KAREN Kids aims to build capacity and therefore aspires to teach self-reliance with sustainable projects.

All activities are designed to develop confidence, self discipline and awareness to the children in our care as well as skills useful long after their education has finished. This can only promote a better future for the Karen Kids.

See our projects here!

For just US$2.50 (EUR 2 / HKD 20), a child gets shelter, food, education & water per day!

The Center is solely run on donations, contributions and sponsorships. KAREN Kids Society is lucky to have a chartered accountant who volunteers in his spare time to provide workable budgets and ensuring what funds we do have are allocated to the many areas to keep the Center running on a day to day basis.

Funding for the Center is always challenging with support for day to day costs such as food and staff salaries much more difficult to secure than for capital projects.

See our annual report here!

HOW YOU CAN HELP US

Whether you choose to make a donation or support an individual project or item of expenditure we have the following information which will assist you; and we can guarantee  that with our admin cost of just 1% annually you can be well assured the children benefit solely from you. Please note that donations are tax-deductible. We can provide a receipt for donations above HKD500.

HOW TO MAKE A DONATION

By bank transfer:

Hong Kong – International:

HSBC – The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Ltd.
Account: Karen Kids
Account No.: 808-291538-838
SWIFT/BIC: HSBSHKHHHKH

Europe:

Oberbank AG (Austria)
Account No.: 721-2655-44
IBAN: AT911500000721265544
SWIFT/BIC: OBKLAT2L

By cheque:

Cheque payable to: Karen Kids
Address: Karen Kids Society
P.O Box No. 954
General Post Office
Hong Kong

By email: donations@karenkids.org

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! EVERY DONATION MAKES A WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!

Europe Education Program

See our current projects here!

We would like to invite generous private individuals and give businesses the opportunity to further support this worthy cause and be recognised with their Corporate Logo in all advertising and PR materials, as well as VIP seating in St. Johns Cathedral.

VIP GOLD HK$ 48,800
VIP SILVER HK$ 38,800

Stars of the night

Elisabeth Freundlinger – Soprano

Back by popular demand, we are delighted to welcome Elisabeth Freundlinger to perform with us once more. This will be Elisabeth’s 5th visit to Hong Kong.
Elisabeth Freundlinger’s first engagement was at the Chamber Opera in Vienna and was quickly followed by further national and international performances.
She globally represented Austria as a “singing ambassador” and continues to record her music and perform to a worldwide audience.

Maki Namwekawa – Piano

A soloist and chamber musician who feels just as much at home with classical, romantic and contemporary repertoire, Namekawa dedicates the greater part of her performing activities to modern music.
In 1994 she won the Leonid Kreuzer Prize in Japan. Further recitals and chamber music concerts have led her to appearances in Austria, Ireland, Germany, Japan and other countries, and she will perform at the Carnegie Hall in 2012.

Concert Details

7:30pm Monday, 28th November 2011

St. Johns Cathedral, Garden Road, Central

Tickets cost HK$488 and are available at Tom Lee Music Stores:

G/F., 1-9 Cameron Lane, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon

City Centre Building, 144-149 Gloucester Road, Wanchai

G/F-2/F., East South Bldg., 29 Percival St, Causeway Bay

Shatin Home Square (Shop 303, L3, Home Square, Shatin, N.T.)

Please contact ANGELA or ILSE at KAREN Kids Society to reserve your VIP

packages immediately:

angela@oxyvital.com / T: 2893 5928

Download Invitation Flyer

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Leo Kinzel Passes Away

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of  our dearest friend and greatest supporter to the Karen’s, Leo Kinzel
He passed away On Monday the 21^st of February 2011 in Germany.
His horrible accident followed by  long  suffering has finally taken Leo away from us.
Leo, had in May 2006, introduced us to the Pastor and the children, who were then living in very bad circumstances.
Thanks to Leo’s continuous engagement, support and involvement of his “heart ”, the Karen children can enjoy today a clean and safe place to sleep, live and enjoy .

We have lost more than a friend and our prayers and thoughts are with Iris, her husband, mother and brother.

