These activities focus on caring for the more vulnerable members in the community and maintaining social harmony.

Orphans and unaccompanied children are offered support and supplied with school materials and food and board.

Safe Houses provide support, protection and a loving community for women survivors of rape, domestic violence, trafficking and other abuses suffered by women in vulnerable situations.

New mothers receive a KWO Baby Kit which consists of a health message, cloth nappies, soap, baby shampoo and washing powder.

In the refugee camps, KWO supplements rations for the elderly with fresh foods when funding permits.

KWO gives moral and material support to families which are unable to care adequately for themselves (eg. in time of illness or emergency).

We assist women to participate in the judicial system in the refugee camps.

KWO also assists the community with mediation, counselling and home visiting services.

This work, like so much of the work that women do in all societies, often goes unrecognised. Whilst KWO feels a strong duty to provide this assistance, we often lack the financial resources to do so as adequately as we would wish. Nonetheless, KWO continues to play a key role in caring for vulnerable members of the Karen community.

A vital aspect of KWO is our networks and relationships with other women’s groups and NGOs. This creates a valuable forum to share information and experiences and to coordinate our activities.

These networks also promote solidarity and strength between the Karen and other ethnic groups on the borders. KWO regularly attends workshops, women’s exchanges, conferences and meetings at the local, regional and international level.

We are a founding member of the Women’s League of Burma which is an umbrella organisation formed in 1999 to increase dialogue and cooperation between women’s organisations from different ethnic groups in Burma.