Burmese Refugee Youth Prevent Addiction & Violence

Ultimate Frisbee and Addiction Prevention

In Mae La Camp, 20,000 young people have lost their opportunities for advanced education. They are full of youthful energy and hope and yet live in a hopeless environment, which prevents them from meeting their human potential. Many of these young boys and girls turn to experimentation with alcohol and drugs to alleviate boredom and to reduce the impact of their feelings of loss.

DARE Network has long recognized that if minds, bodies and spirits can be involved in the expression of energy, then the pain of loss can be dispelled. To this end, we have introduced the game of Ultimate Frisbee to the youth of the Burmese Refugee camps through our Teens for Kids programs

Basically, the teens and children have a fun day learning a new “cool” sport. Volunteers from the Ultimate Team in Bangkok, the SoiDawgz travel at their own expense to share the game with the refugees. Of course, they too have a great experience seeing the joy come to the young peoples hearts.

This last month Tri, Liz, Polly and Helen travelled 8 hours to Mae La Camp, where our DARE Team had over 50 teens ready to learn the game and play a tournament. The weather is hot and the football ground where we play is dusty. Lots of little kids are hanging around looking for their chance to join in.

The DARE Team starts the day off with a fun quiz about Addiction Prevention making a competition out of who can come up with the right information. We take the opportunity to share about how people can become addicted. Of course, there is a prize for the Teens Team that gets the most answers.

Then into the Frisbee practice drills and finally an exciting tournament. Everybody wins in Ultimate. There were trophies and prizes for everyone. And presents of thanks were given from the kids to the volunteers. Ultimate is a game that promotes negotiation and conflict resolution through the Spirit of the Game. There is no referee. As well, it is a game where boys and girls can play together combining strength with strategy to create gender equality. All of these skills are useful in communities affected directly by war.

All of us at DARE Network offer our thanks to all of you who have continued to support DARE’s Prevention programs for youth in the refugee camps. We are now preparing to take these programs back into Burma, when it is safe to do so, possibly in the next year or two. You all are making this possible.

Links:

• DARE Network website