ESCAPING THE WAR, LEARNING IN EXILE

Mae Sot, Thailand - October 2025

On the outskirts of Mae Sot – a border town between Thailand and Myanmar, a crossroads of both legal and illegal trade where thousands of Burmese refugees have found shelter – stands the Hsa Thoo Lei School and Orphanage, founded in 1999 by Naw Paw Ray, a Karen woman who fled years ago from the violence of the Myanmar army. In her memories of life in Karen State remain only the abuses committed by Tatmadaw soldiers. Out of that pain, she built her mission: to offer children refuge, education, and hope for the future.

Today, the school hosts more than one thousand students aged between 3 and 18, and about two hundred live in its dormitory. Before the 2021 military coup, most of the students were of Karen ethnicity, like the founder herself. As the conflict has intensified, children and teenagers from other ethnic communities – Kachin, Bamar, Mon, and Shan – have also crossed the border, fleeing war, military violence, and forced recruitment.

In the Mae Sot area, there are now an estimated 300,000 Burmese refugees, many of whom fled after the civil war broke out in 2021. In Tak Province (which includes Mae Sot), about 60 Migrant Learning Centres (MLCs) – informal schools run by NGOs and local communities – provide education to around 15,000 Burmese children and teenagers excluded from the Thai school system. These centres have become the only opportunity for education for thousands of young Burmese.

According to ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project), nearly five years of violence have caused at least 80,000 deaths among civilians and fighters. And UNHCR estimates that almost 3.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

Naw Paw Ray dreams of a free future for her people and for all Myanmar’s ethnic groups – a future in which every child can study without fear. Her school, built just a few kilometers from the border, has become a symbol of resistance and hope for a better tomorrow.

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