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.