May Leo rest in peace!
“You never asked and you never judged, you just always helped!”
We will miss you!
Juergen and Ilse, Susanne and Anneliese
Bettina, Katrin, Melanie, and the many friends of the Eurogroup,
BASF and sponsors of the Karen  Kids Society
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Water for Life : Concert 2010

The annual Fundraising Event took place at St. John’s Cathedral on November 29, 2010.

We were very fortunate once again to have the beautiful and talented Elisabeth Freundlinger, who flew in from Austria for this event.? She was joined by by the Caring Choir of the German Swiss International School, the Weinerklang Quartet and organist Peter Yu who all made the evening an enjoyable and acclaimed success.

Over 230 people joined us to enjoy the sublime music in one of the most beautiful settings of Hong Kong. The evening concluded with cocktail reception on the lawns .

We thank everyone who made this evening possible and especially our major sponsors, Plasser Far East, Eurogroup, Adidas, The Rotary Kowloon, Bruce Rockowitz, Perrier, The FunRaisers , St. John’s Cathedral, Advantage Austria and Prospect Productions .

We raised over $300,00 HK dollars all of which will be used to fund projects for the children at our camp in Pa Deng in Thailand in this year.

This year the emphasis is on water for life. Back in 2006, the children were forced to drink and bathe in filthy water, they suffered from a variety of preventable diseases and infections due to the lack of sanitary conditions. Today, due to your generous donations they drink and bathe in clean sanitary water. But it is an ongoing struggle.There is still much to be done toward ensuring a clean, sustainable water supply.

Your generosity and support are creating hope and the opportunity for these kids to have the basic necessities of life.

With sincere gratitude we say THANK YOU!

February 14, 2011 by Raphael Minder

On my first afternoon at the Karen Kids camp, I got  attacked from behind.

After turning around to confront my assailant, I found myself looking down at a beaming face and a tiny pair of hands determined not to let go off my legs.

“This little boy is Tar-Kwah and he needs a lot of affection,’’ explained Darli, who has worked at the camp since its foundation and has become almost a foster mother to the children.

Seven-year old Tar-Kwah is not the only child who is need of some forceful hugging. But the work and devotion of Darli and the other staff of the Karen Kids Society have already gone a long way to give the more than 50 children residing on the camp the kind of upbringing and care that would almost certainly have been denied them just a few years ago.

Indeed, it is often hard to believe that several of these children have already had to endure the kind of traumatic experiences that most people will never experience in a lifetime, such is the amount of laughter and enthusiasm that they display for almost any activity. Top of that list, probably, is an afterschool trip to the local river – a peaceful spot until dozens of children launch into a frantic splash around. But almost as popular are the simple runarounds in the playground, hours spent chasing a deflated football, as well as more elaborate games conducted in the state-of-the-art playroom and computer room.

Equally impressive is the camaraderie between children often several years apart (the current intake goes from 5 to 18 years old). As the adolescents lead the way in a Jingle Bells’ dance rehearsal for their Christmas show,  they display an almost parental attitude towards the younger ones, even those who are clearly disturbing the practice by trying to improve their cart wheeling rather than learning the Christmas dance moves. Similarly, in the computer class, older boys allow younger children to sit on their lap as they try to surf the internet or fill out Excel spreadsheets.

Carefree does not mean ill-disciplined, however. As the dinner bell rings, the children line up as if on a military parade ground, before collecting their plate and sitting patiently at the table until everybody has been served and a prayer has been said.

The Karen Kids Society started as a chance encounter between a Karen Christian preacher, who was providing a shelter for some of his community’s most vulnerable children, and an Austro-German couple, Ilse and Juergen Strafe, who came across the children during an excursion to this beautiful region of mountains and jungle from Hua Hin, one of Thailand’s fast-developing beach and golf resorts.  Appalled by the sight of undernourished children crowded into a rat-infested shelter, the couple not only offered to help the preacher – known simply as Pastor – but also joined forces with other Hong Kong-based business people to provide a legal and financial structure for the project in the form of a full-fledged charity organisation, set up in 2006.

