The Best Friend International e.V. is a non-profit organization that implements educational and social welfare projects along the Thai-Burma border.
Part of their projects is the work with Burmese migrants living on the rubbish dump of Mae Sot.
Since 2007, the organization has been involved in transforming the living conditions of the migrant families from the rubbish dump providing them with basic services such as food, medicine and drinking water.
In addition, in 2010, they have launched a relocation project for the families from the dump which is now evolved into an agriculture project. By collecting recyclable materials, people can make about 100 baht (2.5 €) per day. At present, approximately fifty families are living in bamboo huts built on mountains of waste. Before the waste arrives at the dump, it already has passed through a double sorting process, which makes it difficult for these families to salvage resalable material.
I have been photographing and documenting the tragedy of the burmese refugees living at the Thai-Burma border town of Mae Sot for four years.
In one of my visits I met the buddhist monks of the ” The Best Friend international e V” organization. For more than two months, I shared the small joys and sorrows of the many families who live in the rubbish dump. I discovered day by day their world full of stories of abuse and poverty and I used my camera with an eye for taking care of their dignity.
