Thursday, March 3, 2011

Update from the Karen Mission (Refugee Camp) Coordinator


March 2, 2011

Two days ago, Saw Ywa Baw, one of the leaders of Maera Moo camp and also a MMC hostel advisory committee member, told me about the TBBC meeting he attended in Maela Camp. TBBC (Thai-Burma Border Consortium) said that since there are funding constraints, they must cut down the rice amount for each person. For this year, all Camp hostels can't accept new students, which mean that new comers will not receive food rations. Hostels will also not receive building materials such as bamboos, roof thatches, etc.  At the same time, we won’t refuse child refugees.


Typical Hostel Dining
  
Schools in the camps will start final exams next week. When our hostel students finish exams, some will visit their families in Karen State Burma if travelling is possible. Others will take summer courses. They will also repair their hostel buildings. Given the situation of provision reductions for the camps, I think we will reduce our hostel buildings if we can, but not too crowded for students. St. Mary Hostel coordinators from Maela Camp have told me that they want to rebuild their dining building with cement floor and bricks cover, because it is wet and dirty with mud in raining seasons. They have saved about 15,000 Baht, but they will need to request 15,000 Baht for the construction and building materials, as total cost is about 30,000 Baht. I will also like to ask the fund needed of other 3 hostels for their building repairs.
Carbon-free washing machine
PS.  MMC has four hostels in three refugee camps (the term officially used is Temporary Emergency Shelter - temporary can mean 20 plus years!).  Recently, young Marist Fathers from the Philippines visited and were deeply moved by the plight of so many young refugees who welcomed them with warm generosity. 

A hostel

Marists feasting
Our MMC budget for March 2011 for 120+ young folks. (Around $4,500.00 AUD)

1.  St. Mary's Hostel in Maela Camp = 25,000 Baht

2.  St. Peter Chanel Hostel in Maera Moo Camp =  25,000 Baht

3.  St. Champagnat Hostel in Maela Oon Camp = 30,000 Baht

4.  St. Colin Hostel in Maela Oon Camp = 25,000 Baht

5.  Hostel rebuilding and repairs (15,000 Baht for St. Mary; 5,000 Baht for St. Peter Chanel; 3,000 Baht for St. Colin; and 3,000 Baht for St. Champagnat) = 26,000 Baht. 


Giving Hope - light in the darkness
Fr. Gil & young refugees
School homework
why MMC is there

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Facebookers Are Seeking Christ, Pope Suggests

This is a good article about communication through the use of new technologies.

"This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship." 

Please follow the link to read the full article.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Support the Huiling Initiative

Over the past 20 years, 8 ‘Huilings’ have been opened in China to help our disabled brothers and sisters.  Huiling’s vision is to create an environment where people with mental disabilities have the right to ask for and receive help from our society – to be able to live in a community enjoying equal opportunities. To achieve this vision, Huiling offers services to help improve the lives of people with mental disability.

The Marist Mission Centre is currently supporting 2 of the 8 Huiling initiatives – Beijing and Guangzhou.  To read more about these projects please click on the following:

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Burmese Refugee's Christmas Story

