I am Karen, one of the ethnic groups from Myanmar subjected to ethnic cleansing for many decades. When I was five months old, civil war struck our village and my family had to flee to a refugee camp on the border of Thailand, where I lived for 12 years.
During summer, it was really hot, and during the rainy season, we got wet because our houses were just made out of bamboo and leaves. The food was rationed weekly – rice, fish paste and yellow beans, and that was it for 12 years. But that kind of suffering was considered normal . . .