Partners

Partners

TBC works with a wide range of community partners who implement relief, recovery, community-driven development and natural resource management initiatives to conflict-affected communities in southeast Myanmar, where an estimated 400,000 people remain displaced.

Key partners include (in alphabetical order):

Alin Thit Social Development Group

ALT is a civil society organisation working towards peace and development in Mon, Shan and Kayah/Karenni States.

It works to build peaceful relationships between people of different ethnic and religious traditions, faiths and environments. Its mission includes “to promote sustainable peace and development for disadvantaged people and communities through advocacy, capacity building and empowerment.”

ALT conducts trainings, advocacy, technical activities, workshops, forums, community development action plans and capacity building with the goal to improve the livelihoods of vulnerable households. It also works on disaster reduction, relief and awareness-raising.

Community participation, mobilisation and capacity development leading to self-management are cornerstones of the organisation’s work, including with village development committees and sub-committees.

Backpack Health Worker Team

The BPHWT is a long-established organisation that promotes increased access to health services for vulnerable populations in Southeast Burma.

Through mobile health teams, the group provides primary health care and community health education and prevention for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other vulnerable populations in conflict-affected and rural areas.

The organization also enhances food security through facilitating improved water supply, sanitation, and nutritional awareness. It also assists village committees with coordination, monitoring and technical support.

Committee for Internally Displaced Karen People

The CIDKP was formed in 1998 to raise awareness about the plight of internally displaced Karen/Kayin people and to deliver humanitarian assistance in response to their needs.

The organization has field staff in all townships of Karen/Kayin State, as well as in parts of Tenasserim/Tanintharyi Region, northern Mon State and eastern Bago Region.

Its main programme activities include the delivery of relief assistance to displaced communities who have experienced shocks to their livelihoods.

It also supports a prosthesis workshop for people injured by landmines.

Karen Department for Health and Welfare

The KDHW promotes increased access to health services for vulnerable populations in Southeast Burma/Myanmar.

Through mobile clinics, trainings, and home visits, the organisation provides reproductive health care, malaria and trauma care, and primary health care services, as well as community health education and prevention, to vulnerable communities in Karen/Kayin state.

KDHW has a liaison office in Hpa’an, the state capital, which is due to work at engagement, collaboration and joint implementation with the Burma/Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sports(MoHS).

This includes joint technical refresher trainings and expanded immunisation in non-state controlled areas of the state (supported by the MoHS) and in villages adjacent to the Thailand-Burma border (supported by Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health).

Karen Environment and Social Action Network

KESAN is a grassroots, non-profit organisation working alongside local communities in Karen State to ensure sustainable livelihoods by preserving indigenous knowledge, building capacity and promoting practice and policy change.

The organisation works with local communities, community leaders and local authorities, as well as regional and international decision-makers to ensure that environmental policies and practices adopted and implemented are environmentally friendly, culturally beneficial, economically viable and socially equitable for both men and women.

TBC has supported KESAN to work on community-based livelihoods initiatives and livelihood restoration, including restoration of irrigation canals, creation of rice banks, supporting traditional medicine production and clinics.

Other initiatives include community forest management committees, community-based peace support networks, land surveys and micro-hydro power projects.

Karen Human Rights Group

More than twenty years of research, reports, data, images and videos shedding light on the human rights situation and the challenges faced by villagers and civilians in conflict-affected parts of Karen/Kayin State and other areas are available on the website of the Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG).

The group’s detailed research and documentation over two decades has helped provide insights into the challenges, injustices and difficulties experienced by ordinary people in conflict situations, and the many ways they have sought to survive and find solutions.

TBC has supported the KHRG to facilitate human rights education through a Village Agency project, to supplement human rights documentation with mapping data and to establish an office in Yangon to expand national and international advocacy efforts.

Karen Office of Relief and Development

KORD was formed in 1993 as a community-led organisation to deliver emergency relief assistance and facilitate participation in planning processes amongst internally displaced Karen/Kayin communities in Karen/Kayin State, northern Mon State and Bago Region.

The organisation has also been a partner in TBC’s monitoring of conditions among the displaced, and in programmes promoting local responses to promote self-reliance.

KORD is a founding member of the Ethnic Community Development Forum (ECDF), a network of social and community development organisations from Burma/Myanmar’s ethnic nationalities.

Karen Women’s Organisation (KWO)

The KWO traces its origins to 1949 and has a membership of around 49,000 women in the camps and Karen/Kayin State.

Among its many activities in the Thai sites are included the support of livelihood, education, health and social welfare initiatives.

In Burma/Myanmar, TBC has supported KWO to facilitate maternal and child health education and distribute baby kits for new mothers in Karen/Kayin State, northern Mon State, and Tenasserim/Tanintharyi and East Bago regions.