By focusing on children from a displaced, fragmented and fragile ethnic minority, however, the Karen Kids Society has arguably set itself a task that is more complicated than that of the average charity, notably other relative newcomers to Thailand that were set up in the aftermath of the December 2004 tsunami to help devastated Thai coastal communities.

Indeed, the success of the project remains today very much about reaching a careful blend between the Karen community, Thailand’s legal and social structures, and Western funding, management, as well as educational and technical know-how.

Striking that balance is a constant challenge and the camp, at one stage under the supervision of Hilfswerk Austria, did encounter some teething problems, leading to a high management turnover.

But signs are that the Karen Kids Society has not only learnt from earlier hiccups but also raised the bar in terms of its development ambitions.  In October, Felicity and Ken Odam, an English couple, took over local management, bringing to the camp decades of experience in education, ranging from fostering troubled children and working within the British youth justice system to charity work in developing countries as diverse as Indonesia, Tanzania and Cameroon.

Meanwhile, construction work has started on a youth training centre, sponsored by BASF, the German chemicals company. Plans have also been drawn up for a new water system, to replace the muddy pond water that currently gets piped down to the children’s shower rooms.

“This is a young organisation that has already had a lot of success but where everything has also happened pretty fast, so now might the time to gather ourselves, consolidate what we have achieved, and then really move forward with this wonderful infrastructure at our disposal,” says Felicity, whose enthusiasm for her job tends to mirror that of the children for playing. (Her soft-spoken husband, Ken, appears to relish any opportunity to put his impressive DYI skills to use and get on with the more nuts-and-bolts aspects of improving the camp’s logistics and infrastructure.)

If there is one caveat to the project, it probably concerns an issue that is beyond the role and competence of the Odams or anybody else from the Karen Kids Society. The children are being offered unparalled care on camp, as well as a unique opportunity to grow up in a trilingual environment (they speak Karen among themselves, attend Thai schools, are under English management and receive tuition in all three languages on camp). But what they can expect once  they reach adulthood is much less clear and directly tied to the broader prospects and difficulties of the stateless Karens. A good litmus test will come next year when the camp’s oldest girl, who is looking to become a teacher, will become the first youngster on camp to seek admittance to a Thai university. In the meantime, the Karens’ murky legal status in Thailand is a daily headache for the camp’s management, as it restricts access for the children to basic facilities such as Thai health care. During my stay at the camp, we had to take one child on a two-hour drive to the hospital in Phetchabury because of a kidney disorder, accompanied by her mother. Without regular Thai health insurance coverage, it took all the mother’s sweet-talking and a large degree of compassion from the Thai medical staff to lower her daughter’s treatment bill to a level that was within the camp’s financial means.

In Ban Pakayor, a Karen jungle village about five kilometres away and from which a dozen of the camp’s children originate, a local highlighted the problems facing working adults. Almost all of the village’s men, he told me, rely on forged identification papers to work at a pineapple processing factory owned by Dole, the fruits multinational. “We can earn about 200 (Thai) bahts a day, if we work OT (overtime) and add that to the minimum daily wage of 143 bahts, but I know this job situation is not safe,” he explained.

Indeed, while the struggle of the Karen is long-standing, their difficulties have failed to receive the kind of international attention and diplomatic efforts devoted to many other displaced or stateless people (Palestinians, Kurds, etc) while their future looks just as uncertain.

In a recent article (published 27 June 2009), The Economist painted a bleak picture for the Karen, ostracized in their homeland and used as a political football between Thailand and Burma’s junta.  Indeed, while the Burmese junta’s determination to wipe out the Karen insurgency seems to be on the rise, “Thai support for the Karens’ lonely struggle may be waning,” the British weekly publication warned.

Furthermore, it can be hard to gather even from adult Karens what kind of future they would wish for, as decades of persecution and forced migration, coupled with violent crackdowns and repeated political upheavals, appear to have blurred their own sense of identity. Darli herself is well placed to confirm that. Along with other members of her Karen community, she set out a decade ago on a dangerous trek across the mountains that separate her native village in Burma from Thailand in order to escape persecution at the hands of the Burmese army. She found safety across the border, but still harbors hopes of returning to a safer and freer Burma one day. Her Karen husband, however, was born in Thailand – the result of an earlier Karen exodus from Burma caused by Japanese invasion during the Second World War – and therefore has no fondness for Burma. John, the camp’s Karen groundsman, says that, as a general rule, the older generation remains much more attached to Burma than their children, born across the border and therefore educated in Thai schools.

