The Burmese Refugee Project seeks to build participatory models for community development, focusing on education and the social welfare of approximately 200 Shan refugees living in northwest Thailand. The Shan are an ethnic group currently persecuted by the national government in Burma (Myanmar), which has banned the Shan language from all public institutions, engaged in systematic rape and torture of the Shan people, and captured many Shan as forced labor for the national army. To escape persecution, as many as half a million Shan have crossed the eastern border into Thailand. In building a well-educated, healthy, and economically robust Shan community, the BRP seeks to create the foundations for a future democratic Burma. Funding from the Martín-Baró Fund will allow the BRP to continue to provide year-round counseling, explore community concerns, provide educational support and supplementary children’s programs, and help in accessing health and legal services. In the coming year, the BRP will also develop Shan cultural workshops and a peer educator system on reproductive health issues.