The Invisible Apprentice

Ma Soe Moe is a Karen ethnic Burmese refugee. She lives near the Thai/Burma border in the town of Sangkhlaburi, Thailand. The UNHCR has documented approximately 4000 Karen refugees in this region while an estimated 50,000 live without documentation, assistance or recognition. In spite of this, Ma Soe Moe is fortunate: she found Daisy Dwe and the Weaving for Women programme. Weaving for Women, is a self-sufficient grassroots organization that trains single ethnic refugee women to weave under the tutelage of Master Weavers from Burma and provides them with employment.

Ma Soe Moe’s daughter Swa Li Har was born in the Sangkhlaburi hospital. Her birth was recorded but she does not officially exist in either Thailand or Burma as her mother is not documented in Thailand. Swa Li Har is invisible to both nations. They cannot return to Burma or they would join the nearly 200,000 Internally Displaced Persons of Karen ethnicity, half of whom are in hiding and the other half living under the strict control of the military government.

Until there is a dramatic change in Burmese policy, the future for Swa Li Har is in Thailand. In time and with luck, she may become the Invisible Apprentice.