Local Garage Sale Raises Money to Help Burmese Students, Teachers

South Pasadena residents opened their wallets recently to supplement the sparse salaries of teachers in a small Thailand town.

Spearheading the effort was local resident Allison Ficht, a volunteer for the Burmese Migrant Worker's Education Committee. Ficht spent three months in Mae Sot, Thailand, a tiny town on the Burmese border. There, teachers' regular pay is $4 per day. But during the month of February, funds had dried up and instructors were paid $1.50 per day.

When she returned to South Pasadena in mid Febraury, Ficht held a garage sale that raised $1,800 - enough to back pay the teachers. 

According to a Faceook post on Ellen's Silkscreening, a business which contributed to the volunteers' cause, the committee's first priority is to ensure the children receive an education. Without BMWEC schools, many children would be denied academics, and potentially forced to beg, the letter states.

Volunteers also raise money to provide meals, clothes and safe shelter. 

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