Child Protection Thailand Project #6832

Burmese Refugee Youth Prevent Addiction & Violence

by DARE Network (Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Network)

Burmese Refugee Youth Prevent Addiction & Violence

Project Report | May 10, 2018
2018 Report

By Pam Rogers | Capacity Advisor/Addiction Trainer

Mae La Camp

DARE Network - Step Back to Myanmar - 2018

Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education

A Free Mind Cannot Be Destroyed

DARE Network is a grassroots community run organization that provides culturally appropriate drug and alcohol addiction treatment and prevention education to the displaced peoples of Myanmar on both sides of the Thai-Myanmar border.

Background

DARE is the first and remains the only organization, that comprehensively addresses substance abuse within the refugee, migrant and village populations along the border. Operating since 2000, DARE currently runs centers in 5 camps and 1 migrant village along the border. And now we are opening a DARE Centre in Karen State.

Since 2015 DARE Network has worked in Hpa’an District, Hlaing Bwe Sub-District in 40 villages. DARE has trained 40 Village Coordinators in Addiction Prevention and 20 Addiction Workers to provide non-medical, culturally appropriate treatment for substance abuse.

DARE reaches 20,000 people a year through its prevention education, treatment and community support programs. DARE is run by the community, it has treated over 3500 people for addiction with an average 61% non-relapse rate over 17 years.

The Situation

Trauma, stress, loss of opportunity and freedom are the root causes of drug and alcohol abuse for the persecuted ethnic minorities of Myanmar.

The 2012 ceasefire has opened up drug trafficking routes in Karen State that increase the presence of drugs in small villages. Many of these villages have never before heard of addiction or know that recovery is possible.

Rates of drug use, especially Yaba (methamphetamines) are up to 80% in some villages. Even children eat the readily available pills that are wrapped to look like candy. Addiction tears communities apart, exacerbating entrenched poverty, illness and a lack of education that systemically ruin a community’s ability to develop and grow independently.

Step Back to Myanmar

DARE’s expansion to rural Karen State begins to tackle these problems.

In early 2015, DARE worked with 20 villages to provide addiction education workshops and train local leaders to conduct addiction prevention education and small treatment programs. Now we work in 40 villages in Hlaing Bwe District.

Our five year goal is to be present in over 60 villages across Hpa’an, Mutraw and Dooplaya provinces.

In the early stages our community based model will focus on the careful transfer of knowledge from our highly skilled camp staff to local village leaders.

DARE combats the harmful effects of addiction on the people and the community by ensuring access to treatment. It protects the communities through education and community involvement in support, treatment and prevention programs.

Our Program

- Treatment – 3 month residential or 6 week non-residential, ongoing support groups

- Prevention Education – Teens for Kids, Men Working with Men for Happy Families, Home Visits

- Training – We train local people to become addiction workers and master trainers, to strengthen community resilience.

Our treatment is non-medical and culturally appropriate. Similar to our prevention education programs, treatment is community focused. Neither prevention, nor recovery, ends when someone leaves DARE treatment or an education session. We work with community members and leaders, families, other community based organizations and ethnic leadership to provide the best ongoing community driven support to prevent and treat substance addiction.

On the Ground

Impact and Results

DARE Network is passionate. It ensures adequate treatment and prevention services to the ethnic minorities of Myanmar. Each year we look for new ways to expand our programs and analyze the current environment. While the big issue, namely supply of drugs and alcohol is out of our hands, we do the best we can with the resources available to us to assist those affected by the trade.

This a snapshot of the annual results:

2015-17 In Karen State:

25 Addiction Workers trained to work inside Karen State in 20 villages
40 Village Coordinators trained in addiction basics and ready for more.
Site of Karen State, Hpa’an District DARE Treatment Centre selected and building planned
Leaders engaged

In the Thai/Burma Border refugee camps:

300 clients treated in the residential and non-residential programs

61% non-relapse rate. This is significantly higher than many western treatment programs, and a consistent yearly figure

269 prevention education sessions reached over 18,000 people

1,700 participants in our DARE for All community programs

62 camp based staff, 98% local staff from Myanmar

297 volunteers for our DARE for All programs

24,000 people visited and given support through our home visiting program

Client Story

Long Term Recovery Client (identity concealed)

“I started to use drugs & alcohol when I was a teenager. When I followed my friends somewhere, they would force me to use it; if you did what we said, you could follow us and enjoy with us. I spent my time using with my friends every time I was with them.

“I started to become addicted step by step until without drugs & alcohol I couldn’t do anything. Therefore I became under the control of drugs & alcohol.

“During my addiction, local authorities came and encouraged me to stop using. Moreover they let me know about the DARE treatment program for my recovery. After that I agreed

with them and went to the DARE treatment center.

“I felt happy while I was in the treatment center. The addiction workers showed good support to us. They gave us good knowledge and activities during the treatment period. I was satisfied with the addiction workers, who didn’t ignore me and had a good relationship with me. Therefore I am eager to change my mind and became a valuable person again.

“After treatment I had to face many problems. Mostly people who lived around me were addicted people. I remember while we were in treatment period, the addiction worker spent their time to give us

education to become a good person, so I could control my mind and try to avoid it easily. I wanted to inform all of the people who lived in the community; using drugs & alcohol were not a good thing. It will damage you and will destroy your people for the future.”

