ARC Thailand - American Refugee Committee

ARC Thailand

Head Office: Bangkok

Where ARC Works in Thailand: In refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border, and in coastal villages between Phuket and Ranong in the south.

People We Serve: Burmese refugees and Thai nationals

Since 1992, ARC has been serving Karen refugees fleeing ongoing persecution in Myanmar (formerly Burma). The Karen ethnic group has been seeking autonomy from Burma since 1949 without success. Nearly all of the 460,000 refugees residing in camps in Thailand are Karen, with more arriving every year.

What ARC does in Thailand:

Health Care Training
Community Health Education
Gender-Based Violence Prevention and Response
Infectious Disease Prevention
Mother and Child Care
Primary Health Care
Water and Sanitation
Micro-Enterprise Development

Operational Since: 1979

ARC has been assisting refugees in Thailand since the organization’s founding in 1979. Through the 1980s, ARC was providing health care and assistance to refugees on the Thai-Cambodian border. But today, ARC provides health care services, health education, and water, sanitation and environmental health services to Karen refugees in camps on the border with Myanmar.

ARC focuses on building the capacity and skills of constituents, training them to become health care providers and community leaders so they may apply these skills upon their return to Myanmar or their relocation to a third country.

Milestones:

Last year, we educated more than 30,000 refugee camp residents on nutrition, disease prevention, sanitation, hygiene and HIV/AIDS. ARC provided drinking water and toilets to about 33,000 people in the camps, and we provided clinical services such as vaccinations against childhood diseases, care for pregnant women and assistance in child delivery.

Last year, ARC also worked to prevent disease outbreaks among in Southern Thailand among 236,000. We screened Burmese migrants and Thai nationals for tuberculosis, malaria, dengue fever, and pneumonia and referred patients to health facilities for treatment.

Related Reading

"ARC's Fishing Boat Project: One Year Later"

"Bush-Clinton Tsunami Relief Fund Selects ARC to Receive One Million-Dollar Grant for Thailand Fishing Boat Project"

Purchase ARC's first book, We Shared the Peeled Orange: The Letters of Papa Louis from the Thai-Cambodian Border Refugee Camps, 1981-1993

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ARC volunteer Dr. John Bordwell talks about the health situation of Congolese refugees in Rwanda.
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