Map Foundation

Migrant Assistance Programme MAP FOUNDATION For the Health and Knowledge of Ethnic Labor In 1996 thousands of migrants were working in Chiang Mai building the hotels, housing estates, and hospitals which now cover the city. At the time there were almost no services available to migrants and when they needed to go to hospital they faced difficulties with language and costs. Migrant Assistance Programme (MAP) started to develop a group of migrants who could interpret in hospitals and provide some health education prevention and promotion on migrant work-sites, mainly construction sites. As MAP became part of the migrant community, the range of issues facing migrant workers became apparent and the activities of MAP expanded to respond to these issues. In 2002 MAP became a registered Thai foundation, taking the Thai name: "Foundation for the Health and Knowledge of Ethnic Labour" but keeping the already English name MAP which had already become familiar with migrant communities. Our Work : MAP works towards a vision of the future where people from Burma will have the right to stay and the right to migrate, where migration will be facilitated by formal agreements and with support from trade unions, NGOs and GOs and where migrant workers rights will be respected. Overall Objectives: 1. for policies on migrant workers to be formulated and implemented from a human rights and labour rights perspective 2. to facilitate local migrant worker communities to identify and respond to challenges 3. to increase understanding of migrant workers situation in the host country and to reduce discrimination Locations: MAP office is located in Chiang Mai and we run activities with migrants in Chiang Mai, Mae Sot and since the tsunami Phang Nga. MAP members: Migrant workers and their families working on construction sites, as domestic workers, in garment factories, rubber plantations and various other jobs. OUR NAME AND US: In 1996 a concerned group of locals and migrants started to provide interpretation services for migrant workers in hospitals and clinics, and to give primary health education at migrants work sites. When the National Broadcasting Station of Thailand offered us a few minutes on the radio each day to communicate with migrants on health issues, we called ourselves, MAP

(Migrant Assistance Programme) and started daily broadcasts in two of the ethnic languages of Burma, Karen and Shan. We also set up an emergency house for migrants needing somewhere to stay before, during or after operations or in critical situations. As our work expanded and developed, our activities became known as Migrant Action Program, with migrant and refugee women developing programs to address violence, and migrant workers taking action against the exploitation and abuse they suffered at work. In 2002, we registered as a Thai Foundation. In English, we continue to be known as MAP or MAP Foundation. In Thai, our name translates as Foundation for the Health and Knowledge of Ethnic Labour.