Thailand
Thailand hosts large numbers of refugees from Myanmar. HI works in the refugee camps, providing services to landmines victims and people with disabilities, improving the living conditions and promoting the inclusion of vulnerable people and people with disabilities in their communities and providing risk education awareness to the refugees.
Our actions
Supporting an amputee, Thailand - Humanity & Inclusion | © Erika Pineros / HI
HI was set up in 1982 in Thailand by two French doctors. Its first activities were aimed at helping refugees living in camps set up along the border with Cambodia, by offering orthopaedic devices to people who had lost limbs or been seriously injured as a result of accidents caused by anti-personnel mines.
From 1984 onwards, HI also helped Burmese refugees, and later Thai refugees, who were also victims of anti-personnel mines. Its work in the country led to the opening of 15 orthopaedic-fitting workshops, which are now integrated into Thai provincial hospitals.
Since 1996, the association has refocused its activities on nine Burmese refugee camps and neighbouring Thai villages. It enhances the independence of disabled people by providing physiotherapy services, as well as prostheses and specific aids (orthoses, crutches, walkers, etc.) made on site.
While waiting for the land in the border region between Myanmar and Thailand to be cleared of mines, HI is raising awareness among Burmese refugees of the dangers of mines and explosive remnants of war. These awareness-raising activities should help to reduce the risks when they return to Myanmar.
Finally, HI is implementing a social integration project for disabled Burmese refugees, promoting their access to the various services offered in the camps. Disabled people now have access to education, vocational training and primary healthcare.
Since January 2016, the site has been managed as part of the MyTh programme (created in January 2016, along with its regional office in Rangoon), in conjunction with the refugee repatriation process. The aim is to strengthen coordination between the refugee reintegration activities carried out by HI in Myanmar and Thailand.
Areas of intervention
Latest stories
Kay Reh injured by an explosive device as he worked in a field in Thailand
Since 2012, Humanity & Inclusion has provided some 13,000 people living in nine refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border with information on the risks from explosive devices.
Covid-19: HI strives to protect vulnerable people by continuing its work in Thailand
Nipaporn Deang-Ro, one of Humanity & Inclusion’s physiotherapists, provides rehabilitation care in refugee camps in Thailand. He explains how the organisation has adapted to the pandemic.
Growing Together: The importance of play in refugee camps
With support from the IKEA Foundation, Handicap International is enabling 13,000 children in refugee camps in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Thailand to learn and develop through play in a safe environment. The organisation is training parents and community volunteers to stimulate children from infancy.
a life
Background
There are more than 90,000 refugees from Myanmar[1] living in Thailand and the route back is littered with vast numbers of anti-personnel mines.
Thailand is home to many refugees from Myanmar (formerly Burma). HI’s programme is working in refugee camps to provide services to mine victims and people with disabilities, improve the living conditions of vulnerable people and people with disabilities, promote their inclusion in their communities, and to raise awareness of the dangers of explosive ordnances among refugees.
Number of HI staff members: 160
Date the programme opened: 1982
