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Mission Reports

Mission Updates

From February through April 2008, Burma Humanitarian Mission volunteers traveled to the region. They coordinated on-scene with the medic training program and procured a number of critical medical supplies for the backpack medics. Below are reports from those who traveled.

Scott 4/20/08

We are back! All Burma Humanitarian Mission members have returned from Southeast. Asia, where we delivered medical and humanitarian aid to displaced Burmese villagers in Karen State, Burma, from mid-February to mid-April. It was a successful year, with many new developments to share with you.

Sadly, this was our first time traveling to the Thailand-Burma border since our friend, Jeremy, passed away from cancer last November. Jeremy was a founding member of BHM. His compassion, love, gentleness, and gift for deviously clever solutions to unique problems made an indelible mark on the character of our organization. His spirit was very much with us, and in us, as we accomplished our mission. We are proud to honor his life through service to the Burmese people.

We achieved our mission's core goals this year – we delivered one year's worth of medicine to treat malaria and provide basic health care services to thousands internally displaced people (IDP) under the care of the backpacking medics. We also succeeded in providing the needed financial assistance to train approximately thirty backpacking medics. BHM’s financial support, provided by kind people like you, provides for their housing, food, study materials, clothing and personal supplies. We offer our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who helped us achieve these goals with their financial support. Your donations are the lifeblood of our work.

The security situation was higher this year than we have seen on prior missions, and our medicines were not able to safely cross the border. The Burmese junta (SPDC) has intensified it's military campaign in the rural areas where our aid is focused. This escalation was well underway before the Saffron Revolution broke out last August and September in Rangoon and the northern districts. The resulting crackdown on those pro-democracy marches triggered an increased flow of refugees across the border, into Thailand from all districts and states throughout Burma. It also stoked the SPDC's efforts to eliminate senior level officers within the ranks of ethnic militias, and to capture National League for Democracy (NLD) organizers of the September uprisings in another attempt to cut the legs out from under the movement. While many of the NLD members have indeed been captured and imprisoned, many others did escape and we had the great honor of meeting and interviewing some of them while they were transiting our location to safe houses and refuge. They are original '88 Generation founders and leaders, university students, party operatives and activists. We also had the rare opportunity to interview those close to Aung San Suu Kyi's inner circle who were captured, imprisoned, and tortured by the SPDC. We are in the process of screening and editing the footage of these interviews, and will share the resulting documentary clips at our upcoming gatherings and fundraisers.

The SPDC is spreading propaganda that the NLD is in disarray and has been crippled by the 2007 crackdown, but from our firsthand experience on the border, the NLD is alive and well. They planned carefully for the requirements of post-crackdown operations and are functioning in exile, organizing campaigns to expose the May 10th constitutional referendum as a charade played out by the junta, giving cover to their efforts to secure the power of rule in perpetuity through sloganeering and diplomatic head-fakes. The NLD is also preparing for the next round of marches to demand democratic reforms and the protection of human rights inside Burma.

During our meetings and interviews with NLD leaders, they asked for our continued help – with the medics and other support. These encounters reinforced the importance of what we are doing. We are hosting several gatherings and fundraisers in May and June to ensure we provide the most medical and overall support possible. The dates for these events will be sent in a separate email invitation, and we hope that all of you will please consider attending and contributing to our efforts. This is a momentous time for the Burmese people, and we have a golden opportunity to act now, in concert with a brave, dedicated and inspiring group of people to loosen the grip of an oppressive and authoritarian regime. We look forward to seeing all of you very soon.

Mehmet 3/1/08

It has been eight years since Burma Humanitarian Mission first came to the Karen State in Burma. I can remember like it was yesterday when Jeremy and the rest of us sat at the Backpackers Health worker Team headquarters inventorying multiple truckloads of medicines, following those supplies into a country that was both beautiful and terrible. We meet activists, medics (some eventually trained through BHM monies), soldiers and regular folks who showed us inside a country that is awe-inspiring.

Just prior to that first trip in 1999 in the U.S., some of us had participated in a high profile action to stop the use of Karen forced laborers to build a Unocal refinery (Yandana Pipeline Project). We met Maung and Taw from Burma at that action and were invited to come visit Burma. We did and we saw that what was happening here was indeed worth world attention. Since then, other amazing people have joined BHM with the Karen in the struggle for a free and democratic Burma. It has been and remains an amazing journey inside...Burma and ourselves. The relations we created have only grown stronger. While activity on the border at this time is especially difficult and, at times, dangerous, our relations here have remained strong. They still struggle for a free and democratic Burma. They still organize, train and utilize every resource they can get their hands on.

Never in my life have I encountered such intense commitment. Never have I experienced a people who, while under the harshest of circumstances, still retain hope and perseverance.

The training program BHM helped develop over the years has trained dozens of new medics each season while providing many units of medicines that go directly into villages displaced by the military junta's rule. Transport into Burma still remains difficult and yet somehow these medicines are getting to the people who need them the most and are being administered by the Karen in a way that is longterm and sustained by the Karen themselves. From the beginning, the Karen people have desired to help their own people and not rely entirely on outside help. This is happening and BHM is proud to be assisting people who want to assist themselves towards better primary and secondary health care.

BHM is grateful for our supporters and the financial investments they have made for the cause. This is my last day on the border. My work in arranging the finances, meeting with health workers and ordering medicines is over now, and I look forward to other BHM members arrival soon so that this year's medical relief can be completed. You, our supporting members, will surely be hearing more from them in March.

Ming La Ba and thanks to all.
Mehmet