Congratulations to the Jenny Lin Foundation and the Burma Humanitarian Mission for successfully completing the 2012 Dollar-for-Dollar Matching Program! These two non-profits were selected to participate in our inaugural program based on their effectiveness, program impact, and shared vision of cause and financial transparency.

This year, the Jenny Lin Foundation raised $2405. As part of the Dollar-for-Dollar program, the Chao Foundation matched that amount, contributing to a total of $4810 that will be donated to the cause of furthering music education and scholarship for Bay Area’s youth.

The Burma Humanitarian Mission raised $9311, matched also by the Chao Foundation, for a total donated amount of $18622. This amount will go towards the organization’s mission of supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people.

Please join us in commending the success these amazing organizations.

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
--

We've heard of many reasons to think that all is well in Burma. 

The reality is that things are not going well for the ethnic minorities in eastern Burma.  In June, two men traveled to the village of a daugther.  She had just given birth.

The Border Guard Force intercepted them. They accused the two of being spies and beat one to death.

Old news?  No...this happened in late June of this year.  At a time when the regime had signed a peace agreement with the Karen National Union.  Yet, these BGF soldiers beat 2 men....one to death...for being part of the NDU.

Something is wrong here...and it's the Regime.
--

Post by Michael Isherwood

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.
--

For decades, Burma existed in a stagnant state of a dictatorship and conflict. Changes over the last 2 years have left many stupefied: Aung San Suu Kyi released; elections held and a nascent ceasefire emerging. Are the reforms real? Or, are the reforms window dressing to dupe Western governments?

Bill Keller of the New York Times offers some penetrating insights in the wake of the recent visit to the U.S. of Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s President U Thein Sein. It’s worth a few minutes of your day to read. (The Burmese Odd Couple: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/01/opinion/keller-the-burmese-odd-couple.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121001

While Keller captures the upbeat and promise of what the reforms offer, he, more importantly, provides unique insights into why Sein is pursing them and what’s the source of his power or authority to do so. At the same time, he images Aung San Suu Kyi in the balanced view of both moral heroine for her steadfast commitment and phenomenal sacrifice for democratic principles that resulted in years of house arrest plus her emerging role as stateswoman and political leader in Burma.

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. In this article, we hear from a founding member how the Mission began. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.


Traveling around the United States, I often see local grocery stores and pharmacies cajoling me to get my flu shot. 

In eastern Burma, however, the flu season has arrived.  With the Burma regime providing no community health care services, villagers rely on backpack medics and their associated village health volunteers for prevention and care.  Unfortuately, the medics have their hands full as over 1,400 villagers in northern Pa-pun Township of Karen State have come down with the flu.  Cooling temperatures and high humidity are viewed as the instigators of the outbreak.

Our friend and backpack medic colleague, Saw WIn Kyaw, shared that at one school, 400 of the 600 students have the flu.  The medics have recommended that the school be closed until this outbreak ends.  At the moment, the villages of Pla Koh and Ler Mu Plaw appear to be the epi-center of the outbreak.  Backpack medics also are advising villagers to limit their travel in this area as a means to reduce the risk of the flu strain spreading to other villages.

With just 2 medic teams operating in the area, the Karen villagers are woefully short of medical care to handle such an outbreak.

Burma Humanitarian Mission supports the Backpack medics and these two teams in Pa-pun Township.  The flu outbreak reminds us of the urgent necessity of our continued support to those living in eastern Burma as they have no alternatives. 

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. In this article, we hear from a founding member how the Mission began. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.

Each year, Burma Humanitarian Mission welcomes runners to join the Run for Burma Team.  We put a team into road races around the U.S., but our main event is the Marine Corps marathon in Washington DC.  Sizewise, the MCM is the 4th largest in the US.  Popularity-wise...it's simply the most popular!  It sold out 30,000 bibs this year in 2 hours and 41 minutes.  BHM is honored to have 50 bibs set aside for those wishing to make a difference.

Runners ask family, friends and acquaitenances to sponsor their run.  Some do the minimum amount of fundraising, but most exceed the goal. 

We never know how big the team will be each year.  This year (2012), we're going to have 35-40 runners.  It's awesome!

These folks make a difference.  The Backpack medics shared with us that each year, as a result of the support from BHM, they are able to send roughly 20 teams into eastern Burma.  In looking at just one area -- maternal morality rates -- these 20 teams will allow 28-30 women to survive the delivery of their child who might otherwise not make it.  Toss in child mortality, malaria, dysentry -- the number of children and their parents, relatives or fellow villagers is incredibly high. 

