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We often hear people say we can’t change the world, but don’t tell that to the parishioners of Asbury United Methodist Church in north Eugene or a local nonprofit called COPE, short for Connected Oregon Padauk Education.
They saw an opportunity to help children halfway around the world and stepped up.
This story begins in Myanmar (formerly Burma), where civil strife and continued warfare has chased many of its people across the border into neighboring Thailand for the relative safety of refugee camps. Many have relatives back home who are incarcerated, missing or dead, and fear arrest should they return.
But while family and community disruptions are rampant in this troubled region, it is the children who suffer most. Many young children on both sides of the border are isolated, traumatized and simply unable to learn. Trauma affects their brains by locking them into a fight-or-flight mode, constantly scanning for danger.
They lack focus, experience memory gaps and often exhibit behavioral problems, making learning exceedingly difficult.
Large populations of traumatized children are not unique to Myanmar. What brought this particular population to the attention of Eugene residents was an unusual sequence of events that started when a Burmese student named Thu Ta arrived in town.
Thu Ta trained to be a teacher in his native Myanmar, but realized that teaching local children would be an uphill struggle because of their experiences. So he decided to do something about it. In 2021, he applied for and received a scholarship from the now-dissolved U.S. Agency for International Development to pursue a master’s degree in educational policy and management in the College of Education at the University of Oregon.
Upon arriving in Eugene, he found housing courtesy of Lorraine Robinson, a member of the Asbury congregation. In short order, he was interacting with the entire congregation and was quickly adopted by them despite his being a Buddhist. He became part of their family.
Based on his work at UO, the Bethel School District gave him an opportunity to get involved with Eugene students as a part-time special education instructor. Everyone continued to learn.
Last year, after completing his degree and receiving additional training through UO’s new Ballmer Institute for Children’s Behavioral Health, Thu Ta was unable to return to Myanmar and chose instead to live near the Thai-Myanmar border.
Partnering with Dr. May Cho Cho Myint, a Burmese doctor and therapist, they began building an educational program to provide teacher training. Their goal was not to teach children, but rather to teach teachers how to teach children who had lost years of schooling and experienced the traumas of war.
Meanwhile, back in Eugene, the members of the Asbury congregation were hard at work looking for resources to support the pair’s efforts. With the help of Deborah Ettel, a church member and pediatric brain injury consultant, they sought funds to help create Connected Oregon Padauk Education.
The name includes the “connected education” concept underlying the teaching techniques, as well as references to both Oregon and Myanmar’s national flower, the padauk. And the word ‘cope’ is at the heart of the group’s goal for children.
Once COPE was established, Thu Ta and Dr. May began offering a series of free courses, workshops and webinars to local teachers, applying their skills in trauma-informed educational methods. Zoom classes are used to reach teachers across the border in local Burmese schools, and even some teachers from government controlled schools tune in.
Today, COPE sponsors courses and workshops reaching over 300 teachers in Myanmar and Thailand. Their programs focus on four areas: teacher leadership training, language development, youth mentoring and resilience training for teachers.
Initial accomplishments include seminars on fostering student self-identity and self-confidence, empowering multilingual learners and addressing teacher burnout, as well as leadership workshops aimed at forging partnerships between teachers on both sides of the border. Visit cope-edu.org for more details.
Looking back on how all of this started, Fred Lydum, Asbury’s minister, observed, “It really does take a village. Traumatized children represent a universal call to all communities. We saw a problem and had an opportunity to try and help. It doesn’t matter what religion you are or what belief system you follow, you have to try and help.” And they did.
When asked about his experiences in Eugene, Thu Ta responded, “Finding a place where I felt safe, seen and genuinely welcomed changed my life. My story is proof that when people choose to welcome and invest in someone, their impact can reach far beyond one life. Asbury helped me find a home; now, I hope to help others find opportunity and hope through education.”
