Since Wide Horizons was established in 2006, more than 200 students have come through our program and are now working with local organizations to develop their communities. This would never have been possible without the help, assistance and advice from our many partner organizations in the Mae Sot area. It would be impossible to list them all, but here are some of our main partners that have helped us make the program the success it is today.
World Education Thailand
World Education Thailand
World Education Thailand is the field office of World Education Inc., a nonprofit organization based in Boston, Massachusetts. World Education Thailandprovides educational opportunities to adults and children from Burma who are living in refugee camps and migrant communities in Thailand. World Education Thailand founded Wide Horizons in 2006 in collaboration with the Burmese Migrant Worker’s Education Committee. From the beginning of the program and until November 2014, World Education has functioned as the implementing partner in charge of managing the Danish Church Aid and USAID grants for the program.
To read more about World Education Thailand, click here
The Burmese Migrant Worker’s Education Committee
The Burmese Migrant Worker’s Education Committee (BMWEC) is a community organization based in Mae Sot that focuses on ensuring that as many children and young people as possible have access to a quality education. At the moment BMWEC oversees education for approximately 4000 children in 25 learning centers. BMWEC was the co-founder of Wide Horizons together with World Education in 2006.
To read more about BMWEC, click here
Khom Loy Development Foundation
Khom Loy is a non-profit, non-denominational foundation that has been working with Burmese refugee and ethnic minority communities along the Thai-Burma border since 2003 to improve both self-empowerment and equality. For years, Wide Horizons and Khom Loy have had a close relationship and Khom Loy have assisted Wide Horizons by delivering trainings and facilitating a number of projects.
To read more about Khom Loy, click here
Room To Grow Foundation
Room To Grow is a Canadian charity based in Thailand helping to support unparented children with food, shelter and basic daily necessities. They assist orphans and unaccompanied minors with their basic needs and support local organizations that provide food, shelter and basic necessities to migrant and refugee children. Room to Grow has on several occasions accepted proposals from Wide Horizons students for projects implemented by the students themselves.
To read more about Room To Grow, click here
Border Green Energy Team
The Border Green Energy Team (BGET) is an environmental organization that has been working along the Thai-Burma border since 2005 with the mission to implement renewable energy and sustainable technologies and also demonstrate how these technologies are integral and economically viable aspects of improving livelihoods. BGET have provided a number of trainings to Wide Horizons students on topics, such as sustainable agriculture and building methods.
To read more about BGET, click here
Minmahaw Higher Education Program
Minmahaw Higher Education Program (MHEP) is the higher education branch of the Minmahaw Education Foundation (MEF). MHEP trains young people from migrant and refugee backgrounds and assist them in acquiring the accredited certificates necessary for those who want to continue their education at university level. The certificate earned is widely recognized within the United States, Canada and in many Asian countries. Wide Horizons and MHEP often arrange social exchanges between the two programs and also cooperate on recruitment of new students.
To read more about MHEP and MEF, click here
Youth Connect
Youth Connect is a Mae Sot based organization that aims to connect Thai and migrant youths to better employment after their formal education. Youth Connect provides three types of services: 1) specialised vocational skills training, 2) internships with local businesses and organizations, and 3) a career center to facilitate job search. The curriculum for the project was designed based on surveys that were conducted to determine the most useful and relevant skills that should be taught to students. From the vocational skills training, students can move progressively to work placements or internships with the guidance from the career center. Youth Connect has supplied Wide Horizons with a number of excellent students and currently has several Wide Horizons alumni on staff. They have in the past also assisted Wide Horizons with a number of vocational skills trainings.
To read more about Youth Connect, click here
Mae Tao Clinic
Mae Tao Clinic is a Mae Sot based community hospital which has provided good quality healthcare to the Burmese refugee population in Western Thailand since it was founded by Dr. Cynthia Maungin 1989. Ever since its foundation, the clinic has continued to grow in size and today offers a wide range of health care services, social services, training, outreach programs, as well as child protection and health education. Wide Horizons has a vast number of interns and alumni working at Mae Tao Clinic and with several of its partner organizations, such as the Children’s Development Center, the Burma Medical Association and the Back Pack Health Worker Team, and our program continues to receive a number of excellent students from the clinic every year.
To read more about Mae Tao Clinic and its partner organizations, click here
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma)
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), otherwise known as AAPP, is a human rights organization based in Mae Sot. AAPP advocates for the release of all remaining political prisoners in Burma and for the improvement of their quality of life during and after incarceration. AAPP has developed rehabilitation and assistance programs for those political activists who have been released. Recently, they have also opened offices in Rangoon and Mandalay, Burma. AAPP has in the past supplied Wide Horizons with a number of excellent students and has time and again invited our students to visit the organization for an insight into the extent of the political prisoner’s program in Burma, which few of them have been fully aware of.
To read more about AAPP, click here
The Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity (KRCEE)
The Karen Refugee Committee Education Entity (KRCEE) is a community based organization operating in seven Karen refugee camps along the Thai-Myanmar border, focusing on refugee camp education. They support eleven schools In Thailand and two in Burma itself.KRCEE fillsa gap by supporting higher education for refugees in the camps, who have extremely limited options to pursue this level of education in Eastern Burma and furthermore do not have access to this within Thailand. Among the programs supported by KRCEE are Wide Horizons’ two sister schools, the English Immersion Program in Umphiem refugee camp and the Global Border Studies program in Nupo refugee camp. KRCEE and Wide Horizons cooperate closely on student recruitment and curriculum development.
Kick-Start ART
Kick-Start ART is a small non-profit organization based in Mae Sot. Their primary purpose is to promote creativity as an integral part of children’s education. They achieve this by offering art classes and creative platforms to schools that would otherwise have no provisions for art as an extracurricular activity. To do so they employ and train young local artists as art teachers. Thus, on top of providing art classes in migrant schools, they are also able to support the careers of local artists who might otherwise struggle to make a living wage. Kick-Start ART have also been kind enough to design postcards for Wide Horizons for free!
To read more Kick-Start Art, click here
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