Giving It Up for SE Asia
By Michael Anderson

Michael with Karenni displaced persons on the Burmese border

Perhaps no part of the world is as enticing as Southeast Asia. For those who have lived or traveled there, few things seem more important than returning.

One way that students (and faculty) in the Southeast Asia department stay in touch with the region is by running volunteer projects in their free time. They say that it’s a small way to give back to a place that has given them a lot more.

Show Ei Tun is from Burma, and has been volunteering with Karenni immigrants in America. One of Condoleezza Rice’s greatest achievements as Secretary of State so far has been to allow Karen refugees forced from their homes in Burma to be resettled in the United States (they technically weren’t allowed entry for years because of links to armed resistance groups).

In one of the world’s most bizarre social experiments, they have moved from one of the most squalid refugee camps in Thailand to rural North Carolina and upstate New York. Show said those who speak English and have found jobs are doing well, but others are struggling in their new environment.

Ultimately, she says, what we need is an American policy toward Burma that focuses less narrowly on democracy and human rights, and more on bringing peace and stability to her war-torn country.

Professor Welsh works with SAIS alumni to provide school materials to primary school students in Burma. Working with local contacts, they select groups of 20 promising kids to sponsor, and over the past few years have supported more than 100 in five different villages.

Amazingly, for the price of a cocktail in D.C., a Burmese student can receive pencils, a backpack, and a uniform. In parts of the country where some kids don’t even have shoes, these simple materials give students a little extra incentive to go to school.

Professor Welsh and her team are also planning to give scholarships to the lucky ones who continue on to secondary school. Anyone interested in sponsoring a Burmese student can contact her at: bbwelsh@jhu.edu.

Dominic Nardi and his Burmese wife Lin are also setting up a scholarship fund in Burma. They have requested that all the presents from their recent wedding be cash donations, and will use them to fund two students from 2nd grade on through college, even if they come study in America (Dom is doing a dual degree at Georgetown Law, so financing this generous endeavor shouldn’t be too difficult). The only conditions are that the students maintain good grades and perform some community service.

Volunteering to teach English in Thailand made such an impression on me that I set up a project to bring other Americans over (www.volunthai.com). While at SAIS I still do the recruiting online, and my in-laws run the program over there. We get around 100 volunteers every year, who live with a rural Thai family and teach in the local school.

We recently had a family from New Hampshire whose 7-year-old daughter summed up the experience nicely on

Volunthai's Youngest Volunteer

their travel blog: “If you do not speak someone’s language you can just keep smiling and make your face say ‘I like you. Will you be my friend? Let’s play together!’”
She also surprised her parents by being a great teacher’s aide and eating lots of fried crickets. Our typical volunteer is in their 20’s and recently graduated from college, and over 50,000 Thai students have studied English with Volunthai since 1999.

At a recent talk in Kenney Auditorium, I looked around at our class and wondered where we’re all heading. How many millions will we collectively be making in ten years? Will the world as we know it exist for our children, and for children around the world? Will we fall into the trap our parents’ generation fell into, and only think about ourselves? Or will we utilize the precious opportunity that a SAIS degree bestows upon us and change the world for the better? Volunteering, in any form, can connect us to the underlying realities of life in a world that seems to spin faster and faster, out of control.

Michael Anderson is a 1st year MA candidate concentrating in SE Asia Studies