About Us :: History | Mission and Goals | Bios
BBP's Creation
Burma is home to one of the most oppressive governments in our world today. Political repression touches everyone in the country. Severe human rights abuses – extra-judicial killings, widespread torture, forced labor, forced relocations, rape and political imprisonment – are commonplace. This brutality has forced hundreds of thousands of Burmese people to flee their homes and take cover in the country’s dense jungles or escape to neighboring countries. The estimated 400,000 internally displaced persons who live in forests close to the Thai-Burma border remain vulnerable to forced labor, army-imposed relocations and fighting between the Burmese military and ethnic insurgent groups. Those fleeing Burma to refugee camps outside the country face an arduous and dangerous journey and the reality of a life offering little stability or self-determination. This only proliferates suffering brought on by the human rights abuses they have endured. Non-governmental organizations, human rights groups and local refugee groups provide few psychosocial resources to refugees with trauma.
There remains a critical need for psychological intervention and rehabilitation. In 1999, responding to an appeal from Dr. Cynthia Maung at the Mae Tao Clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand, a group of American psychiatrists and psychologists set out to ascertain the level and extent of trauma experienced by refugees on the border, and develop a strategy for providing mental health services. Successive exploratory visits to the Thai-Burma border and data obtained from camp leaders, health workers and organizations such as the Burmese Refugee Committee, revealed an urgent need for assistance in dealing with trauma unique to Burmese refugees. Alarm over the range of needs and the unique fact that most Burmese refugees experience severe multiple traumas, led to the formation of Burma Border Projects (BBP). Since then, BBP has been providing crucial assistance and resources to increase the availability of mental health services on the Thai-Burma border.
Help now!