Within the constraints of its available budget, the Foundation is ready to provide emergency assistance to Karen villages, other Thai hilltribe groups, and local Thai communities, whenever required. Over the years we have provided pure drinking water projects to two non-Karen villages which were experiencing serious problems, namely, Ban Tat Muen in Chomthong District, Chiangmai, and Ban Mae Su in Maelanoi District, Maehongson Province.

Most emergency relief, however, has been in response to requests for urgent medical and financial assistance from individual Karen families, faced with unexpected problems to which they have no solution without recourse to the Foundation. A large number of individuals and families have received our assistance over the years, especially where we have taken responsibility for the immediate financial coverage of bills ensuing from the sudden death of a parent, and the subsequent shouldering of educational and other bills for the children of the family.

Where possible we have attempted to liaise with the relevant local government authorities, to secure emergency relief from government funds designated for such cases, but to which access is often denied to Thai Karen in distress. Fortunately, in recent years, government officials have become much more readily prepared to treat the Thai Karen as full citizens of the state, and we are less frequently called on for such liaison assistance than in previous years.

There are, however, serious problems that occur, where immediate response is required. An example of such a case was the outbreak of typhoid that happened in a remote village in Omkoi District in 2002, when over 20 villagers died (20% of the population of the village). We were not able to prevent the deaths, but we were able to provide emergency relief to the survivors, especially the children who lost a parent, or in several cases, both parents.

In June 2006, with funds and physical assistance from Lodge Pattaya West Winds, the Grand Lodge of Western Australia, and Sea and Oilfield services Co. Ltd., we were able to install two large temporary accommodation buildings at a Karen secondary school cildren's dormitory that had been completed destroyed by a freak firestorm.  (These buildings, called "domes" had previously been used for emergency relief operations in the aftermath of the Boxing day 2004 tsunami in Southern Thailand.)
Our concerns for the future are as follows:

• Drought and the effect of this on health & hygiene, and on food production
• Torrential rain in the mountains and the resulting landslides
• Outbreaks of diseases such as typhoid, dysentery, dengue fever, SARS etc.
• Earthquake
• Cross-border Incursions from Burma