The school was one of 10 Burmese migrant learning centres closed as a result of the 24 August arrest and deportation of 32 Burmese teachers by Thai officials.

News of their reopening on a part-time basis was confirmed on Monday, by Fr Frank Bird, the Director of the Marist Asia Foundation.

"We have our school programme operating because the Marist Asia Foundation is a registered foundation and we have international volunteers and Thai staff", Frank Bird said.

At present, the school is the only migrant learning centre able to open.

It re-opened after conducting a risk re-assessment and determining that by using only Thai and International volunteers the threat risk was "low".

In making the decision to re-open, the Marist Asia Foundation decided that as well as catering for its secondary school students, the school would welcome students from other secondary schools to come and sit their exams.

"We want to show the students our care and support", said Frank Bird.

"We don't want them to miss out on the opportunity."

While the school has some surplus capacity, it worked in co-operation with a local monastery to provide space for students to sit their exams.

Like others in the region, the Marist Asia Foundation laments its inability to reintroduce its Burmese teachers into their classrooms.

"We feel deeply the pain and anxiety of the Burmese Migrant Community as their children are not able to attend school and their own teachers are not allowed to teach", says Frank Bird.

The Thai Government considers the Burmese learning centres as illegal and their Burmese teachers are also illegal. It is a situation that has been permitted for the past 15-20 years.

While the students are not at school, they are either unsafely wandering the streets, locked up at home while their parents go to work, or follow their parents to work in the unsafe fish and charcoal factories.

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• Image: Supplied

The purpose of this trip was to experience what life is like for Burmese migrants, see Marist faith in action and teach English to the students attending the school run by the Marist Asia Foundation.

Ranong sits on the border of Thailand and Myanmar.

Many people in Myanmar find themselves without sufficient work. They cross Myanmar's porous borders in search of better conditions. Those in the south of Myanmar often cross into Thailand.

The volunteers from Wellington discovered the tension between the Burmese people and the Thai government.

Burmese people - including students - have to carry their passports with them in case they are stopped by Thai officers.

One of the volunteers, Benjamin Prendergast, said the students they taught were the privileged ones, able to attend school instead of working to support their families.

One student, Wine Min Htet, would travel two hours home after school, spend half an hour eating dinner, then startb a six-hour shift on a rubber plantation.

"That shows me how easy my life is compared to theirs, yet he's still so happy," Prendergast said.

Teacher Maurice Atkinson helped organise the trip. He and his wife had lived in Thailand for two years, both of them teaching, and knew the impact that seeing life there could have on the St Patrick's students.

"I thought it would be a really good idea to give New Zealand teenagers an experience of what life was like for teenagers in a different part of the world."

Now that they're back at school, the teenagers are determined to advocate for the Burmese students they met on their trip, whether that's sponsoring the costs of schooling and transport for one student ($20 a month) or fundraising to bring in extra teachers.

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• stpats.school.nz
• stuff.co.nz
• sm.org.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

Tayla will be helping people from Myanmar who have come to Thailand either as refugees escaping conflict and living in refugee camps or as migrants seeking work.

The farewell was a shared meal with Tayla and her family. Tayla is in the centre of the above photo with a gold logo on her top.

Having not long completed her bachelor of education to become a primary school teacher, Tayla will work at the Marist Asia Foundation for three months.

She will join another member of the Logos community, Laura McLellan, who is on an eight-month assignment in Ranong.

Both Tayla and Laura are former students of Marist College.

Tayla was the college's Head Girl in 2014.

Since leaving high school, Tayla has volunteered her service and gifts as a Connector in the Logos community, being a part of school retreats, community events and other programmes.

The Marist Asia Foundation began in 2006, responding to the education, health and migrant worker needs of the Burmese community.

Latest estimates suggest Ranong has up to 120,000 Burmese migrants, most of whom work in the fishing industry. Often they find the conditions in Ranong difficult.

The Marist Asia Foundation welcomes volunteers who may come for 6, 12 or 24 months and visitors who stay for a short time to help in many ways.

Because of the immigration and legal documentation required to be a volunteer in Thailand, preference now is given to volunteers who can come for a period of at least 6 months.

Each year, Marist Mission Ranong requires 2-3 volunteers who can help in English and Social Studies classes.

Qualified Teachers are also able to help with teacher mentoring and training.

For more information, download the Marist Asia Foundation Volunteer Application.

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• maristasiafoundation.org
• Image: Supplied

Laura is working with a Marist community teaching English and social studies within the Burmese migrant community.

She was a volunteer in the Marist Youth development group Logos in Auckland.

Through Logos, she was put in contact with Father Frank Bird, who is the director of Marist Asia Foundation.

Before going to Thailand Frank had been the director of the Logos Project.

Laura said the experience has made her aware of why education is such a vital catalyst in breaking the cycle of poverty.

"When migrants arrive in Thailand it is hard for them to get into employment as they can't speak, read or write in the Thai language," she says.

"This leaves a lot of migrants no choice but to work in fish, frozen food and charcoal factories or other plantation work."

The factory conditions are often long and intense, their hours starting around 5 am and not finishing till around 7 or 8 pm.