Ultimately, “no matter Thailand or Burma,” says John, “because we are really the hill men.” John’s message may be delivered in broken English, but it comes with clarity, honesty and humanity – qualities that are present throughout the camp but sadly lacking among the politicians and military who control the fate of the Karens.

ABOUT RAPHAEL MINDER

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CHRISTMAS PARTY AT THE CAMP

January 29, 2011 by Ilse Massenbauer-Strafe

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This past Christmas my family and I had the pleasure of spending the holidays with the kids in Pa Deng.

We brought  t-shirts( kindly donated by Prospect Productions) with the Karen Kids logo on them .  The kids were delighted to get the t-shirts.. their very own personal gifts.  Later Santa gave each child a small gift and we had a special dinner of sausages and vegetables It was so heart warming..  I found myself with tears in my eyes more than once.  The kids played ball in the playground and put on plays and sang outside the Youth Training Center.  It was perfect!

However, during our stay, we were without water for several days.  We were truly at a loss on ways to find water for bathing and cleaning.  ( We bought bottled water for drinking).

It is one of our top priorities this year, to provide clean, sustainable water.  In addition to the work that is already being done , thanks to the generosity of the Rotary Kowloon we still need to build a well to ensure a truly sustainable water supply.

With true gratitude!

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SIGNING CEREMONY FOR THE WATER OF LIFE PROJECT

November 9, 2010 by Ilse Massenbauer-Strafe

The Rotary Club of Kowloon is generously supporting the “Water for Life” Project for the Karen Kids Center in Padeng, Thailand with a contribution of USD 24,000. The project aims to supply the KAREN Kids Center with fresh and clean water in a sustainable manner.

Heavy rain and draught made a safe and healthy water supply for the Karen children impossible. Due to the lack of supply with clean water, a lot of Karen kids had to suffer from skin infections, diarrhea, let alone dirty clothing. Thanks to the great support of the members of the Rotary Club of Kowloon, all of this will be no issue any longer. On behalf of the kids in the KAREN Kids Center, we say THANK YOU TO YOU ALL!

The picture shows Mr. Juergen Strafe, President of the KAREN Kids Society (far left), DG Mr. Jason Chan (middle) and Mr. Martin Kléger (far right), President of the Rotary Club of Kowloon at the signing ceremony for the “Water for Life” project on November 4, 2010.

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10,000 MYANMESE FLEE CLASHES INTO THAILAND

At least 3 civilians die as fighting breaks out between troops and rebels a day after poll

November 9, 2010, Agence France-Presse in Bangkok

Deadly clashes between rebel troops and government soldiers in eastern Myanmar yesterday sent 10,000 people fleeing across the border, an official in Thailand said. Most of those crossing were women and children, said Samart Loyfah, the governor of Thailand’s frontier Tak province. “The current figure of people crossing to Thailand is 10,000,” he said, adding that sporadic fighting continued to be heard in Myanmar. “Army, police and civil authorities have prepared an area to accommodate them five kilometres from the border.”

At least three civilians were killed after fire from heavy weapons hit the town of Myawaddy in Myanmar’s eastern Karen State, an official in the military-ruled country said. There was no information on any troop casualties on either side. Fighting between rebels and government troops further south caused another 1,000 people to cross the border into Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province, local district chief Jamrus Srangnoi said.

Zipporah Sein, the Thailand-based general secretary of the Karen National Union (KNU), said there had been clashes between government forces and troops of the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) in the two areas. “We don’t know definitely but I think last night the army sent over more troops, they negotiated and the DKBA retreated, but this morning they were blocked by army trucks and then it started,” she said.

A simmering civil war has wracked parts of the country, including Karen State, since independence in 1948 and observers say the junta’s determination to crush rebels from ethnic minorities appears to have strengthened. Many groups have signed ceasefire agreements with the regime, but tensions have increased after the junta’s attempts to bring minority armies under state control – by co-opting them as “border guard forces” – met with fierce resistance.

