From the bottom of our heart: a warm thank you to everyone who supported, joined and contributed to our 10 year anniversary celebration!
The program at our anniversary event on December 8th showed a great variety. The festive celebrations at the HwF compound in Mae Pa (Mae Sot) included music performances from local bands and panel discussions reflecting our work and activities along the Thai-Burma border from the past, present and future.
With kind and professional help from two Spanish volunteers we could present a photographic exhibition in one of our buildings, giving a historical overview of the last 10 years in ambition to fight the root causes of poverty and discrimination faced by marginalised migrants and refugees from Myanmar. Moreover, the committed Headmaster’s from our 15 Migrant learning centres all shared their stories and memories of partnership with HwF through selected items that were later put in a time capsule and buried in the ground of our compound.
During a live auction we sold 13 items made by our Happy Tailor sewing workshop. Each piece was one of a kind and produced by donated materials. The items comprised of backpacks, bags, jackets, dresses, scarves, and kitchen sets. The total amount raised during the auction was 43,000 THB. All will go to our Migrant Learning Centers. People also could place their bits at a silent auction for paintings drawn by our students. We raised 3,650 THB with the silent auction.
During November and December HwF staff prepared a dance performances. At the event we presented a colourful mosaic of dances including traditional dances from Thailand, Burma, Karen State and South-Tyrol (the German-speaking part of Italy were the founder of HwF, Benno Röggla comes from).
We are happy and delighted to have received all the warm and thoughtful anniversary wishes, either face-to-face on December 8 or via email and social media. It was truly a great birthday party with more than 300 guests!
Looking forward to at least another 10 more years!
Find more pictures of the event on our Facebook page.