13 December 2010
I am in Ranong and cannot sleep. For the geographically challenged, think Isthmus of Kra in southern Thailand at the point where Burma ends and Muslim Thailand begins, going down to Malaysia. I am in the Marist Fathers' house.
Outside, the fish factory that never sleeps is churning out packaged prawns for markets far away. The people working in it are illegal migrants from Burma, paid a pittance and treated as sub humans. As illegals, they can be arrested by the Thai police but usually pay a 'fine' to escape jail — for a while.
Young Burmese men as young as 15 and 16 come off the fishing boats owned by Thai or Burmese entrepreneurs, their pockets brimming with baht, swagger in their step, and head for the tiny brothels by the side of the road near the port, where HIV awaits them.
Only the strong return from the fishing trips. If you are ill and cannot work, you can be tipped into the sea along with the other rubbish for the seagulls. If you trip and fall overboard, the boat ploughs on regardless.
Young Burmese women in longyi, with long, black hair tied in a ponytail, stand out and can be abducted by men in dark glasses in passing cars and taken to the brothels and bars of Phuket, Bangkok or Pattaya. Being illegal with no papers or rights, they disappear, to the despair of their parents. It's part of the dangerous deal of crossing the border from a regime that regards most of its people as scum to a country where a subsistence income can at least be earned.
HIV is rife here — among the Thai and the Burmese. The Global Fund gives money to Thailand for those living with the virus but Thai doctors in Ranong, which has more Burmese than Thai, say the cash for anti-retrovirals is only for Thais. So the Burmese die. A few are saved by the Marists among other religious groups with funds from an NGO. But who decides who lives and who dies?
A young Burmese boy of nine who was found abandoned in the forest and then cared for by a poor Burmese family with support from the Marists plays with the priest's big toe. He ran away again but promised he wouldn't do it in future if 'Father' bought him a TV. He is not quite ready for the factory or the fishing boats and is desperately vulnerable.
A young girl of 15 dressed in a school uniform, her hair cut short like a Thai to escape abduction, is too young for the ACU online diploma but asks to attend anyway to learn, just to be part of the dream of having higher education. She is lucky that her parents don't force her into the fish factory.
We visit a young fishermen and his wife in a wooden warren of tiny hovels for the dispossessed. It leans over the water so that when the Thai police come they can abandon their few possessions (an ancient black and white TV, a few dishes, a mattress) and dive into the river to escape the fine/bribe.
Both have HIV and they lost their baby to the virus the year before. They show us a grainy picture of the child, beautiful as all infants are, and we are stunned into silence. The dignity of the couple in their immense human suffering awes us.
A few hours south of here, tourists soak up the sun on the beaches of Ko Samui, Phuket and the islands of the film, The Beach. In the lead-up to Christmas, the contrast is striking.
In Ranong, through an open door, I see a Burmese woman in the lotus position meditating and venerating the Buddha, hoping the next incarnation will be better than the misery of this existence, as a beatific smile crosses her face.
Happy Christmas.  

About the author:
Duncan MacLaren coordinates Australian Catholic University's Refugee Program on the Thai-Burma border and lectures in Catholic Approaches to Humanitarian and Development Work. He worked for Caritas for over 25 years and, prior to coming to Australia in 2007, was based in the Vatican as Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

The Beginning of the Journey

http://inside.org.au/the-beginning-of-the-journey/

Afghanistan’s Hazara people, targeted by the Taliban, still have a strong reason to seek protection from countries like Australia, writes Michelle Dimasi in Kabul.  Read more...

Dimasi, M. 2010, 'The beginning of the journey', Inside Story, Current Affairs and Culture, viewed on 07 October 2010, http://inside.org.au/the-beginning-of-the-journey/.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

The Australian Bishops Conference and the NSW Association of Religious on Border Security and Immigration

The Australian Bishops Conference and the NSW Association of Religious – priests, sisters, brothers and their networks have their views on Border Security and Immigration debate preceding the upcoming election.  Their views reflect solidly on what the Gospels expect from the disciples of Jesus.  The secular media and politicians seem to be taking the lower path on these issues which is sad.

* Please click on the images to view the articles.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Kuya Centre for Street Children, Philippines


The Kuya Centre was established in 1991 by an association of religious brothers in the Philippines. The aim of the centre is to reunite street children with family or refer them to a more stable and supportive living arrangement.

The centre is run by a budget that is made up of the income generated by the efforts of the kids themselves as well as funds from International Marist partners. If you would like to help this project, you can make a designated donation to Kuya Centre for Street Children through the Marist Mission Centre.

Marist Asia Pacific Solidarity 2010, ‘Kuya Centre for Street Children’, viewed on 24 June 2010, http://www.maristsolidarity.net.au/maps/index.php?option=com_
content&view=article&id=26&Itemid=16.