The violence came a day after an election strongly criticised by Western governments because of widespread complaints of intimidation and the detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi. Led by US President Barack Obama, many countries decried the vote as neither free nor fair and called for the release of political prisoners including Suu Kyi.

While China had yet to make any official comment, the state-run Global Times newspaper said Beijing supported “Myanmar’s plan to transform its political system, but knows it will not happen overnight”. In its editorial, titled “Myanmar’s election a step forward”, the Global Times said countries neighbouring Myanmar should be forming their own views, “not following the West blindly”.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington would keep “rigorous sanctions” against the regime and said the electoral process was “severely flawed, precluded an inclusive, level playing field, and repressed fundamental freedoms”. Many areas were uncontested by pro-democracy candidates because of major financial and other hurdles.

Some saw the poll as a small step towards democracy after almost five decades of autocratic rule, with opposition parties confident of success in areas where they did stand. Despite the regime’s unpopularity, its political proxy, the Union Solidarity and Development Party, was expected to fare well. In many constituencies the poll was a two-way battle between it and the National Unity Party, which is the successor to late dictator Ne Win’s party and also closely aligned with the military.

Although it was unclear when the results would be announced, the poll seemed to have gone largely according to the generals’ plan. After the election, attention was turning to whether the regime will release Suu Kyi on Saturday, when her term of house arrest is due to end.

Source: South China Morning Post Online Edition, Additional reporting by Associated Press, Picture by Reuters

To download a scanned version of South China Morning Post’s print article in PDF format, click here.

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CENTER VISIT  IN OCTOBER

added By Melanie Bell

I visited the Center in Pa Deng for three days  this past October.

During my stay the kids were preparing for a day on the beach with the elephants.  Most of them had never been to the beach.  The Camp Manager, Felicity Odam used this as an opportunity to give an English lesson ( the kids had a English word list that related to the trip and the homework was to memorize words like elephant, sand, beach, day trip etc. in English) . Afterwards, they drew pictures of things they might see on their day trip and had the choice of painting or embroidering the pictures they had drawn.  I could feel the excitement of kids anticipating their big day!    I wasn’t there on the big  day  but from the drawings I have seen after the excursion, I know the kids had a wonderful day.

Also while I was there, one of the headmasters from one of the larger schools came by to inform Felicity that ( largely due to her efforts) beatings would be banned in the classrooms starting this term.  This is huge victory for children’s rights.   I felt really good about the work being done there.

Your generous gifts have made all this possible .  The children now have food, shelter and the chance for a better life.  Thank you for your compassion.

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OPENING CEREMONY OF THE YOUTH TRAINING CENTER (YTC)

June 29, 2010 by Bernadette Crockford

Representatives from Petchaburi Province, Karen Kids Society, and BASF as well as 60 Karen children and 150 local people witnessed the opening of the Youth Training Center on June 28, 2010. Construction of the 390sqm facility began in August 2009 and was mainly sponsored by BASF with an investment of EUR 75,000. The new Center will serve as a facility to educate young adults of the ethnic Karen and local Thai population.

The day started at sunrise to the sound of children’s feet milling around the Center busy cleaning and preparing the ground ready for the arrival of important guests.

Among the guests was Dr. Martin Brudermueller (3rd from left), member of the Board of Executive Directors at the chemical giant BASF – the main sponsor of the Center, Ms. Naruemol Palwat (4th), Deputy Governor of Petchaburi Province, Mr. Juergen Strafe (5th), President of the Karen Kids Society, Mr. Pracha Chivapornthip (6th), Managing Director of BASF Thailand, and members of the BASF Social Foundation Team.

The children at the Center had been busy for days leading up to this occasion. While still attending classes and having lots of homework on their hands, they prepared a program for the day and helped the Center’s staff in cleaning the facilities.

We are also very grateful to our local pastor, who erected large tents with the assistance of the children. He worked hard in bringing in chairs, tables and sofas which were all arranged neatly under the tents by the children providing comfortable seating for the guests.