Laura has extended her stay till March 2019, the end of the school year in Thailand.

She thinks it would be disruptive for students to get a new teacher so late in the year.

"I've also grown such a strong attachment to my students and the community that I want to do as much as I can to show love here, and I feel that staying longer will allow me to do this."

She admits that at times it is difficult: "but all I want to do is continue bringing God's presence into this space.

"All the comforts of home can wait, but for now, I know I'm where I am called to be."

Marist Asia Foundation works within both education and healthcare to assist migrants in Ranong to have access to a wider range of opportunities and have brighter futures.

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• Supplied: Laura McLellan
• NZ Catholic

He has been there only for a short time but now he is off on a mission to Thailand.

He is planning to stay in Thailand for two years and then he will come back to New Zealand.

O'Brien celebrates his 50th Jubilee of Marist Religious life this year.

A lot of his ministry has been in Maori Pastoral Care, in Porirua, up North in Rawene and Okaihau.

He most recently was working in Otara, Auckland. This year he has been at Pukekaraka, Otaki.

His skills in fixing computers and getting things going smoothly have been in good use.

O'Brien will be joining The Marist Asia Foundation (previously called Marist Mission Ranong MMR).

He will be living in a community in Ranong which includes fellow New Zealander Father Frank Bird.

Ranong is a fishing village in the South of Thailand.

It is located opposite the southernmost town of Burma/Myanmar (Kaw Thaung).

This makes it a significant border crossing town.

MMR began working there in 2006 responding to the education, health and migrant worker needs of the Burmese community.

The latest estimates suggest Ranong has up to 120,000 Burmese migrants, most of whom work in the fishing industry.

In 2013 the Marist Asia Foundation opened a purpose-built Marist Centre.

The Marist Centre provides:

• Education for over 200 Burmese migrant children
• An HIV AIDS community-based health project for 75 individuals and their families
• Support programmes for hundreds of Burmese migrant workers

The Marist Asia Foundation team includes a number of Thai and Burmese as well as international volunteers.

They work with the Thai government authorities, other non-governmental organisations and the local Thai and Burmese community.

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• Supplied: P Cody
• maristasiafoundation.org
• Image: Supplied: P. Cody

The mission has been serving Burmese migrants for the past 6 years providing community support, education for Burmese children and support and health access for HIV/AIDs sufferers and their families.

This week, in Thailand, Kirsten renewed her commitment to the Marist Association of Mary.

Last Sunday, 8th December, in Auckland, William Gee, Kathleen Baran and Judith Leonard also made permanent commitments as Lay Marists in the Association of Mary.

The commitments were affirmed by Bev McDonald, the coordinator for Marist Laity and Fr David Kennerley SM at a Mass with family, friends and Associates at the Logos centre followed by celebrations.

Fr David has been the Marist Laity spiritual director for two years.

It was also an occasion to thank and farewell Fr David as he takes up a three year term as Provincial of the Society of Mary in the New Year.

Fr Chris Skinner SM was welcomed as the new spiritual director.

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• Supplied: Beverley McDonald
• Image Supplied: Beverley McDonald

In Ranong, I taught English in a learning centre and I was amazed by the children's interest in learning and by their respect for their teachers.

I also realized that learning English and Thai can make the difference for them in having and not having "a future".

I was also able to work with the HIV Project.

Our help is integral but, what the patients value most is to know that somebody cares for them.

I could see how a terminal patient felt relieved and calm after our visit.

We did very little during our short visit, but for that person we brought relief.

He died less than 48 hours later.

The last part of my experience was the visit to three refugee camps in the Northwest of Thailand. The life in the refugee camp is very tough.

• the refugees cannot get out of the camp,
• nor go freely into Thailand
• they cannot farm nor work
• they have no money and almost no rights
• they depend on UNHCR and other NGO's
• their life is monotonous and without attraction.

It seems they do not exist, and are trapped in the middle of the jungle.

Two camps have dormitories for children whose parents have gone back to Myanmar but the children remain to study.

During our farewell, one boy with whom I had had a nice chat asked me:

'Will you remember me?'

'Yes, I will," I replied.

"Good, because I'll remember you', he said.

'Will you pray for me? ', he asked again.

'Sure,' I replied.

'Good, I'll pray for you too,' he added.

Lastly, he asked me, 'Will you miss me?'

Then, with my heart touched, I replied, 'yes, I'll miss you'.

How big has to be your longing for appreciation, for attention, for acknowledgement in order to 'beg' a stranger to miss you?

In this moment I realized what it is like to be a refugee: they feel abandoned and ignored.

These people need many things, especially good education and basic resources, but I have realized that the only thing I could do for them now is to keep their memory alive and their voice loud and not to allow our memories and consciences rest until they will be able to return to their real home.

For these are the lowly ones; those of whom Mary foretells in the Magnificat that were lifted up by the Lord (Lk 1,52). They should be the most important because they are the least ones.

- Daniel Fernandez
A Marist seminarian studying Theology in Rome was with the Marist Mission Ranong on mission placement during the Italian summer break.