Six categories, 19 organisations. Every entry with a website shows when its link was last checked.
Border context & rights information
Around Mae Sot, many people who fled Myanmar live without secure legal status, so they can be fined, arrested or sent back. The groups below give legal help, record abuses and explain people's rights.
Displaced people hold no official refugee status. Accessing clear legal information reduces harm caused by law-enforcement-related risks. — Lina
Thai human rights NGO that runs labour law clinics giving free legal aid and rights education to migrant workers, including a Mae Sot Labour Law Clinic near the Myanmar border. It takes on cases of wage theft, workplace injury, and labour trafficking.
For
Migrant workers in Thailand (many from Myanmar) and their families who face labour exploitation, unpaid wages, workplace injury, or trafficking.
Covers
Provides legal aid, casework, and community rights outreach on labour and anti-trafficking matters.
Where
Thailand, with offices in Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Mahachai (Samut Sakhon), Mae Sot (Tak, on the Myanmar border), and Phuket.
Languages
Thai, English
Beyond numbers, law-enforcement-related status risks form the largest constant pressure for grey-market operators like Case A. Accessing clear legal information reduces harm caused by those risks.
Burmese human rights organisation, staffed largely by former political prisoners, that documents arrests, deaths, and detentions in Myanmar, advocates for prisoners' release, and runs assistance and mental-health support programmes. It maintains an office in Mae Sot.
For
Political detainees in Myanmar and their families, released prisoners needing rehabilitation support, and journalists, researchers, and advocates who need verified documentation of the human rights situation.
Covers
Documentation, research, advocacy, and rehabilitation/mental-health assistance for former prisoners.
Where
Mae Sot, Thailand (border office) and Yangon/Rangoon, Myanmar.
Human rights NGO that investigates and documents abuses in Myanmar, Thailand, and the wider region, engages governments and UN bodies, and trains and supports frontline human rights defenders. It has reported on refugee detention and forced returns affecting people from Myanmar.
For
Survivors and witnesses of human rights violations, affected communities, and local human rights defenders, plus journalists, policymakers, and the public who need documented evidence.
Covers
Investigation, documentation, advocacy, and capacity-building for human rights defenders.
Where
Southeast Asia, focused on Myanmar and Thailand — including the Thai-Myanmar border and Myanmar displacement.
The UN Refugee Agency's information site for people in Thailand. It explains registration, refugee status determination, Thailand's National Screening Mechanism, and rights and legal-assistance options.
For
Refugees and asylum-seekers in Thailand, and people helping them find reliable information.
Covers
Information and contact points for refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand.
Where
Thailand, with UNHCR offices in Bangkok, Mae Sot and Mae Hong Son.
Publishes public briefings plus statistical reports covering refugee registration and Thailand-relevant displacement policy. Key reference for border-displacement research.
Last checked:
Education & learning centres
Tens of thousands of children from Myanmar around Mae Sot live outside Thailand's school system, and community learning centres have taught them for over twenty years. The groups below run those centres or help older students keep studying.
Displaced people's schooling gets interrupted by conflict. Local and international groups give children and youth second chances to rebuild their lives through education. — Lina
A foundation that funds and supports a network of around 10 Migrant Learning Centres (MLCs), known as the Ray of Hope Schools, in the Mae Sot and Phop Phra districts. It pays teacher salaries, maintains facilities and provides learning materials so Myanmar migrant children can access basic education.
For
Myanmar migrant children of school age (primary and secondary) in the Mae Sot area, plus the migrant teachers who staff the learning centres.
Covers
Supports learning centres with teacher salaries, facilities, materials, transport to Thai schools for some children, and high-school scholarships.
Where
Mae Sot and Phop Phra districts, Tak Province, Thailand (Thai-Myanmar border)
A post-secondary boarding programme in Mae Sot that gives disadvantaged Myanmar youth an intensive, English-immersion year of academic and vocational study. It prepares students for university scholarships, GED or other internationally recognised credentials, and vocational or job pathways.
For
Socio-politically, educationally or economically disadvantaged youth from Myanmar, roughly aged 17-23, often coming from migrant learning centres and refugee camps in Thailand.
Covers
Provides a roughly 10-month post-secondary/tertiary-preparation programme (English, maths, sciences, social studies, IT, vocational training, exam prep), boarding, meals and support. Entry is competitive and places are limited.
Where
Mae Sot, Tak Province, Thailand (Thai-Myanmar border)
It offers GED-preparation classes for border-displaced youth. Conflict-disrupted students restart their studies here and build ideas for future education and careers.
Last checked:
Safehouse (Mae Sot)
A safe house in Mae Sot that gives displaced young people accommodation and study space while they prepare for overseas examinations such as the GED.