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN 2018 AND BEYOND?

DARE Network offers Humane Addiction Treatment respecting the human rights of addicts and their families.

1^STAddiction Prevention and Treatment Centre opens in Karen State, Myanmar

During 2018 DARE Network has the following objectives.

Run DARE Training and Treatment Centre near T’ree Hpoh Kwee
Train 40 Village Coordinators in Prevention Education, 80 times in 12 months
Facilitate 40 Village Coordinators to share Prevention Education to their own 20 villages and 20 other villages, 400 times in 12 months
Provide 3 cycles of Addiction Treatment in DARE Centre in T’ree Hpoh Kwee
Core DARE Staff support, monitor and evaluate program outputs
Coordinate with CBOs and CSOs in Hpa’an District
Provide detox training to actors in Kachin State
Undertake Assessment of villages in Mutraw District
Outreach to Kachin Addiction workers to offer full Addiction Worker Training

DARE Network continuous to support the Burmese Refugees in 5 Camps and 1 Migrant Area on the Thai/Burma Border

Activities for 2018

Training of Addiction Workers
Prevention Education and Community Interventions
Treatment of Substance Abusers

We continue to seek more funding to help us meet these objectives and activities.

Saw Law La Say, Program Coordinator,

Pam Rogers, Capacity Advisor/Addiction Trainer drugfree@darenetwork.com

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Feb 15, 2018
Implosion

By Pam Rogers | Capacity Advisor/Addiction Trainer

Child in the refugee camp

As you likely know, the refugees in the camps on the Thai/Burma border have been there for over 3 decades. So many children have been born in the camps and know neither the homeland of their parents nor the country that hosts them. They are not allowed to leave the refugee camps.

Young people have nothing to do except get married and have children to make meaning in life. Even if they have been through the camp school systems there is nothing on the other end. No job, no higher education available.

The focus in the camps these days is the talk of return to Burma/Myanmar. The United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Thai Government are directed to returning the refugees. This might be viewed as a positive step, if conditions on the other side were safer and peace had been made. But alas, this is not so. The Burmese Military Regime has taken advantage of Ceasefires to move their troops into the homelands of the refugees. A return to home would mean a return to the people who pushed them out in the first place, using murder and torture in pursuit of ethnic cleansing. It is truly a fearful thought for a refugee, who daily is being told that the time is coming to leave the refugee camps behind and return home. And again, for the young people in the camps this is a home they have never known, except through the terrorized stories of their parents.

What we have largely noticed in the camps is a significant rise in suicides and substance abuse in the camps, since the UN started its Voluntary Repatriation program. This and the deteriorating conditions in the camps since International Donors have withdrawn their funding for basic human needs, such as food and shelter have led to many social and psychological problems among the refugees.

In the face of all this, DARE Network sees its treatment centres full. We are fortunate not to rely on “International Government Donors” but rather foundations, trade unions and small development funds. And of course, most importantly, donors like you.

DARE has taken steps in the suicide crisis to ensure that its camp staff are well trained to recognize signs of potential suicide and to create a supportive environment where clients can detox safely and securely. In the 17 years of treatment, we have lost one client this way. It was sad and hard for the staff to accept this, but it inspired them to redouble their efforts to prevent suicide in the current stressful environment.

We know we don’t always report cheerful news to you. But we are doing our best in a very challenging situation. Thank you for supporting our work.

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Dec 4, 2017
Cooperation

By Pam Rogers | Capacity Advisor/Addiction Trainer

Frisbee in Mae La Camp

Times in the Burmese Refugee Camps are getting more difficult everyday as International funding to the border camps decreases. Health and Education quaility and opportunities are shrinking and services to the refugees are being consolidated by International NGOs.

Talk of repatriation to Burma by the Thai Government and the UN make people nervous, because clearly not much has changed in Burma. As the world has recently seen, the Military is still brutal and engages in ethnic cleansing as a modus operandi. What is happening to the Rohgingya in Rakine State has already happened decades before in Karen, Karenni and Mon States and also is currently happening to the people of Kachin State.

Can the refugees go back home? Not right now. Not safely.

The young people in the camps remain stuck without opportunity for higher education or employment. Many of these kids were born in the camps. Home to them is a refugee camp. How would they fair in Burma, the land of their parents and grandparents. A land they have never seen.

DARE Network remains on the ground working with these young people, many of whom turn to drugs and alcohol out of feelings of hopelessness and boredom. There is a big uptick in suicides among the youth. Our jobs are cut out for us right now, in the midst of uncertainty and anxiety among the refugees.

Recently, we joined up with the Canadian NGO, Right to Play to offer activities to the youth in the camp. We had special days to play Ultimate Frisbee, have fun competitions, debates, and art contests. We had a day of music in the camps. These events were well attended and enjoyed by many of the youth in the camps.

Everytime we do these actions is one more time to share addiction knowledge to young people. Each time we may prevent some youth from starting to use drugs and help them feel better about themselves, as human beings.

We want to thank you all for your donations to this project. We currently are engaged in a new Year End Campaign on GlobalGiving for this extra special time in the camps. Please read about our new project at

https://www.globalgiving.org/dy/v2/pe/project-edit/edit-page-1.html?project.projId=30513

and learn more about the current situation in the refugee camps on the Thailand/Myanmar border.

Links:

Year End Campaign on GlobalGiving

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