UNESCO and Japan team up to provide education and food assistance to migrant children on the Thai-Myanmar border

On any ordinary day in downtown Bangkok, busy midtown office workers grab a cheap lunch of Pad Thai or pork noodles off street carts. It’s a relatively nutritious way to get through the afternoon, while a starkly contrasting scene unfolds among migrant children in Tak Province—some 400 kilometres northwest of the Thai capital. In the roughly 64 migrant learning centres (MLCs) distributed along the Thai side of its border with Myanmar, over 15,000 migrant children—including those who have escaped societal upheaval since the military takeover of the country in 2021, face a harsh reality: they are teetering at the edge of starvation.

Located in remote areas and possessing limited resources, the MLCs, which are run by a panoply of NGOs and others, are modest structures, many of which lack proper classrooms, no less the most basic kitchen facilities, dormitories, or modern toilets. Despite these challenging circumstances, devoted teachers go the extra mile to seek proper food for the young migrants. Some MLC staff forage for snails in nearby rice fields, cooking them with local vegetables to introduce variety and vitamins into the student’s spartan menus. While such teachers make the most of the limited means available to them, their valiant efforts can hardly provide for hundreds of empty stomachs.

It is not an easy condition in which to resume their education, but for migrant children who have endured a gruelling five-day journey from Myanmar to the MLCs in Thailand—whether having made the trip alone, with family, or with the help of NGO workers—the challenges of everyday life need tending to upon reaching their destination. 

Settling into the local community, and finding their way to makeshift classrooms, most children commuting to the MLCs can afford to carry only unseasoned rice for their lunches. Just as often, they arrive to their classrooms empty-handed, and remain that way until sunset, as the MLCs often lack the capacity and funding to provide nutritious meals to their displaced learners. Even when they are able to do so, the MLCs often can manage only to provide severely limited kinds of sustainment; rice and bean soup, or a single egg at a random juncture during the week. Meat of any kind is a luxury.

There is now, however, a beacon of hope on the horizon.

In mid-August 2023, with a significant contribution of funding provided by the Japanese Government and UNESCO—both entities are working in collaboration with a provincial administrative agency of the Thailand Ministry of Education—the first instalment of food items recently reached 20 MLCs in the three border districts of Tak Province, namely Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, and Phop Phra. Already this delivery is estimated to be benefitting more than 3,000 migrant students by daily providing them with nutritious lunches. As the delivery trucks recently arrived at the MLCs in each district, teachers and students queued up to help unpack and categorize the arriving inventory, everyone wearing smiles more typical of gift recipients, even as they stood under a scorching sun.

This momentous occasion marked the first time these MLCs had received fresh foodstuffs as part of such a humanitarian relief effort. Wrapped in vibrant, rainbow-coloured bags with a logo of the flag of Japan, some 19 dried food items, along with 23 fresh, dried, or frozen staples like pork, chicken, fish, and shrimp, as well as rice and fishes, were unloaded from the trucks along with a panoply of practical seasonings.

The results are now in, two months hence, and they are encouraging. Indeed, it is reported that within weeks after the foodstuffs were integrated in the student’s lunches, teachers from the MLCs already began to report that their young charges were thrilled to have meat and a variety of foods to fuel their studies. ‘For some students, this is the first time they have ever tasted shrimp,’ one teacher mused with apparent gratitude.

The new sustenance these MLCs are experiencing has also provided students with renewed strength and reinforced spirits, enabling them to better focus on their learning, and encouraging their regular classroom attendance. One of the MLCs has recently reported to programme administrators from UNESCO that prior to the arrival of this support, students often skipped school entirely.  Today, ‘the attendance rate is 100 per cent.’ 

Additional food instalments will be carried out in the coming months, indeed throughout the duration of the project, now estimated to extend into 2024, and perhaps longer in the event more collaborators step up to the plate. 

The initial food aid provided by the UNESCO ‘Education in Emergencies’ project—it also aims to equip young migrants with life-changing, digital competences otherwise unavailable to them—has not only addressed hunger and safety, but also fostered a sense of community within the MLCs that helps to restore a sense of ‘family cooperation’ to everyday life. Teachers and students take turns preparing meals for one another, while parents and volunteers from nearby villages come together to ensure that the students are properly fortified. This collaborative effort aims for a common goal: to ensure the continuous learning for these uprooted children. This reflects UNESCO’s regional mandate to nurture the overall, holistic well-being of migrant children in supporting their entire educational journey.

The collaboration between UNESCO and the Thai educational administrative authorities of Tak Province extends well beyond the providing of food, ultimately to encompass the fostering of the long-term development of the MLCs themselves. Most of the MLCs do not possess freezers due to the need to avoid driving up their their electricity bills, so ice coolers were initially provided them. Additionally, some of the MLCs lacked experience in managing bulked quantities of fresh ingredients; as a result, some fresh vegetables ended up spoiling due to less than ideal storage facilities. Taking note of these circumstances, the Thailand Government’s regional educational administration will provide knowledge and capacity-training regarding food storage and cold chain management to ensure ongoing food hygiene and safety. The purchase of freezers is also anticipated.

Efforts in this direction are already well underway. Tak Primary Educational Service Area Office 2 (Tak PESAO 2), the country’s local education authority, recently hosted a workshop for MLC principals and teachers, which focused on effectively managing ingredients, meals, and nutrition intakes for migrant students. Principals from the targeted 20 MLCs came together to discuss best practices and to share lessons learned regarding bulked quantities of food management. 

To better assess the impact of food distribution, these pilot MLCs have also been asked to create a food diary and submit a menu to the Tak PESAO 2 authorities on a weekly basis. This measure has been instituted to ensure that each meal adheres to the essential nutrients, namely protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, and fats.

Later this year, as part of the Education in Emergencies project, the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok will roll out a digital school programme and provide IT equipment to the MLCs in support of young migrant learner’s education. UNESCO is committed to enhancing access to education through digital platforms and tools. The project will provide ICT devices and internet access for flexible learning programmes, as well as in the interest of eventually creating high-quality video lessons in core subjects, to be available in both Thai and Myanmar languages.

Renovations and refurbishments of the MLCs, such as the construction of dormitories, classrooms, kitchens, shower rooms, and toilet improvements are scheduled to begin in late 2023 for the MLCs with dormitories, all with the larger aim of creating a safer and overall enhanced learning environment for migrant students, and especially to ensure their learning continuity.

Recognizing the success of the initial food distribution, UNESCO has identified several key challenges facing later stages of the programme. For example, the MLCs have continued to face a shortage of rice following the first instalment of food aid, given the high number of mouths that require feeding. To lend the issue a concrete reference point, it is estimated that each MLC currently consumes as much as 1,200 kilogrammes of rice monthly.

In addition to persisting food shortages, the MLCs have already reached their maximum student capacity. Nevertheless, there are continuous influxes of new arrivals that need enrolling due to the ongoing volatile situation in Myanmar. Among the more than 10,000 migrant children in all 64 MLCs on the Thai side of the border, approximately 30 per cent of current enrolment consists of recent arrivals. 

The MLCs urgently need support for projected building renovations, including the upgrading or new construction of dormitories and classrooms. Two MLCs continue to lack access to electricity and thus urgently require the installation of solar panels. Additional humanitarian support from local, regional, and global levels is crucial for the long-term well-being and livelihood of migrant children and youth.