Amazing...truly inspired.  Run a marathon -- save a couple of lives!

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. This is an article about religious freedom in Burma. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.

The US State Department just released its 2011 report on international religious freedom.  Although religious freedom in Burma does not directly impact the work of Burma Humanitarian Mission -- our humanitarian work operates independently of any religious or spiritual affiliation -- the religious freedom (or lack thereof) in Burma is important for us to pay attention to because the government of Burma does restrict religious practices as part of their overall repression of the people of Burma and the ethnic minorities in particular.

One of the things I love so much about Burma and what drew me to want to work there is that Burma is a religiously diverse country.  In Karen State, where BHM largely operates, there are villages with Buddhists, Christians and Muslims alike -- and the people of these different religions all seemed to me to respect and tolerate one another.  

I am concerned that the government’s attacks on Muslims in the west of the country are subverting the tolerance between people as a means to disempower the ethnic minorities (if Muslims are angry at Buddhists, they’re not necessarily going to work well together).  This increase in violence could be used to pit the ethnic minorities against one another that could spiral toward even more violence, and undermine what little hope there is in Burma for freedom and self-determination for the ethnic minorities.

The report can be read on the US State Department’s website here.

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve the lives of the people of Burma. This article is an update on the general news concerning Burma.  

There are many headlines out of Burma that grab one’s attention. Aung San Suu Kyi recently traveled to Thailand and Norway (to accept her Nobel Peace Prize!), but there is also less encouraging news, with reports of ethnic violence in western Burma. Less noticable, though, are reports on life in Karen State.

The report card here is a mixed bag. The Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG) offers regular updates on what transpires in the area of the longest running civil war of our time (60 years).

On the positive side, KHRG reports people receiving ID cards (which permit travel), of the Burma army building a school, and some opportunities for expressing Karen culture without repression. Promising, but not enough.

The rest of reality is stark and disturbing. Consider events that occured in April 2012 in BuTho township of Karen State. The Burma army is using the cease fire to reinforce troops with more men and supplies, Landmines are routinely being placed throughout the area, denying villagers access to farm land, and powerful groups/enterprises supported by the Regime are confiscating land for building projects. Many villagers are forced to work for the Burma army without any compensation. The work often includes planting and tending rice fields to feed the army — activities that consume time needed for these villagers to plant their own rice fields for their families.

Even more concerning is that random killings continue. In March, four men crossed an army road and were shot by Burma soldiers. One died on the spot and another was gravely wounded. When villagers came to retrieve the dead man’s body, soldiers waited for them, so the villagers left. They returned a week later and the soldiers had abandoned the body. Sadly, the soldiers had cut off the dead man’s legs for some inhumane and disgusting reason.

Arbitrary detentions of men and women continue. In the Kawkareik Township, 10 men were detained and 4 were beaten during the night due to their suspected support to the KNLA.

Meanwhile, to the north in Kachin State, the regime continues its weekly assault on villages in order to sieze land and resources.

For those companies and government officials here in our country — do these activities reflect a humane and responsible government or a barbaric regime? Do you wish to be associated with them?

The Burma Humanitarian Mission supports community based health-care and education projects that improve lives of the Burmese people. In this article, we hear from a founding member how the Mission began. Read more about the Burma Humanitarian Mission here.

In 1992, a group of friends joined protests seeking to stop Unocal Corporation from building the Yadana natural gas pipeline from Burma into Thailand using forced labor. At these protests we met a community of refugees who fled Burma - they had endured the worst human rights violations imaginable but retained a quiet graciousness and
dignity that impressed us. 

In 1998, a dear friend and colleague, J.P., visited the Thai-Burma border and saw first hand the suffering endured by the Karen people at the hands of the Burmese army. He was in a camp for Internally Displaced People when it was bombed by mortar fire. Indicative of other risks of the region, he also came home with cerebral malaria. While he was being treated in the hospital, J.P. told me what he saw in Burma and spoke passionately about his desire to help these people. I promised him that if he got better (cerebral malaria being the kind that can kill you) I would ask friends and family to donate money so we could go back to the border to buy medicines and blankets to help. 

The idea gained momentum and inspired other friends to become involved. In December of 1999, six friends, including a recovered J.P, visited the Thai-Burma border. We called ourselves The Burma Humanitarian Mission.We paid our own travel expenses so that all of the money we raised was used to buy medicines.We provided a six-month supply of medicine to roughly 8,000 villagers.