On March 22, Burma Army troops attacked and burned a village, killing two children and one woman. The two children were a five year old girl and a five month old boy. The woman was 37 years old.

Another woman, the mother of the two children, was shot and wounded in the attack.

Attacks in this area since January have displaced another 3,000 people.

To read the full report of this tragedy, click here. Please note: there are images in the full article which are graphic, as they depict the gruesome reality of what is happening in Burma.

On February 19, Burma Army troops attacked a school in northern Burma and wounded two young boys, 12 and 10 years old. Both boys have recovered, but another boy (16 years old) was wounded and killed. This is yet another attack on innocent children by the Burmese army, which has a long history of violence on ethnic minority groups in its own country.

A Free Burma Rangers relief team on the ground reported the attack. For the full article and photos, click here.

Cans for Change is a recycling drive to raise money for our trip. From now until June, we will be collecting aluminum cans and plastic bottles and turning them in at a recycling center for coins.

Just drop off your cans, and we will do the rest! For those of you who attend the Mosaic Whittier's Sunday gatherings, there will be a large box in the Artisan building where you can put your recyclables. For those of you near Biola, you can drop your cans and bottles off with Matt McKirland (Biola Professional Building, Biola Youth) or Christa McKirland (Biola campus, Office of the Registrar). Every week, we will be making trips to the recycling center.

Every Pepsi and Coke can, Gatorade bottle, and Dasani water bottle (all cans and bottles less than 24oz will work) will give us 5 cents, and every 2-liter ginger ale and Hawaiian Punch bottle and every other glass or plastic bottle over 24oz will give us 10 cents. It may not sound like much, but if you go through a 12-pack or two of soda and a couple 2-liters in your house per week, then that is $.75 to $1.50 per week and about $3.50 to $6.75 a month that could go toward our trip. If 20 people a month helped us out, then we could get $70 to $135 a month and more than $500 before we leave in June!

So, save your soda cans and Gatorade bottles, because every little bit helps!

Burma

The people of Burma are in desperate need.

Since 1988, the Burmese government has been led by a despotic military with a history of human rights violations and abuses of ethnic minority people groups in Burma. The government has imprisoned many who have advocated freedom and responded violently to public demonstrations. Forced labor, human trafficking, child soldiers, and sexual violence are just a few of the ruling military's tactics used to control and oppress people who inhabit their own country.

Often without warning, the ruling military will invade the villages of minority peoples and burn them to the ground, making no distinction between combatants and civilians. Groups of internally displaced people groups (IDP's) have been forced to the jungles on the border of Burma and Thailand. To date, there are approximately 600,000 IDP's in Burma and over 1 million people who have fled to other countries for refuge as more than 3,200 villages have been burned by the Burmese army.

Though the atrocities the Burmese army has committed on its own people are great, it is often the children who suffer the most. Many children are orphaned in the attacks on their villages. The Burmese army forcibly recruits children as young as 12 to serve in the military. Young girls are raped and sold into sex slavery, and young boys are often used as minesweepers to walk in front of the Burmese army through minefields.

Thailand

Thailand has long been a source, transit, and destination country for human trafficking.

Women from Thailand and surrounding countries, including Burma, are brought to Thailand for sexual exploitation and sex tourism. Many as young as 13 years old are smuggled across borders and advertised to child sex tourists from across the world. Sex tourism remains a large part of the Thai economy, despite official denunciation from the government.

Some reports estimate over half a million girls under the age of 18 are coerced or sold into the sex trafficking industry in Thailand.

Human trafficking also affects men in Thailand, as they are often forced to work in sweatshops, commercial fisheries, farming, and construction.

Traffickers take advantage of vulnerable people groups including the poor, disenfranchised, and displaced people from Thailand and other nations and exploit them for financial gain. Poor, and often illiterate, men and women are victims of forced labor and sex trafficking because of their dire circumstances and lack of skills that can gain incomes.

Hope for Thailand and Burma

But there is hope for the displaced people of Burma and the exploited people of Thailand. Groups like Partners Relief and Development (Partners) and Asian Alliance International (AAI) are actively helping ethnic minority groups from Burma and exploited people in Thailand. Through medial care, trauma care, safe houses and many other ways, these groups meet the needs of the Burmese and Thai people.

Both Partners and AAI offer new hope to those in need through emergency care and sustainability (job and skill training) so that the oppressed and vulnerable people of Thailand and Burma can help themselves and their families. These groups need funds; they need people. This is why we are going: for hope.

The above information was gathered from the following websites:
Partners Relief and Development - http://partnersworld.org/usa/why-burma
Asian Alliance International - http://www.aaithailand.org/
The World Factbook - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bm.html
US Campaign for Burma - http://uscampaignforburma.org/learn-about-burma
Human Rights Watch - http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2006/12/20/burma-landmines-kill-maim-and-starve-civilians
Humantrafficking.org - http://www.humantrafficking.org/countries/thailand
US Department of Justice - http://www.justice.gov/criminal/ceos/sextour.html
International Labor Organization - http://www.ilo.org/global/About_the_ILO/Media_and_public_information/Broadcast_materials/Video_News_Release/lang--en/WCMS_074439/index.htm

We created the blog to keep you informed on the progress of the trip, planning, fund raising, and more!