By Kantarawaddy Times
About 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Mese Township are in desperate need of warm clothes and tarps to protect them from the rain in Karenni State. There are nine IDP camps along the Thai border, with many people still hiding in the jungle.
“They’re facing many difficulties as there has been no donor organization that has arrived to provide them with aid,” said Maw Hpray Myar, the second secretary of the Karenni Women Organisation. She said those sleeping in the jungle only have one or two changes of clothing at most. They require food, medicine, mosquito nets, and tarps.
Although the KWO is helping them as much as they can, the organization can only do so much. At the same time, the conflict presents challenges for outside groups that want to deliver humanitarian relief to the area.
“They haven’t received aid such as dried foods, cooking oil, salt, yellow beans, chili, onion, garlic, etc. They need these basic food items,” she said, explaining that they are living under the shelter of the forest and being bitten by mosquitoes. The children need slippers. Even some newborn babies don’t have enough warm clothing.
Impromptu schools have been set up in some of the camps, but they still lack basic materials for teachers and students, preventing them from attending classes.
Volunteers have been fundraising on their Facebook page to help the IDPs.
Many people in the township were forced to flee fighting that broke out after several units of the Karenni National People’s Liberation Front, formerly a Border Guard Force under the Burma army, defected in July.
