Littlehampton student returns to refugee camp

Former Littlehampton Academy student Rebecca Byatt, 18, will spend a month helping to brighten the lives of young Burmese refugees, who have fled their country into neighbouring Thailand.

She is now busy raising as much money as possible for her visit to the No Poe refugee camp, for the persecuted Burmese minority group, the Karen.

Rebecca, of Arun Close, said: “I want to better the children’s lives. They really haven’t got much.

“The children there are so cute and have been through so much. It makes you realise just how lucky you are.

“When I went there in 2009 I said that I would come back to them. Everyone makes promises that they break. I don’t.

“Some day I hope to live out there permanently and help these children.”

Rebecca will be joining a group of eight Littlehampton Academy students, along with the school’s chaplain, Paul Sanderson, for the mercy mission, arranged by the humanitarian charity the Cred Foundation.

Together, they will help to support the Karen refugees by teaching youngsters basic English and providing them with essential, education supplies.

The group will have to contend with a three-day trek through the leafy jungle of Thailand’s Umphang District to reach the camp.

Living conditions there are basic, with hundreds of huts constructed from forest bamboo, scattered across the site.