For
Displaced young people preparing for further-education examinations.
Covers
Accommodation and study space for exam preparation.
Where
Mae Sot, Thailand.
Provides safe accommodation plus study space for displaced youth preparing for overseas examinations (GED). Supports young people exploring further-education and personal-development paths.
No public website — I visited in person
Health & medical access
Most migrants and refugees around Mae Sot fall outside Thailand's public health system and cannot afford private hospitals. The clinics and schemes below offer low-cost care regardless of legal status, and several lost funding in the 2025 aid cuts.
Many displaced border people lack formal health insurance. Community-oriented non-profit work fills large gaps in public health services. — Lina
A community health centre in Mae Sot, founded in 1989 by Dr. Cynthia Maung, that has provided primary and specialist medical care to migrants and displaced people from Myanmar for more than 35 years.
For
Migrant workers, refugees, and internally displaced people from Myanmar/Burma who cross into Thailand, regardless of documentation status; families and children are served alongside adults.
Covers
Covers general medicine, maternal/neonatal and reproductive care, child health, emergency and inpatient care, dental, eye care, and laboratory/blood-bank services, plus health-worker training and an attached children's education and child-protection programme. Complex cases are referred to Thai hospitals.
Where
Mae Sot, Tak Province, Thailand (Thai-Myanmar border)
A community-based organization that has served the migrant community and internally displaced populations for more than 35 years providing free healthcare.
A Thai-registered non-profit and the humanitarian arm of the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), delivering free primary healthcare to marginalised border populations, with a focus on malaria, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health.
For
Marginalised and displaced people — migrants, refugees, and stateless communities — living on both the Thai and Myanmar sides of the border in Tak Province.
Covers
Runs clinics and a network of malaria posts providing malaria diagnosis and treatment, tuberculosis care (including sanatorium beds), antenatal care and safe delivery, paediatrics, and immunisation, translating SMRU research into frontline services.
Where
Tak Province, Thailand — Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, Phop Phra, and Tha Song Yang districts (headquarters in Mae Ramat), serving both sides of the border
A non-profit that runs M-FUND, a voluntary low-cost health-coverage scheme launched in Mae Sot in 2017 for migrants who fall outside Thai government or employer health insurance, letting members access care at a network of participating hospitals and clinics.
For
Migrants from Myanmar and their dependents (and other migrants) who lack government or employer health coverage and cannot afford out-of-pocket hospital care.
Covers
M-FUND is a health-access and microinsurance fund: members pay a small monthly contribution (from around 130 baht) and receive coverage for outpatient and inpatient care through partner providers, with tailored packages for pregnancy, older people, and chronic illness. The foundation also runs hepatitis C testing/treatment (C-FREE).
Where
Launched in Mae Sot, Tak Province, and operating across Thai-Myanmar border districts (Mae Sot, Mae Ramat, Phop Phra); has since expanded elsewhere in Thailand and into Myanmar and Cambodia
Last checked:
Livelihoods & enterprise support
Many people from Myanmar around Mae Sot have little legal right to work, and many in the garment factories earn low or withheld wages. The groups below teach trades, sell women's crafts through fair-trade channels and support workers' rights; Alight is included for its earlier savings-group work in the camps.
Simply giving cash rarely solves livelihood challenges. Programmes combining training, savings groups and market access work better under structural border-related limits. — Lina
A women's organisation founded in 1990 that trains and pays refugee and indigenous women from Myanmar to make hand-woven textiles and handicrafts, then sells their work through fair-trade channels and its shops.
For
Displaced, refugee and marginalised indigenous women from Myanmar (notably Karen and Karenni) living in Thai border refugee camps and around Mae Sot.
Covers
Provides craft-based income, product and small-business/marketing skills, and fair-trade market access, alongside a children's education programme. Its livelihoods support centres on women artisans through weaving and enterprise.
Where
Thailand-Myanmar border: offices in Mae Sot, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai, plus Karen and Karenni refugee camps.
An international humanitarian organisation, founded in 1978 as the American Refugee Committee (ARC) and renamed Alight in 2019. It is included for its earlier work with community savings groups in refugee camps.
For
Anyone interested in how community savings groups have worked with refugees.
Covers
Background on village savings-and-loan groups in refugee camps.
Where
International
Languages
English
Ran VSLA village savings-and-loan groups inside closed refugee camps. Its past practice gives useful reference points for community self-funded micro-support.
A local Thai foundation working through an alliance of community-based partners along the Thailand-Myanmar border; its livelihood programme runs vocational training, including a three-month sewing course.
For
Marginalised and vulnerable border communities - migrant workers, stateless people and displaced families from Myanmar around Mae Sot.
