Deh Ni’s Story

Q: Can you tell me a little bit about your history?

A: My parents come from Burma but I was born in Thailand. I was born in HuayPhuKhet village, Thailand in 1995. I am Kayan Padaung. I studied in my village until grade 6. When I reached grade six, I moved to study in Karenni Refugee Camp 1. I have been there until now. After I finished grade 10, I studied at SDC School. Even though I was born in Thailand I do not have a Thai passport. I can only travel within Mae Hong Son province.

Q: What do you want to do in the future?

A: In the future, I want to help my people. I will tell them about what I have learnt at SDC School and share my knowledge in my community as much as I know. I want my community to know about the subjects I have studied. I want them to know about the environment and rule of law. I recently went inside Karenni State to share about free and fair elections.

Q: What did you do inside Karenni State?

A: Inside Karenni State, I went with two of my fellow SDC alumni to share about free and fair elections. We explained to villagers how to vote and how to select a good leader for them. We tried to guide them. We helped them to think about how to get the information in order to know which party is good and which party is not.

Q: What do you think the issues are inside Karenni State?

A: In my view, inside Karenni State, there are a lot of problems. For example, when they hold an election, no party comes to explain about the election. There are no manifestos or campaigns. They don’t know who the best party for them to vote for is. They can only guess when they vote. I want parties to come and share with the villagers again and again so that the villagers can know more about politics and elections.

Q: What was the response of the local villagers?

A: They were very happy and they know more about free and fair elections now. They are also a little bit more aware about democracy. They also said they will be able to share to other neighbors that live near them. They requested for us to come back again and invited us to help them anytime.

Q: Why is SDC’s program important?

A: SDC’s program is very important because it is useful for us. By studying at this school, we can help our community more than other programs. I hope all of the subjects at SDC will be very useful for our people