Khu Myar Reh and his fellow SDC staff pose for a photo

Q/ Can you tell me about your background?

I am Karenni. I was born in Karenni State. Because of the political unrest in Burma as well as human rights violation practiced by the military government and their allied military groups, I fled my village to Karenni Refugee Camp in 2003.

 

 

I finished my grade ten in 1988 in Burma. After this, I finished my distance university in 1995 in Taungyi, Shan state of Burma. Before arriving in the refugee camp, I used to be a teacher for over 10 years in Karenni State. I arrived in Karenni refugee camp #1 in 2003 and had worked as a teacher at high school for 4 years in Karenni refugee camp #1 before I continued my schooling in EarthRights. I graduated EarthRights School Burma (ERS) in 2007. Since completing this course, I have been working at the SDC until this day.

 

Q/ What has been your role at SDC over the years?

I started my work at SDC in 2007 as a trainer. I taught; human rights; democracy and government; non-violence social change; and the rule of law. Now my responsibility is as principal or assistant coordinator of SDC, as trainer and as treasuror.

 

Q/ Why is SDC important?

SDC is very important because the knowledge of human rights, environment and the rule of law are very important to our people. Most of the people lack this knowledge. We need this knowledge to be able to build a new democratic society. The knowledge provided from SDC is essential for our people to have and understand first.

 

Q/ What are your goals for SDC?

My goals for SDC are to produce more human rights, environment and the rule of law activist in our society. We also need to spread the knowledge of human rights, environment and the rule of law in our society through our alumni. Next, we must produce more young people to be able to take the leadership role and help people in our society in the future. We will be able to defend our people’s rights and environmental rights by providing training at Karenni Social Development Center (SDC) school and beyond inside Burma. My hope is to rebuild a new society for our people based on the democracy.