Partners Asia

Community DevelopmentPartners Asia directly engages local leaders and community-based groups, in rural and urban areas as well as along borders to address poverty and lack of education with a view of a brighter future for struggling communities.Related to community development, Partners Asia's partners' work in in the areas of economic empowerment, formal and non-formal schooling, and free medical care for poor migrants unrecognized as refugees.

Partners Asia worked with local groups and informal networks of community organizations all around Myanmar (Burma), implementing projects with the shared goal of strengthening civil society among the most marginalized. Opportunities, risks, and needs vary greatly in different communities, so Partners Asia backs trusted local partners who identify appropriate solutions, with projects addressing formal and non-formal education, women and child health, gender equality, village infrastructure, and legal rights for the disadvantaged. Partners Asia also funded community-led research, supported network building, and offered training and one-on-one assistance to help partners take their organizations to the next level.

EducationMigrant children and those who live in rural areas or city slums often have limited access to education; we want them in school and for their schooling to count. How: Access to a basic education is not assured for many children in the communities we reach. We support non-formal schools in refugee settlements, city slums, monasteries, and even in plantations all to help prevent children from getting lost amid the ethnic tensions and displacements. Beyond the classrooms, we back efforts to standardize accreditation so that children who study in non-formal schools can have their education recognized in both Thailand and Myanmar. Keeping children in school deters human trafficking, labor exploitation, early marriage, and the cycle of poverty.

In Thailand, Partners Asia directly engaged local leaders and community-based organizations all along the Thailand-Myanmar border and migrants in urban centers. As in Myanmar, opportunities, risks, and needs differ depending on community. In Thailand, Partners Asias partners worked with people who fled poverty and/or fighting in Myanmar, tailoring projects given their unique local knowledge that include: formal and non-formal schooling for Myanmar and stateless children; humanitarian emergency support to communities severely affected by fighting; assistance for migrants to obtain work permits and legal documentation; free medical care for poor migrants unrecognized as refugees. Partners Asia offers individual support to local group leaders to improve programs and operations, and is building networks across the border into Myanmar.