KSDC Monthly Newsletter

Karenni Social Development Center

Building a new society for Karenni
March 2017 Newsletter

“The vision of the Social Development Center is to promote the lives of the people who have suffered human rights abuses, to teach non-violent skills to build up a new society, to develop the rule of law, to value human dignity and to protect the environment”

This month at SDC
by Principal Myar Reh
It was an extremely important month for us here at SDC, with all of our students hard work culminating in our 15th Annual Basic Course Graduation. March saw our students sit for their final exams in all of the subjects they have been learning since June of 2016. They started by taking their final exams in English, at our site in Doh Ki Tah. Inside camp they finished up by taking final exams in Democracy, Human Rights and Gender Perspectives, Rule of Law, Mathematics, and Social Studies. Once they finished their final examinations it was on to preparation for our Graduation.
Graduation took place on March 29th this year, and truly was a special event. Students performed traditional Karenni dance, a modern pop song, and several of them spoke. Many members of our community joined us to celebrate. Many thanks to our special guests who came to celebrate and say a word to bless our students future.

15th Annual SDC Basic Course Graduation

This Graduation marks our 15th year of educating students on the issues surrounding Democracy, Human Rights, and Environment. Many of our students will go on to work with local CBO's and NGO's, while many will return to Karenni State for further study or to work with community organizations inside Myanmar.

Top Left; Students prepare to walk in with a parent or guardian, Top Right; The anticipation of waiting for your name to be called up on state to Graduate, Bottom Left; A pop performance by some of our talented students, Bottom right; The students perform a Traditional Karenni dance while an adoring fan looks on.

Goodbye Teacher Martha

We had a farewell party for teacher Martha, who has been with us since the beginning of January. Thank you Teacher Martha for staying longer than you originally planned, and for working so hard to teach English to our students. And thank you students for making us all laugh too hard with your thank you speeches.

Final Examinations

Teacher Oo Reh giving the students their final examinations for Social Studies inside camp. The students did revision and exams for 2 weeks prior to graduation.

Portraits for Graduation Certificates

Students had their pictures taken for their graduation certificates, though it was hard to stay serious when friends were constantly making funny faces at you behind the camera.

About SDC

SDC is located in Karenni Refugee Camp 1 on the Thai-Myanmar border. It was founded in 2002 by three alumni of EarthRights School Burma (ERSB), who wanted to provide young people with the opportunity to learn about Law, Democracy and the Environment.

Since its formation, SDC has produced over 300 human rights and environmental activists. Coordinator and co-founder Aung Sun Myint continues to work with our team to realize the vision he set out with his fellow ERSB alumni in 2002.

Help us achieve our goals

To achieve the goals and the promise we made in our mission statement we rely on many avenues of support. Core organizational and project funding comes from our main donors. We are also supported by our community, local staff and volunteers from around the world.

All of us here at SDC would like to thank our core funders:

The American Jewish World Service
The Open Society Institute
Refugees International Japan

We would also like to thank our partners:

EarthRights International
The Curriculum Project
Mote Oo Education

We still need support to continue doing the work we do. If you are able to support us financially or with advice or expertise please contact us using the links below.