World Aid was founded in 1989 and began its work in Laos.  Some of the projects there included establishing water wells, rebuilding and equipping hospitals and clinics, medical training, creating a Lao/English medical dictionary and providing doctors and equipment for eye surgeries.  In late 1992, because of the growing crisis in Burma, World Aid mobilized to work in a growing capacity with internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Burma and with refugees along the Thai/Burma border. 

The Conflict in Burma

Burma is an ethnically diverse country ruled by a brutal military regime, the State Peace and Development Counil (SPDC), and has been in a civil war for over 50 years.  The Burma Army attacks its own people using methods such as forced displacement, rape, land seizure, torture and forced labor in an attempt to crush all activity that might be perceived to be a threat to their stranglehold on power. Atrocities are commited more frequently in the remote ethnic areas away from the media.  Consequently, there are over one million (1,000,000+) men, women and children displaced within Burma.  For more information and documentation of the human rights abuses in this region go to The Karen Human Rights Group  at  http://www.khrg.org/  and Free Burma Rangers at http://www.freeburmarangers.org/.

The Problem

The majority of support provided to this region through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) goes to the refugee population residing in organized but unofficial refugee camps in Thailand.  This refugee population in these camps is currently over 150,697 people (April 2008 figures from Thai/Burma Border Consortium at www.tbbc.org.)  The basic immediate needs of these people are currently being met by several large international relief organizations.  

The largest and most difficult problem is that of the internally displaced persons (IDPs) still living inside Burma.  This population of men, women and children  have had their villages and homes destroyed,  livestock killed and stolen, rice fields destroyed and mined, rice barnes burned, and cooking pots destroyed.  Family members have been raped, murdered and taken away for forced labor.    

These people are World Aid's primary concern.   We seek to serve them through advocacy, medical relief and emergency supplies, and educational assistance.