Youth-led Volunteer Service to Building Solidarity in Thailand
Myanmar and Thai youth volunteers pack medical kits and medicines for displaced people along the Thailand=Myanmar borders (Mae Sot, December 2025).
FCA Thailand, in collaboration with Spirit in Education Movement (SEM) and Thai Volunteer Service (TVS), brought together 40 Myanmar and Thai youth for a collaborative volunteer work in Mae Sot, Tak province, Thailand on 6-8 December 2025.
Throughout the three days, youth participants engaged in various activities. For example, they participated in deep listening exercises in mixed groups, sharing their personal stories with empathy and respect. Thai youth, in particular, gained a deeper understanding of the conflicts in Myanmar and the reasons why Myanmar youth migrate to Thailand for safety. Thai Volunteer Service (TVS) introduced the concept of volunteerism, emphasizing how volunteer services on the ground can be directly linked to broader social issues, and positioning youth as active contributors to social change rather than passive observers. They worked together on community services by sorting medical kits and medicine for displaced people and cleaning a temple library for novice monks. Volunteerism offers an empowering entry point for youth on the move to engage in social causes, strengthen leadership, and build networks with civil society.
Myanmar and Thai youth volunteers clean a temple library for novices in Mae Sot district, Tak province (December 2025).
In addition, the youth held a reflection session to discuss what they had learned, what impressed them, and how they envisioned their future participation in volunteer initiatives. They highlighted that they now better understood the complexity of migration and the urgent needs of people on the move, particularly children. Their interests focused on supporting migrants’ health and living conditions and responding to the multiple layers of vulnerability they had witnessed. Together, they outlined possible next steps: creating a youth volunteer network to support vulnerable people from Myanmar; offering counseling and deep listening sessions; facilitating healthcare and psychosocial support; providing basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter; offering life skills training related to survival and safety; supporting migrant children’s access to education; conducting data collection and research; and using social media to share on-the-ground stories, raise public awareness, and counter negative sentiment toward displaced people. They also expressed a strong desire to continue partnering with Thai civil society organizations to sustain support for vulnerable communities.
A Myanmar youth volunteer distributes necessities to novices at a temple in Mae Sot district, Tak province (December 2025).
In the final reflection session, youth expressed gratitude to FCA, SEM, and TVS for creating opportunities to network with Myanmar peers from diverse backgrounds and with Thai youth. Many expressed pride in their volunteer contributions and recognized that their human, cultural, and network resources could be mobilized to continue supporting vulnerable people through volunteer initiatives. They concluded that volunteer work is a powerful form of people-to-people engagement that builds understanding and, ultimately, social cohesion.