Refugee Camps
Renewable energy education and project installations in refugee camps on the Thailand-Burma border.
For over sixty years, ethnic minorities in Burma have struggled for promised peace and independence to live simply without fear of persecution. The Burmese government, however, has systematically oppressed these groups through the burning of villages and crops, forced slavery, merciless killings, rapes, and other well-documented atrocities. These hostile situations have caused mass migrations of ethnic Burmese from their homes and villages in search of safer environments. Families are often forced to march for days with minimal provisions in search of refuge.
There are over 135,000 documented Burmese living in refugee camps across the border in Thailand. While basic needs for survival here are met through the support of international agencies, refugees often live sheltered lives lacking in purpose and hope for their future. Those fortunate to be relocated to third countries often experience marginalized lives due to lack of language abilities, vocational skills, and confidence to successfully interact across cultural boundaries.
BGET installs renewable energy projects in these refugee camps as well as trains students to independently design, install, and maintain these systems. These projects not only increase the standards of living for refugees, but also provide a transfer of knowledge to promote self-determination and give students the green-job skills suitable for future employment in the camps and after possible resettlement. Particularly, BGET has enjoyed many successes collaborating with the Engineering Studies Program (ESP) in Mae La Refugee Camp to increase knowledge and capabilities to install renewable energy systems.