With the expertise assistance from the BASF Social Foundation Team we achieved a smooth rundown of the ceremony. Every need was catered for in order to deal with the hot weather: Plenty of cool drinks, ice cubes and light snacks were available to everybody for free. As usual, the children’s behavior was impeccable. They greeted the guests with garlands of flowers and a big smile on their face.

The highlight of the day was the ribbon-cutting ceremony with Dr. Martin Brudermueller, Ms. Naruemol Palwat, Mr. Juergen Strafe and Mr. Pracha Chivapornthip who cut the red ribbon in front of the Center’s entrance.

To the delight of the children, the dignitaries handed out useful gifts such as school bags after the end of the official ceremony. The opening was rounded off with a well-earned lunch of roast chicken and chips treated to the children on courtesy of BASF.

The opening was a very colorful and memorable day for the children and a milestone in the history of the KAREN Kids Center!

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YOUTH TRAINING CENTER (YTC) COMPLETION IN JUNE 2010

June 9, 2010 by Bernadette Crockford

Thanks to the kind support of BASF Social Fund we are near completion of our Training Center for for the Thai and Karen community youth.

Consistent with our philosophy to help the Karen to help themselves, the new YTC will be open to those older children who have already completed their basic education at the local schools. With the YTC we aim at providing the infrastructure for the local community youth to acquire professional skills in carpentry, agriculture, weaving and sewing.

As most of the Karen are very talented and have natural skills we plan to offer painting, arts and craft workshops. Having completed their training at the YTC the students will receive a certificate of attendance and progress report which we hope will facilitate their admission to an apprenticeship and future entry into the job market.

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LAUNCH OF THE EDUCATION CENTER 2008
June 9, 2010 by Bernadette Crockford

With the opening of the Education Center in December 2008, children between the age of 5–17 now have the opportunity to pursue further studies. Hired local teachers offer lessons in Computer Science, Thai and Karen language three to four times a week. Our volunteers and resident Center Managers will run arts and craft lessons, music and basic English language lessons on weekends. This facility also features a library, study room and play room.

The Education Center is used during the day by locals who want to do some painting, brush up their Karen, learn Thai or how to use the computer.

The play room which also has of a small reading corner is open every day after the younger children return home from school. Activities in the play room are monitored by volunteers or one of the child coordinators.

The study room will be opened on the children’s request.

Elisabeth Reinthaler from Hilfswerk Austria stated during her visit, “The kids can’t wait for the next computer lesson! They love it! Also, the word’s spreading – families from nearby villages have heard about the new facilities and opportunities in the centre. Some of them have already asked our local child coordinator how they can enroll their children as well.”

She further added, “I am very happy to see that the Education Center is filled with kids playing, singing and studying! And the best: they are actually very eager for knowledge!”

Kopu, a 14-year old boy recently said: “In my first computer training session I learned how to switch the computer on and off, I learned how to type in Thai and we were using a special programme that allowed me to draw on the screen. I look very much forward to my next lesson on Saturday to find out more.”

The Center’s resident child coordinator and teacher of the Karen language, Dali, has also introduced a bi-weekly Karen language class. “I enjoy the opportunity to pass on our old Karen culture whilst also preparing the kids for the future”, she said.

CONTACT US

For further information, please send an email to:
enquiries@karenkids.org

For questions related to donations / sponsorships, please contact:
donation@karenkids.org

If you want to be a volunteer at KAREN Kids, please contact:
enquiries@karenkids.org

OUR ADDRESS

KAREN Kids Society
GPO Box 954
Hong Kong SAR

Karen Kids aims to build capacity and therefore aspire to teach self reliance with sustainable projects such as the Hen House, the Mushroom Hut, a rabbit breeding programme and a vegetable garden.

All activities are designed to develop confidence, self discipline and awareness to the children in our care as well as skills useful long after their education has finished. This can only promote a better future for the Karen Kids.

Thank You! You have subscribed to the KAREN Kids Newsletter!

* All your personal data collected will be only using by KAREN Kids and the admins of this site. We will keep these personal data confidentially.

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* All your personal data collected will be only using by KAREN Kids and the admins of this site. We will keep these personal data confidentially.