Five Minutes with... Meg Mansfield, Special Educational Needs Teacher, Thai-Burma Border
Sixty-seven year old SEN teacher Meg Mansfield is currently volunteering with VSO on the Thai-Burma border. Here, children with disabilities are extremely vulnerable: they can’t access education and live isolated lives with little social contact. Through Meg's work at The Star Flower Centre, she is building brighter futures for the Thai-Burma border’s forgotten children.
Tell us about your placement with VSO
I have been involved in teaching Special Educational Needs and with foster care for a number of years until I retired in 2008. VSO matched my experience to this role working to support children with Special Educational Needs on the Thai/Burma border in the bustling border town of Mae Sot. There are thousands of Burmese migrants living alongside the Thais and there are also a lot of volunteers from all over the world.
Tell us about the area of Thailand where you are volunteering
Many vulnerable people live along the Thai/Burma border. They cross the border to seek a better life from that in Burma, but the economic realities are harsh and their illegal status means that their personal safety is at risk. There are migrant schools set up for the children, but the facilities and funding are limited.
And how is the situation for children with disabilities?
Children with disabilities cannot go to schools for a variety of reasons: their severe needs make mainstream schooling impossible; they live isolated lives with little contact outside their family; the schools refuse to admit them. When we visited the families we found that the children were very reserved, with low self-esteem and no expectation of any education. Children were often left alone at home while the parents work. The challenges for their families were huge.
What action has been taken to change it?
In July 2009, The Star Flower Centre opened through a joint venture between VSO and World Education to provide education for children with disabilities who were not attending school. We currently have children ranging in age from 5 to 16 and with many different disabilities. The school has one main room, with a small storeroom and a bathroom. When the children arrive, they can choose what activity they do, giving them a chance to make small decisions for themselves. We also develop individual education plans for each child, which depending on the need concentrates things like on physical therapy, fine motor control or speech therapy and activities such as art, music and outside play.
What progress do you feel you have made in Mae Sot?
When they first arrived, the parents and children were shy and didn’t really know what to do at the centre. Now it couldn’t be more different. The Star Flower Centre is a very happy place. For example, each day we have ‘greetings time’ to make everyone feel welcome and valued. I am very proud that most of the children can now recognise their name written in Burmese and in English.
Are there any specific examples you can tell us about?
We have a little boy called AT, who cannot walk without support and, when we first met him, had no speech. Now he has a vocabulary of about 50 words, he sings songs and greets me in English. Before going home, we have a quiet time planned, usually a story or puppets. This often becomes a rather loud song and dance routine and I don’t have the heart to intervene! I believe the Centre is making a real difference to the lives of our children.
