Dear all,
The past week has been full of planning, celebrating, and wishing.
After a few meetings with one of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, we are in the beginning steps of planning a counseling center for former political prisoners and their family members. After a daily routine of inhumane conditions, border-line starvation, and continuous physical abuse (not to mention the constant reminders of the brutal conditions of Burma that the political prisoners were working to change) it is only assumed that countless face such an immobilizing degree of trauma. In request from a couple friends at AAPP, we are now happily working together to create a team of AAPP counselors and setting up a place for these people to turn to.
The planning ensues as BBP is helping to coordinate the Burma Roundtable, a bi-monthly meeting place for community groups active in Mae Sot to stay up-to-date with the situation and learn about how their counterparts are involved. While these efforts have been made on larger scales previously, the community groups who are the ones housing, feeding, and caring for the endless flow of those in desperate need are themselves on constant guard for their own safety. With a meeting point that is safe and accessible, BBP looks forward to be active in working towards a greater sense of community and cohesion in the multi-layered response to the Burmese regime’s brutality.
In the midst of all the organizing, there is always time for celebration! While the work BBP and our supporters take on is daunting, the many successes are worth a celebration because they literally mean the difference of life to countless. We had the fortune of celebrating with SAW the news that the Children’s Crisis Center (which houses and cares for roughly 40 abandoned children) has received the funding it needs to keep on.
Yet, it seems for every hurdle you jump another is right in your face. While in a meeting on gender issues, we were continuously faced with the dilemma of finding refuge for sexual violence victims who make it across the border. In response, folks at BBP, SAW and the Mae Tao Clinic are wishing (and looking) for the funds for a safe house specifically for rape victims. As the number of survivors who go to Mae Tao in hopes of care and safety increase, the current facilities for offering those who are getting the medical care at the clinic a safe place to rest their heads at night becomes over capacity. This is why, in agreement between SAW and Mae Tao, if we could get our hands of the ability to build another safe house, SAW could take in these women and children who are referred by Mae Tao to better provide these people with the care they so deserve. Crossing our fingers as we explore this option…
Take care,
Danielle
The past week has been full of planning, celebrating, and wishing.
After a few meetings with one of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, we are in the beginning steps of planning a counseling center for former political prisoners and their family members. After a daily routine of inhumane conditions, border-line starvation, and continuous physical abuse (not to mention the constant reminders of the brutal conditions of Burma that the political prisoners were working to change) it is only assumed that countless face such an immobilizing degree of trauma. In request from a couple friends at AAPP, we are now happily working together to create a team of AAPP counselors and setting up a place for these people to turn to.
The planning ensues as BBP is helping to coordinate the Burma Roundtable, a bi-monthly meeting place for community groups active in Mae Sot to stay up-to-date with the situation and learn about how their counterparts are involved. While these efforts have been made on larger scales previously, the community groups who are the ones housing, feeding, and caring for the endless flow of those in desperate need are themselves on constant guard for their own safety. With a meeting point that is safe and accessible, BBP looks forward to be active in working towards a greater sense of community and cohesion in the multi-layered response to the Burmese regime’s brutality.
In the midst of all the organizing, there is always time for celebration! While the work BBP and our supporters take on is daunting, the many successes are worth a celebration because they literally mean the difference of life to countless. We had the fortune of celebrating with SAW the news that the Children’s Crisis Center (which houses and cares for roughly 40 abandoned children) has received the funding it needs to keep on.
Yet, it seems for every hurdle you jump another is right in your face. While in a meeting on gender issues, we were continuously faced with the dilemma of finding refuge for sexual violence victims who make it across the border. In response, folks at BBP, SAW and the Mae Tao Clinic are wishing (and looking) for the funds for a safe house specifically for rape victims. As the number of survivors who go to Mae Tao in hopes of care and safety increase, the current facilities for offering those who are getting the medical care at the clinic a safe place to rest their heads at night becomes over capacity. This is why, in agreement between SAW and Mae Tao, if we could get our hands of the ability to build another safe house, SAW could take in these women and children who are referred by Mae Tao to better provide these people with the care they so deserve. Crossing our fingers as we explore this option…
Take care,
Danielle
posted by Danielle Fox at
7:40 PM
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