Current Programs of Kwah Dao
Scholarship and Interest-free Student Loan
Kwah Dao serves stateless children in Northern Thailand. Initiated in 1999, Kwah Dao’s Scholarship Program is central to our mission. It offers financial assistance and mentorship to stateless children, orphaned children, or children affected by forced migration from the war in Myanmar. The program aims to offer educational opportunities up to higher education.
Previously, we supported students across various educational levels and types of institutions, prioritizing quantity over quality. While we had great success with respect to high school graduation rates and college attendance, we produced very few professionals who became thought leaders. Recognizing that there are very few leaders who can represent stateless Shan people in the global discourse, we re-organized Kwah Dao.
Starting in 2022, the program was reorganized into three categories of stateless children: those in middle school, high school, and higher education. Rather than work with many stateless children …..
Community Minded Youth
Community-Minded Youth is part of the Scholarship and Student Loan Program started in 2023 and designed specifically for Kwah Dao scholarship and student loan students who are required to become members of CMY and participate in community service, contribution, and development activities in the remote areas of Northern Thailand. At least once per year, the students need to discuss, decide, plan, and conduct a suitable community development relevant activity together under a reasonable amount of budget provided by the organization and by the supervision of the executive director.
The CMY project is a great opportunity for these students to improve their creative thinking, critical thinking, responsibility, leadership skills, teamwork skills as well as raising awareness of the importance of giving back to the communities. The CMY members will learn to manage everything by themselves such as determining a target community, designing an activity, and conducting it together with the team leader they select making it an interest-based activity that will make it more interesting and meaningful to them.
Mentorship
Academic skills are very important and can be gained from college but probably not for life skills. Kwah Dao provides intensive one-on-one mentoring to both potential scholarship students and to students who are already receiving scholarships. Mentorship is provided by two of our graduates, Ek (who graduated in Law and is now a licensed lawyer) and Nuan (who graduated in Business Chinese) who have been through a series of tough life events from their childhood to adulthood. Mentorship includes helping students develop effective studying skills, understanding how the college application process works, and leadership training. We also provide assistance with the day-to-day basics, like understanding how to budget, manage personal finances, and how to navigate bureaucratic systems.
Legal Assistance
Kwah Dao officially launched its Legal Assistance Program in April 2022 led by a past scholarship recipient of Kwah Dao who is now a licensed lawyer. Kwah Dao has been involved in working with stateless and nationality-less families for over two decades in Northern Thailand and is aware of the necessity of providing legal protection to these people. In the first stage, we focus on the stateless or nationality-less students and families who are struggling with their complex civil registration status. We provide short-term legal training and workshops to these students and families aimed at raising awareness and addressing the process of applying for a better civil registration status such as Thai citizenship or permanent residency. Furthermore, we have taken steps to provide direct guidance and assistance to those individuals who made
