Hay Ma: “I Hope That One Day I Will Have a Chance”

By Chris Jensen , Senior Communications Officer

Hay Ma was just four years old when her family fled Myanmar.

“Because of the situation in Myanmar is not good for us, I and my family, we came here,” she said. Her family are members of the Karen ethnic minority in Myanmar, and were persecuted for their ethnicity. In 2007, Hay Ma and her family crossed into Thailand and settled in a refugee camp. She has been there ever since.

Now 23, Hay Ma has spent 18 years living inside the camp, nearly her entire life. Despite the constraints of displacement, she continues to support her community and dreams of a future outside the camp. After completing her education through grade 12 and junior college, she began teaching general science at the camp school as a volunteer.

“We don’t have enough teachers,” she explained. “So I just help our community when they need us.”

But life in the camp has only gotten harder. Funding cuts have stretched already thin resources to the breaking point. Hay Ma and her mother sew traditional Karen clothing for other community members in the camp in order to make a living. With USAID budget cuts impacting refugee camps across the world, Hay Ma explained, “We just only have 100 baht (about $3 USD) for our family in a month,” Hay Ma shared. “That makes our family have to work harder than before.”

She didn’t always enjoy sewing. “Before, I didn’t enjoy that much,” she admitted. “But because of the situation, we have to try hard to find money to survive. So I have to work, even if I don’t want to.”

Education inside the camp only goes so far. After junior college, opportunities to continue studying are scarce, and the certificates earned inside the camp carry little weight outside its borders. “If we go outside, we cannot bring our certificate to show them that we have education,” Hay Ma said.

Her dream is to become a doctor. But she struggles to hold onto that hope. “I want to be a doctor,” she said, “but I think I will lose hope of that. I didn’t have the opportunity.” Still, she channels that aspiration into the work she can do now: teaching science to young people in her community.

When asked what resettlement would mean for her, Hay Ma didn’t hesitate.

“Resettlement gives me a lot of hope. I think I will have the best opportunity to study, to find a good job, and to get a better life for my family.”

RefugePoint submitted Hay Ma’s family’s case for resettlement to the United States. But due to the current U.S. pause on refugee admissions, her case is on hold and her future remains uncertain.
“I just feel a little lost hope,” she said. “But I think we will find another opportunity to live our life.”

RefugePoint staff are working to find alternative solutions for refugees like Hay Ma around the world facing similar circumstances.