The Build Project works with young people from Burma who live in Thailand.
In Mae Sot, Northern Thailand, we offer a two year residential training programme at the Institute of Academic and Practical Studies (IAPS), for migrants from Burma aged 17-25.
The IAPS programme has evolved through consultation with our current students. We provide high-quality teaching to:
- build leadership skills and experience
- foster skills for self-help community development
- tackle educational disadvantage and build skills for independent thinking and lifelong learning
- enable young people to improve their life chances.
Building Skills
Many of our students have experienced a life of instability and ordeals which forced them to leave Burma and disrupted their education.
Without the opportunities offered by IAPS, our students face a life of disadvantage as displaced people who are denied basic rights. We help them to develop relevant and practical skills which will enable them to become self-reliant and improve their opportunities in life.
Building Community
Our students are preparing to play an important role in the future of their communities. As part of the curriculum, they plan and run projects to help others. Students participate in decision-making at IAPS and help to run school activities.
Students are already putting into practice their leadership and project skills. They mentor younger students and orphans, and recently helped agencies to deliver assistance to the flood of refugees from Burma fleeing post-election violence.
The IAPS programme promotes trust and collaboration between the different ethnic groups from Burma, intergenerational dialogue, and greater awareness of the role of women in building communities.
Our vision is that students who have graduated will assume the leadership of IAPS in the coming years.
The Build Project is an incorporated non-profit association based in Melbourne, Australia. The organisation is run by volunteers and is entirely dependent on private donations. We have no religious or ethnic affiliations.