Covers
The livelihood programme centres on vocational sewing training and links to employment; the wider foundation also runs legal assistance, youth/education, health and child-protection work.
Where
Thailand-Myanmar border, Mae Sot (Tak province); a sister organisation is registered in Myawaddy, Myanmar.
A grassroots Thai NGO, founded in 1996 and registered in 2002, that works to empower migrant communities from Burma living and working in Thailand. It has an office in Mae Sot.
For
Migrant workers and communities from Burma/Myanmar living and working in Thailand, including women and young people.
Covers
Covers labour rights (including direct legal assistance), women's groups and crisis support, scholarships and youth outreach in Mae Sot, community health and empowerment, and migrant radio in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot.
Where
Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, Thailand.
Its staff bring years of hands-on micro-lending experience, which documents high bad-debt and member-loss risks inside border displaced-people lending projects.
Last checked:
Volunteering & language support
Many people from Myanmar around Mae Sot deal with Thai hospitals, courts and schools in languages officials don't speak. Two of the groups below let you help remotely by interpreting or translating; the third is a shop and gallery in Mae Sot selling women's collective crafts.
On-the-ground volunteering and language learning help outsiders understand border realities. Volunteers must first grasp local-law and displaced-people-status constraints. — Lina
A non-profit running a free app and web platform that connects bilingual volunteers with refugees, immigrants, and the aid organisations serving them, for live interpretation and document translation on demand.
For
Refugees, immigrants, and humanitarian, legal, or medical organisations that need language help; and bilingual people who want to volunteer remotely as translators or interpreters.
Covers
Provides remote, on-demand interpreting and text/document translation via app or web. Volunteers must be 18+ and bilingual, and receive free training and safeguarding guidance.
Where
Global / remote (US-based non-profit); usable from anywhere, including by people and organisations connected to the Thai-Myanmar border.
A humanitarian non-profit whose Translators without Borders community of volunteer linguists provides translation and language services to aid and development organisations, so people can get vital information in their own language.
For
Humanitarian and non-profit organisations serving marginalised language communities; and professional or bilingual volunteers who want to translate for humanitarian causes.
Covers
Volunteer translation of humanitarian content plus language-support projects such as glossaries, terminology, and research. Works through partner organisations. Volunteer sign-up is via translatorswithoutborders.org.
Where
Global (registered in Ireland and the US). Has documented language work for Myanmar and Rohingya displaced communities, including Rakhine State and Cox's Bazar.
Languages
English, Burmese, Rohingya, Rakhine, 200+ languages via volunteers
A social-enterprise handicraft shop, cafe and art gallery in Mae Sot that markets and sells products made by autonomous women's producer collectives from the Thailand-Myanmar border, returning income to the artisans.
For
Migrant and refugee women artisans from Myanmar, organised in village-based collectives (e.g. Chimmuwa and others), plus visitors and customers who buy their work.
Covers
Offers a retail and online sales channel, exhibition and cafe space, and support for traditional craft skills (natural/plant-based dyes, organic cotton).
Where
Mae Sot, Thailand (Thailand-Myanmar border).
Long-standing local community hub offering market access for refugee craft-makers. Good starting point for learners wanting real-world border context.
Last checked:
Youth research & action
Since the 2021 coup, Mae Sot has become a base for exiled young activists and community researchers documenting the war next door. The groups below work on research, documentation and youth action rather than direct aid.
Online material only gives macro background; real-world individual struggles must come from field interviews. Writing only presents realities — it does not resolve them. — Lina
A Mae Sot-based non-profit that amplifies the voices of Myanmar's marginalised ethnic and displaced communities through awareness-raising, advocacy, and empowerment work, including online-safety training and youth events at migrant learning centres.
For
Displaced and conflict-affected people from Myanmar (ethnic nationalities, refugees, migrants) and migrant youth, plus the wider public and policymakers seeking to understand the border.
Covers
Provides advocacy, storytelling and awareness-raising, and youth empowerment and education activities (for example online-safety training and Youth Day events at migrant learning centres).
Where
Mae Sot, Tak Province, Thailand (Thai-Myanmar border), focused on Myanmar's ethnic and displaced communities.
A grassroots, Karen-led human rights organisation founded in 1992 that trains villagers in southeast Myanmar to document human rights abuses and publishes their testimony as field reports, interviews, and situation updates.
For
Marginalised villagers and displaced communities in southeast Myanmar whose perspectives are usually excluded from decision-making, plus researchers, journalists, and policymakers who rely on its documentation.
Covers
Community-based human rights documentation, field research, thematic analysis, advocacy submissions, and human-rights and self-protection workshops.
Where
Rural southeast Myanmar (Kayin/Karen State and neighbouring states and regions), operating from the Thai-Myanmar border area.