A Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies student has just returned from a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border where she spent six weeks on field placement.
Lisa Lock began studying at Charles Darwin University back in 2002 as a Bachelor of Social Work student, but with a passion to one day work in the humanitarian aid sector, she yearned to find a course in that field.
At that time neither CDU nor any other national university offered a humanitarian degree, but in 2008 all that changed with the introduction of CDU’s pioneering Bachelor of Humanitarian and Community Studies.
The degree equips students with the skills to work effectively in remote communities in Australia, disaster-affected areas nationally and internationally, and in logistically supporting humanitarian aid agencies.
As soon as Lisa heard of the course, she immediately transferred her credits to the new degree and hasn’t looked back.
The degree calls for students to undertake a work placement which Lisa has just completed in Thailand. She was the first of 21 students to undertake an international humanitarian aid placement and was located at the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU) in the Mae La Refugee camp, 45 minutes north of the primary SMRU location in Mae Sot.
The Mae La camp provides for Karen refugees, displaced from Burma, and was established in 1984 with a population of 1100 people, but now houses more than 40,000 refugees.
While at the camp, Lisa assisted in a pilot study investigating a link between pneumonia and the use of bio fuels in a densely inhabited area.
“It was very hard work,” Lisa said. “I worked long hours and I was there during the rainy season so the conditions were harsh and very muddy.”
But Lisa said that one thing she really wasn’t prepared for was the beauty of the place.
“It’s almost too pretty to be called a refugee camp,” Lisa said.
As the conflict in Burma has been going on for so long, the Mae La refugee camp, originally designed to provide short-term shelter, now resembles a small town as it has established infrastructure with access to good health care and no shortage of food.
“Everyone was very warm and welcoming and they take great pride in keeping their homes and public areas neat and tidy. Most foreigners who come to the camp are confined to certain areas, but as I was a student assisting SMRU with a research project I was able to move around the entire 7km by 2.5km camp.
“It’s so great that through CDU I have been able to experience such an amazing place.
“I feel so privileged to have been at the Mae La camp and I have definitely proved to myself that I can do this type of work and I’m good at it. It has confirmed that I have chosen the correct career path for me,” she said.