Summer Issue, 2013

Umpiem Mai refugee camp SERVICE 100 36 very summer since 2008, some 30 HKU students have participated in the Migrant Outreach Education Initiative (MOEI) programme, organised by the Faculty of Social Sciences, to provide English-language education for Myanmar refugees and migrant children along the Moei River which forms the border between Myanmar and Thailand. Participants in the MOEI programme are also instrumental in promoting awareness of the Myanmar culture on campus. Among them, a group of volunteers set up a non-pro t initiative, Connecting Myanmar, in 2011. It aims to provide medical, educational and other services to the Myanmar refugees and to support them in reconstructing their communities. In 2012, Connecting Myanmar organised ve summer programmes in Mae Sot, a border town in North-western Thailand and Myanmar: the construction of a school and a playground, English teaching, a non-governmental organisation internship programme and a journalism project. Volunteers were able to interact with local communities and understand what life was like living for long periods under military rule and for those refugees who were unable to return to their homeland. Connections were made, and when the volunteers returned to HKU they connected with Myanmar students studying at HKU and organised public seminars, forums, and cultural events to raise the awareness among University members and the general public of the people of Myanmar. This year, the book Connecting – Stories of Myanmar: Ours and Yours was published. It captures the volunteers’ encounters with the Myanmar refugee communities, their memories of the Myanmar people’s faces, songs, laughter and tears, and the moments when their hearts were touched by the joy and sorrow, love and lives in the country. E 0 200 M I L E S THAILAND CAMBODIA Bangkok Moei River MYANMAR LAOS CHINA VIETNAM Yangon Andaman Sea Gulf of Thailand MALAYSIA Mae Sot photo: Austin Liu 廖朗燊 (BSocSc,Year 2)