Helping displaced children in rebel-held parts of Kachin

Children's laughter rings out from bamboo huts along the perimeter of the Lana Zup Ja camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in a part of Myanmar’s Kachin State controlled by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA): A group of pre-schoolers are playing in a plywood hut, seemingly oblivious to the squalid conditions surrounding them.

The playground-cum-learning centre is one of six new “child-friendly spaces” that local NGO Wing Pawng Ningthoi (WPN) has built in IDP camps in Kachin State.

“Most of the children come from conflict zones, but when we ask them about their experiences, many of them don’t know how to answer and just stare in silence,” WPN’s Mary Tawm, who oversees food and shelter assistance for about 10,000 IDPs in six camps controlled by the KIA, told IRIN.

But these children are also the lucky ones.

"Thousands of children have been affected by the conflict in Kachin State,” said James Gray, a child protection specialist for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).


                                                                                Quelle: Steve Sandford/IRIN
Child protection concerns in Kachin are rising


http://www.irinnews.org/Report/98083/Helping-displaced-children-in-rebel-held-parts-of-Kachin