Shan State is one of the areas most affected by the regime’s forced relocation programs. Since 1996, over 300,000 Shan villagers from over 1,400 villages have been forced from their homes, without adequate food, security or basic medical care – vulnerable victims of the landmines planted throughout the forests.

In June 2009, a reported 4,000 Karen fled to Thailand after attacks by a joint force of the army and the government-allied Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) soldiers. In July approximately 500 Karen fled into the jungle without food, water or medicine after similar attacks launched by the army.  Back Pack Health Workers Team reports that families who have had their food supply and crops taken or destroyed are 4.6 times more likely to suffer a landmine accident as they are forced to forage in the jungle for food, and the forest is riddled with landmines. Children of these families are 4.4 times more likely to be malnourished.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines estimates that 15,000-20,000 people are maimed or killed by landmines yearly, with millions more affected by the agricultural, economic and psychological impact of the weapons. UNICEF estimates that 30-40 percent of mine victims are children under 15 years old. The human rights violations against the Burmese are egregious. The impact of the landmines further exacerbates the Burmese quality of life, economic opportunities and basic welfare.

Access to medical services and prosthetics fabrication is problematic. Since the International Committee of the Red Cross suspended its physical mobility and rehabilitation programs in Burma in 2007, landmine accident survivors must seek services across the border in Thailand, at refugee camps scattered along the Thai-Burma border, or at a handful of prosthetic workshops located inside Burma.

Clear Path International has been working with ethnic refugee committees along the Thai/Burma border since 2002 to provide prosthetic and rehabilitation care, psycho-social services, vocational training and socio-economic support to these refugees and internally displaced landmine accident survivors. CPI has provided assistance to approximately 4,500 direct and indirect Burmese beneficiaries since 2002.

CPI also has funded efforts to improve prosthetics fabrication and measurement technology resulting in better and lower-cost limbs for accident survivors. The prosthetic devices that amputees receive enable them to work and to support their families. Physical mobility reduces the burden of disabled survivors on their families and their community, and turns them into potentially productive contributors. Some landmine victims are trained as prosthetic technicians to help other amputees.

In collaboration with its implementing partner, the Shan Health Committee, Clear Path has initiated socio-economic re-integration projects at the Khun Kyaw, Loi Kaw Wan, and Loi Tai Leng. Residents who are landmine survivors are learning to breed pigs, start mushrooms, develop fish ponds, and grow vegetables, all of which are income-generating mechanisms to provide additional support for their families

North of Chiang Mai, the Shan Health Committee founded two prosthetic workshops that employ technicians trained at the Mae Tao Clinic. Clear Path funds their training, equipment and operating budget.

To meet the needs of the numerous amputees inside eastern Burma, CPI supports a workshop in the Karenni capitol. Accident survivors have no other access to medical and/or prosthetic treatment in their area. Six technicians, themselves landmine victims, fabricate prosthetics for other amputees. Loi Kaw started producing artificial legs in October 2007.

This is a home, shelter and 24/7 care facility for 17 men and 1 woman inside the UN refugee camp at Mae La. Most of the residents were blinded by landmines and/or lost their hands and arms in accidents. CPI funds their daily care, psycho-social programs, and limited vocational training and income generating activities. Care Villa helps residents deal with the anguish of their situation by providing a social support network, educational support and limited work opportunities. To this end, Care Villa hires English, Braille and music teachers for residents. A few times each year, residents participate in talent shows, singing, games and English competitions.

Each of these three remote villages at the far north-eastern border with Burma is home to approximately 2,000 refugees from the Shan State. In addition to the socio-economic reintegration farm projects in place at all three villages, a new micro-credit loan program was implemented at Loi Tai Leng in April, 2010. The loans provide the landmine-impacted households with the financial support they need to start farms and small businesses as income generating mechanisms. Similar micro-credit programs will be implemented at Khun Kyaw and Loi Kaw Wan in late 2010.

A new micro-credit loan program has been implemented for Mon State refugees in the Sangkhlaburi, Thailand region with the assistance of CPI’s implementing partner MRDC. As with the micro-credit program at Loi Tai Leng, landmine-impacted households will receive loans with low-interest rates to facilitate farm development and small businesses to generate additional income.

New in 2010, CPI is providing funding to the Community Schools Program in the Karen state of Burma. Started in 2001, there are now 20 primary schools and 3 middle schools serving 1,545 students, ages 4-17 years. Teachers risk their lives to provide an education for the children. Parents risk their children’s’ lives by sending them to school with the hope that they will have a better future. The students find some joy and normalcy in their frightening world, and at least one good meal per day at school.