Australians train Burmese refugees in New Delhi

The students and faculty of the University of New South Wales (UNSW) from Sydney, Australia are providing training on advocacy, livelihood, counseling and human rights education to Burmese refugees in New Delhi, India, from Friday.

Dr.Eileen Pittaway, (red cloth) the director of the Centre for Refugee Research of the University of New South Wales(UNSW) from Sydney, Australia and her assistant Linda Bartolomei during the introduction of the training on January 21 (Thursday) in New Delhi, India.

The leader of the trainers Dr. Eileen Pittaway, the Director of the Centre for Refugee Research of UNSW told Kachin News Group, they are trying to present the issue of Burmese refugees in New Delhi to the international community and giving them training on how to manage their livelihood, human rights and how to counsel each other on the harassment they are facing.

“This training will be the fourth time here in New Delhi, India,” said Dr. Pittaway. The purpose is whatever the groups here want not what we want”.

She said they came on the request of the refugees but not only for training. They can also deliver the message from the refugees to the United Nation in Geneva and other countries.

“We have been coming here for five years to work with the group, at first just with the women’s groups. They have invited us to come back more often because they want the training,” added Dr. Pittaway.

“We are privileged to go to the United Nations, where we can take the message of the refugees, which they cannot because they don’t have money and visa,” said Dr. Pittaway who has been providing training to different ethnic groups from Burma since 1993.

The training started from Friday divided into four groups among the 50 participants with 21 trainers mainly discussing and training on the subjects of Response to Violence against Women, Counseling, Livelihood and Income Generation and Advocacy.

“It is disappointing that the protection refugees are promised by the refugee laws and by human rights laws is not fully enjoyed by refugees in India,” said Dr. Pittaway.

The participants are happy with the training where they get a lot of help for their livelihood and can express their problems in front of the international community and the UN headquarters directly through the group.

“It really helps us not only for more awareness about human rights and how to manage our lives but also because we can talk of our struggles and the situation here to the international community,” said Ms. Lum Nan, coordinator of Burmese Women Delhi (BWD), who is part of the training from 2007.

“We are really happy to have this programme again because a lot of things are changing (such as getting more help) in our lives after the training,” added Lum Nan.

Mai Za Sung of the Chin Women Union (CWU) said she learnt a lot of necessary things as refugees living in another country and the program helps them to present their problems.

The Dr. Pittaway said the trainers, who are from UNSW, include three academic staff, one part time academic staff, a service provider who runs a big resettlement service for the refugees who go to Australia, 16 master degree students, who have paid for themselves for the trip and the training.

According to a UN report in 2009 December, there are more than 12,440 refugees recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India and 6,600 asylum-seekers registered with UNHCR. The largest groups are from Afghanistan while 2,952 are from Burma.

However tens of thousands of unregistered Burmese refugees, a majority from Chin tribes are living in Mizoram State in Northeast India.

Source :http://kachinnews.com/News/Australians-train-Burmese-refugees-in-New-Delhi.html