Fleeing Danger, Her Schoolroom Was a Forest

It was in the forest of Burma (Myanmar) that Paw Paw’s education began. “Life was hard. I remember when I was six years old, I started school. My school was in the forest. There was no building, no electricity, no desks. We were sitting on the ground. The teacher used rocks as a chalkboard. As a student, I used a flat rock to write on and a pencil as chalk. At night, I sat near the fireplace to see and do my homework.”

These days, post-college, Paw Paw works as a Provider Data Services Analyst at Infosys. With PowHERful’s Scholarship support, she completed the four-year college degree and established a career.

Paw Paw identifies as Karen (or Kayin), a Southeast Asian ethnicity with its own language and culture. “Our people have a history of the Burmese military wanting to enslave and ethnic cleanse us, and take our land. Sometimes when they attacked, my family had to get up in the middle of night and run away to the deeper part of the forest. We were so scared that we couldn’t sleep, because if the soldiers caught us, they would kill us.”

Paw Paw was eight in 2007, when her family began their trek on foot across the border from Burma to Thailand. Paw Paw remembers how her father sometimes carried three of his eight children—Paw Paw on his back, her younger brother in front, and her younger sister on his shoulders—as they made their way over rocky, irregular terrain. Only once the family arrived at the Thai refugee camp were they finally safe. There, over the next seven years, the U.N. provided shelter, basic food, and education for the family.

But as time passed, Paw Paw’s prospects remained dire. “I could not do anything with the education I received. Even if I graduated, we had to stay in the refugee camp.” There were no jobs to be had in the camp, no expectations for a future: refugees could not venture beyond the camp’s boundaries or they’d risk imprisonment or even death at the hands of Thai soldiers.

Finally, in 2014, after seven years in the refugee camp, Paw Paw emigrated with her entire family to the US. Within three months of their arrival in Hartford, CT—without knowing any English—Paw Paw, 14, and her sister Win, 16, started high school. 

Learning to communicate in English was a tremendous challenge and a daily exhaustion. Paw Paw reflects, “It took me two years to be able to speak to a classmate. When I think about it, that was my proudest moment!”

Of all the cultural adjustments the girls had to make, of all the new skills they had to take on, fluency in English has been the most daunting. Paw Paw and Win leaned into the challenge and graduated high school on time, the same year, with good grades. Both girls considered the possibility of a four-year college degree, but a high school teacher advised against it, suggesting the language barrier would be insurmountable. 

But Paw Paw and Win were not deterred. A volunteer English-language instructor at their high school, observing their determination, introduced them to the PowHERful Foundation. The sisters both became PowHERful scholars—and both successfully earned college degrees. Paw Paw remembers the tremendous challenges of studying in a new language. “With PowHERful’s help, I was able to focus on studying instead of dividing my time between study and working to pay for my tuition,” she recounts. This was especially vital as “studying requires more time for someone like me, who has to constantly translate and learn new vocabulary… With one subject, I was having a hard time, and PowHERful helped by hiring a tutor.” Having her sister Win close by was a huge support. Paw Paw remembers how they maintained their courage by keeping in mind those they’d heard of who, despite all odds, found a way. She says that PowHERful’s support was especially important for her and her sister, “both financially and emotionally.” 

Despite the innumerable difficulties Paw Paw faced as a child refugee, then as a young person struggling to manage in a new country with a new language, she is now on solid footing with a career. “Again and again I failed,” she remembers. “And yet I continued my education.”