drop out was reported to be high, since children had help families at early age.
Also those who had higher education in the camp applied to leave the camp for the resettlement in abroad, and left behind illiterate but was willing to learn for a better future. Because of the constant turn over of trained staff, the training had to be renewed frequently
In 1982, CYR's training practice at the camp was reported as an example of non-formal education in Southeast Asia at UNYSCO, Paris and as a result the video showing the programme was completed in 1984.
Malnutrition was a prevailing factor in the camp - We provided fresh fruits and biscuits daily as the supplement to camp administration's supplementary feeding covered only the severely malnourished children-
In considering sustainability of the programme once they return home, it was important that at the centre we screen the numerous aid goods sent to the camp whether it is justifiable to introduce them to the children and teaching staff. If the objects were worthwhile then the staff examined whether they could produce them using locally available materials. Modern equipment or attractive, but confusing teaching aids often mesmerized the people.
One of the examples for Fine Motor Coordination materials, which were prepared in the early days of the camp.
The contents of the mystery bags often went missing, as they were attractive to them. Film cases, paper clips, knitted flowers, bamboo discs, used batteries.
Bolts and nuts screwed on to the cut-half bamboo.
All children shown were born in the camp. Their parents have been living in the camp now over 10 years
