Picture Books for Refugee Camps

　Refugees are escaping regional conflict and persecution.// Surviving in a new place,/they are afraid of losing their cultural identity.// Food, clothing and housing/are not enough for refugees.// To help them keep their identity,/educational support is needed/in their mother tongue.//
　Children living in refugee camps/along the Thailand-Myanmar border/are at an extreme disadvantage.// They have almost no books/written in their mother tongue, Karen.// A Japanese NGO collected traditional Karen stories and folktales/from the children’s culture,/then prepared picture books/in their mother tongue.// The NGO also collected Japanese picture books,/adding stickers in Karen.// Every day,/many children enjoy these books/in the refugee camp libraries.// They loved the books/and asked for more.//
　Picture books/written in their mother tongue/help refugee children keep their cultural identity/and find hope for the future.//