Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Asia Pacific is intensifying its work in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. In refugee camps in northern Thailand around 2,850 refugee students will switch to a blend of home-based and classroom learning. To this end, JRS is exploring radio platforms to deliver learning activities. Meanwhile, 60 urban refugee youth, with support from JRS, had access to the Internet allowing them to take English language assessment tests using smartphones.
In Myanmar, JRS is engaged with church, state, ethnic organisations, and humanitarian actors to resource quarantine shelters and reach remote communities in Mawchi, Kayah State, and ensure that the refugees receive Ministry-approved Covid-19 information, education and communication (IEC) materials in their own language.
JRS also purchased personal protective equipment (PPE) and hygiene materials for its staff and partner offices, refugee camps, quarantine centres, clinics in Non-Government Controlled Areas (NGCAs), and medical check point gates in Thailand and Myanmar. A total of 242 boxes of facemasks, 70 boxes of gloves, 152 bottles of alcohol/disinfectant, 508 soap bars/bottles, 24 face shields, and 31 infrared thermometers, among others, were distributed.
To improve coordination among staff members of the Karenni Education Department located in two refugee camps, five handheld radios and 1,700THB phone credit were provided for office use. In addition, 1,100 IEC materials on Covid-19 in the local language were handed out to about 1,000 households in IDP camps, government relocation site, and remote communities in Myanmar. An additional 201 booklets were produced for 90 Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) teachers and 111 parents of nursery students. Food and water were also given to 65 displaced families in Kachin and 125 persons in Demoso quarantine centres, as well as in medical check point gates in Demoso and Shan-Kayah border in Kayah.
To date, about 6,446 individuals have been reached by JRS Asia Pacific’s Covid-19 initiatives.
Watch this conversation between Fr Joseph Gerald Hampson of JRS Thailand and Saya Bu Reh, Director of the Karenni Education Department in Mae Hong Son refugee camps, on life and learning continuity during the pandemic.
Scholastic Joseph Doan Thanh Tam, a Vietnamese Jesuit volunteer with JRS, shares his work with urban refugees in Bangkok.