Episcopal Relief and Development is providing emergency assistance to refugees from Burma living in refugee camps in Thailand. A low-intensity civil war has been waging in Burma for nearly three decades, with dire consequences for the country’s many ethnic minority groups, including the Karen, Karenni and Mon. Since then thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced.

Episcopal Relief and Development is responding to this ongoing emergency. In 1984 there were 10,000 refugees at the border camps, in 2005 the number had swelled to 150,000 and, as the political situation in Burma has recently taken a turn for the worse, the number has further increased.

Episcopal Relief and Development maintains an ongoing partnership with the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), an independent humanitarian organization. TBBC implements several initiatives at the refugee camps, including nutrition and feeding programs, construction of temporary shelters and personal livelihood and capacity building projects.

Through Episcopal Relief and Development’s support of TBBC, people arriving at the refugee camps will receive critical emergency aid. Because families flee their homes under duress and arrive at the camps without possessions, save the clothes on their backs, a “New Arrivals Pack” was created to meet immediate and basic needs. The pack contains blankets, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, cooking pots and utensils and food containers. Episcopal Relief and Development is committed to supplying packs to 455 families, or 2,275 refugees. 

To help refugees affected by the political strife in Burma, please make a donation to ERD’s “Emergency Relief Fund” online at http://www.er-d.org/ , or call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129. Gifts can be mailed to: Episcopal Relief and Development “Emergency Relief Fund” P.O. Box 7058, Merrifield, VA 22116-7058.