Karenni Evergreen

KEG was formed in 1996 and is currently a lead Karenni organisation focusing on environmental issues.

Its main project areas are community forest management and protection, hydroelectric dam research, medicinal plants research and environmental awareness and education.

TBC supports KEG’s community forest management and promotion activities.

Karenni National Women’s Organisation (KNWO)

The KNWO is a non-profit grassroots organization founded in 1993 by Karenni/Kayah women who sought asylum in Thailand. It currently has more than 600 members in the refugee camps and inside Karenni/Kayah state.

The organisation strives to empower women through skills development and capacity building, secure and uphold the rights and protection of women and children, and work in cooperation and collaboration with other women’s organisations and political organisations.

The KNWO has offices in Mae Hong Son in Thailand and Loikaw, the capital of Karenni/Kayah state.

TBC has supported the organisation to raise awareness about gender-based violence and women’s health, and promote livelihood opportunities for women in Karenni/Kayah State.

Karenni Social Welfare and Development Center

The KSWDC was formed in 1996. It works to enhance food security and reinforce community strategies for coping with shocks and stresses to livelihoods, mainly through the distribution of cash transfers in Karenni State.

The organisation also promotes food security and livelihoods by assisting village development committees to identify priority needs, develop project response plans and proposals, coordinate and monitor project implementation, and evaluate project impacts.

KSWDC has been a regular contributor to TBC’s annual surveys of conditions in Southeast Burma/Myanmar.

Kayan New Generation Youth

The KNGY was founded in 2002 as an ethnic grass-roots youth group working to promote democracy, human rights and federalism in Burma/Myanmar.

The organisation has worked with CBOs, CSOs, NGOs and INGOs to strengthen community development and infrastructure in Kayah/Karenni State. It promotes increased access to education services for vulnerable populations in Southeast Burma/Myanmar by training and supporting volunteer teachers in Karenni/Kayan ethnic schools in Karenni/Kayah, Shan, and Karen/Kayin states.

KNGY is exploring the use of village level support programmes for schools, including convergence opportunities with the Kayah (Karenni) State Education Department in collaboration with the Karenni Education Department.

Mon Human Rights Foundation

Among other activities promoting human rights, HURFOM enhances food security and livelihoods through facilitating the restitution and registration of land tenure for victims of land confiscation.

It also facilitates participatory livelihood and natural resource assessments. These have included documenting the potential social costs of proposed coal power plants in southern Mon State.

It has surveyed confiscated lands in Mon ceasefire areas and advocated for greater protection of customary land users.

Mon Relief and Development Committee

The MRDC was founded in 1990 to facilitate coordination after an influx of Mon refugees led to the establishment of camps in Thailand.

Field staff are located in the Mon ceasefire areas in northern Tenasserim/Tanintharyi Region and southern Mon and Karen/Kayin States.

The main programme activities relate to the distribution of food aid and coordination of community development projects in Mon resettlement sites, and the distribution of cash transfers.

MRDC’s community development programme has also been supported by the Burma Relief Centre and it has been a regular contributor to TBC’s annual surveys of conditions in Southeast Burma/Myanmar.

Mawduklarmae Social Development Association

The MSDA enhances food security and livelihoods through interventions that promotes skills development in sustainable agricultural practices in Karenni/Kayah State.

This includes facilitating participatory assessments of agricultural opportunities, and promoting soil conservation, organic gardening, and cooking stove production. The group also exposure trips to support learning on agriculture.

Shan State Development Foundation

The SSDF was founded in 2013 as an amalgamation of the Shan Education Committee, the Shan Health Committee and the Shan Relief and Development Committee.

It enhances food security and reinforces community strategies for coping with shocks and stresses to livelihoods, through the distribution of cash transfers in Shan State.

It promotes food security and livelihoods by assisting village development committees to identify priority needs, develop project response plans and proposals, coordinate and monitor the projects’ implementation, and evaluate project impacts. It has provided occasional monitoring support for TBC in Shan IDP camps, and has been a regular contributor to TBC’s annual surveys of conditions in Southeast Burma/Myanmar.

Tenasserim River & Indigenous People Network

TRIP-NET consists of community representatives in the Tenasserim/Tanintharyi Region who are addressing the emergence of rapid economic activities in the region.

The organization was formed in 2014 after several years when founder members worked with local communities on local development issues.

TRIPNET enhances food security and strengthens livelihoods by building the capacities of local communities to rehabilitate and manage natural resources and provides assistance to village committees to identify priority needs, develop project response plans and proposals, coordinate and monitor the project implementation, and evaluate project impacts.

The organisation supports people’s engagement in development and believes that sustainable development can be achieved only when local people have the right to participate, and to control and manage their natural resources in accordance with their traditions and cultures.