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About Kwah Dao Foundation
Who we are?
Kwah Dao means “reach for the stars” in Thai. It was founded by two New York professors and a couple of volunteer Thai teachers from Bangkok in 1999 and based in Pai district of Mae Hong Son until 2022, currently situated in Chiang Mai of northern Thailand. It was registered as a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization under US law as “Burmese Refugee Project” in 2005 and was registered under Thai Civil and Commercial Code as “Kwah Dao Foundation” in 2014. Kwah Dao has been supporting and helping vulnerable stateless, nationality-less, and migrant communities in northern Thailand for over 24 years. At the initial stage, Kwah Dao provided necessary programs such as basic health care and informal education to its target group. In the later stage, Kwah Dao gradually made progress and expanded its missions that cover the fundamental needs of its vulnerable target group such as scholarships and Interest-free student loans, One-on-one Mentorship, Community Minded Youth, and Legal Assistance programs.
What is the mission of Kwah Dao?
To develop human capital and empower vulnerable communities through education for rights, liberty, social justice, and sustainable development.
What are the objectives of our organization?
- To provide English, Chinese, and any other foreign language courses that the committee deems appropriate for underprivileged children and youth.
- To provide recreational activities and any other activities that promote development in various areas for underprivileged children and youth.
- To provide scholarships for underprivileged children and youth to ensure they have the opportunity to attend secondary school and higher education.
- To provide interest-free student loans for underprivileged children and youth to ensure they have the opportunity to attend higher education.
- To perform for public benefits or collaborate with other charity organizations both domestically and internationally for education or public benefits.
- To organize training for legal knowledge and provide legal assistance to underprivileged children and youth including other impoverished people.
What do we do?
Kwah Dao started out as a public health and education organization. We completed all aspects of our public health mission. Today, Kwah Dao designs and implements education and youth development programs by providing Scholarships and Interest-free Student Loans to disadvantaged students who are stateless, nationality-less, “G Code” students, or students whose parents were forced to flee from Myanmar because of political conflict, civil war, serious human rights violations, poverty, and currently living in northern Thailand working as migrant workers. To ensure these students graduate with high potential, leadership skills, and other necessary skills, we also provide them with relevant projects to the scholarship and student loan programs called Community Minded Youth and Mentorship. Moreover, we provide Legal Assistance to those who are facing statelessness and nationality-less problems by organizing legal training as well as giving one-on-one legal advice and solutions on solving their legal problems. Apart from the work mentioned earlier, we also occasionally provide necessary assistance to vulnerable communities.
Why do we do it?
Because we believe education is one of the most important factors that can bring changes to individual families, society, country, and the world. Unfortunately, the right to education is different in each country and can be limited due to several factors. In our case, complex civil registration status. Most of our target group is vulnerable stateless, nationality-less, “G Code” students, and migrant students whose parents were forced to flee from the Shan State of Myanmar seeking a safer life and batter future in Thailand because of the prolonged political chaos, civil war, serious human rights violations, and poverty that has been continued for over seven decades and likely to continue for several more decades.
Even though these students are now living in a democratic country where fundamental rights are entitled by the laws but due to their current civil registration complexity, they are limited in accessing such rights. Beginning with 1) the right to travel, these students need to obtain a permission letter from the district office before traveling from their controlled areas to other provinces no matter if it’s for medical treatment or education reasons. 2) Right to health care, many of these students can enjoy almost the same level of right to medical treatment called “30 baht For All Diseases Treatment” as Thai people do. Except for the students who obtained a “Person with No Registration Status Card” from May 2019 onward, they can’t access this right unless they have held such card for 5 years from the date of issuance. Another group who faces the same trouble is called “G Code” students, these students need to cover the medical fees themselves unless there is a law amendment in the future entitling them the right to free medical treatment. 3) Right to education, these students can choose to study both in the government and private education institutions as long as they can afford it. Anyway, there are limitations in higher education where some majors such as nursing (Thai Program) and doctor of medicine (Thai Program) are available for Thai students only. The students who are not Thai and want to study nursing or doctor of medicine must apply for an institution where an international program is available for non-Thai students but this opportunity comes with extremely high tuition fees. This obstacle won’t cause them much trouble if they are eligible to apply for scholarships or student loans provided by Thai government agencies as Thai students do, unfortunately, they aren’t. Even for 4) the right to work, no matter what level of education these students completed or what major they graduated, they need to apply for a work permit and only with the occupations that are allowed by Thai labor law. These are just some of the limitations these students have faced for decades, there are still many more challenging obstacles needing to be solved.
According to our thorough assessment of the major factors in the neighboring country (Myanmar) where our target group came from and will be coming from in the future because of the political chaos, civil war, human rights violations, poverty, and other situations, especially in Shan State. We believe these conflicts and problems will continue for several more decades because of the following causes.
1) Recent peaceful protests demanding democracy by the students and activists which ended with brutal crackdowns by Myanmar’s military, forcing more and more students and young citizens to take up arms by joining ethnic armed groups for combat training to fight for their rights under a newly formed armed group called “The People’s Defense Force” also known as PDF. It is the same way that ethnic armed groups had started and since then have been fighting for over seven decades but haven’t gained the rights they fought for.
2) Constant fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic armed groups, and between an ethnic armed group with other ethnic armed groups. For example in Shan State of Myanmar alone, there are more than 10 armed forces such as 1) Myanmar’s Army 2) United Wa State Army (UWSA) 3) Kachin Independence Army (KIA) 4) Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) 5) Kokang Army (MNDAA) 6) Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA) 7) Shan State Army-North (SSA-N) 8) Shan State Army-South (SSA-S) 9) Mong La Army (NDAA-ESS) 10) Border Guard Forces (BGF) 11) and The People’s Defense Force (PDF).
We are fully aware that as long as the conflicts mentioned above remain unsolved, more armed groups will be formed which means the conflict will be more complex, severe, and last longer. Consequently, it will cause more refugees, and migrants fleeing from Myanmar to Thailand which is the main cause of statelessness, nationality-less, and other related problems that will be followed once they have made a successful illegal entry into Thailand. This is why we have been working on providing necessary aid and support to these vulnerable people for over two decades and have already started the preparation and plans for our work in the third decade.
Activity at Kwah Dao Youth Center
This is one of the after-class activities conducted by volunteers for the students at Kwah Dao Youth Center in Feb 2020 a year before the Covid-19 pandemic. There were around 40 students at that time. Most of them were stateless, nationality-less, or “G Code” students just a few of them acquired Thai citizenship. The Youth Center was shut down in Sep 2022 to cut its expenses on this program and focus more on the Scholarship Program.
Reviews From Our Supporters, Partners, and Beneficiaries
Without receiving financial support from Kwah Dao, it’s almost impossible for me to attend higher education because of fund shortage. I might have ended up in the same way that many other disadvantaged students did, being forced to marry at the age of 16-17 and help the family make money after graduating from middle school or high school. I’m very grateful to Kwah Dao and all the generous donors who provided me with such a great opportunity from my childhood till the day I graduated from college. Thank you!
Nuan / Past Scholarship Recipient
I can’t imagine how long will it take me to graduate from law school if I didn’t meet Kwah Dao during my difficult time. I remembered I needed to suspend my studies for one academic year when I worked in a hotel and couldn’t take days off for my exams. It only made a small difference even though I could find a new job where days off are available when I need to take my exams but I still faced other difficulties such as having less time to attend the class, read legal books, and prepare for my exams. I was very lucky that I received a scholarship from Kwah Dao in the right time. I really appreciate Kwah Dao and all the generous donors who made my dream come true!
Ek / Past Scholarship Recipient
