University of Utah to partner with refugee camp

SALT LAKE CITY — When a group of University of Utah researchers first visited refugee camps on the Thailand/Myanmar border two years ago, the idea was to better understand Utah's Burmese refugees — not more about their culture, or even about the trauma they had been through before fleeing their own country, but the transformative experience of living in the camps, sometimes for decades.

Those researchers, under the auspices of the University Neighborhood Partners, returned this summer to the Thai/Burma border, this time hoping to set up a more permanent relationship between the refugee camps and the U.

Next spring, University Neighborhood Partners hopes to send a team of a half-dozen U. students and community professionals to two camps, one in the north of Thailand, one in the south. The camps house various ethnic groups, including the Karen.

The future for many camp residents has changed since Utah's refugees were resettled during the past decade. Beginning in 2005, the Thai government no longer registers Burmese refugees as refugees, which means there is no longer hope for resettlement in other countries and thus no hope of being reunited with family members who left.

"Social service agencies say there has been an increase in suicide attempts, alcoholism, substance abuse and partner violence," says Rosemarie Hunter, director of University Neighborhood Partners.

"What I continue to hear," both among Utah refugees and the Burmese still in the camps, "is that they struggle with the separation of families," says Trinh Mai, an assistant professor in the University of Utah's College of Social Work.

Mai was part of the research team, along with Yda Smith, U. assistant professor of occupational therapy, and Salt Lake artist Ruby Chacon.

The team hopes next year's visit will allow students and community members to learn about camp conditions, as well as provide training to camp residents on requested topics such as occupational therapy for victims of stroke and brain injury, and social service case management.

Despite challenges, the residents are resilient, Hunter says. "With next to no support, they're doing amazing things," she says, including "the lengths that individuals and families go to for education."

The residents have created their own high schools and even universities, taught by camp members who have master's degrees. The university in the Mae La camp — as with all camp structures, the Thai government requires they be made of bamboo, since the 25-year-old camps are technically "temporary" — is working to develop new programs and gain accreditation.

"We're currently exploring if the U., through the College of Social Work, could be a partnering institution," Hunter says.

e-mail: jarvik@desnews.com