Bringing the gift of clean water to migrant children
UNICEF's work with partners to ensure vulnerable families and children have access to clean and safe water
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“We faced bad water and sanitation problems when we fled Myanmar into Thailand,” says Pyo Nyi Nyi, an 11-year-old refugee from Myanmar. “We didn’t have enough water and it usually wasn’t clean. And there are fifty people living in our community on a Thai farm, with not enough toilets for us all. We collected water from a pond and a small well near our house for cooking and drinking. Even after boiling, it tasted and smelt terrible. Lots of kids got stomach aches and had problems with their skin.”
Pyo Nyi Nyi is one of millions of children from Myanmar whose lives have been upturned by the 2021 coup. The coup led to an escalation in armed conflict around the country and mass displacements of more than a million people, both within the country’s borders and into Thailand. The Royal Thai Government has estimated that at least 22,200 Myanmar refugees have sought safety in Thailand, but many more are estimated to have moved to the border regions the two countries share. These traumatized families and children often face very challenging circumstances as they try to rebuild their lives, including learning loss, healthcare limitations and poor water, sanitation, and hygiene.
As well as creating enormous hardship for these families and children, the situation can lead to risks for the wider population in Thailand. It’s for both these reasons that UNICEF Thailand has partnered with the Help Without Frontiers Foundation to provide humanitarian support to displaced populations along the Thai Myanmar border.
One of the most urgent priorities for displaced people was improving water, sanitation and hygiene. UNICEF Thailand worked with partners worked to assess the current challenges facing displaced families, and start putting in place much needed support to help families with their water, health and sanitation needs. The target was to reach at least 6,000 vulnerable people.
“In the middle of 2023, Help Without Frontiers and UNICEF teams came to our community and handed out hygiene kits for all the families to help us stay healthier,” remembers Pyo Nyi Nyi. “They sat with the elders and talked about all their needs, including toilets and water problems. After that, they came out and installed toilets and bathing stations, and made sure we had water purifiers to help us stay healthy.”
One of the key benefits of the project was that the work to improve water, sanitation and hygiene had many other benefits. Not only did health improve, but so did children’s opportunity to learn, given that they were no longer frequently unwell and didn’t have to spend as much time preparing water. It also eased some of the stress for families who had endured much when fleeing the fighting in Myanmar.
“The water filter provides enough drinking water for all the families living in the farm,” Pyo Nyi Nyi says happily. “We feel confident when we cook or drink from the water purifier. We’ve also been trained in how to take care of the filter together. We’re really grateful to the partners who helped make this possible. It makes a big difference to drink water and know that it’s safe.”
