Last Christmas, my wife and I, along with three volunteers, went to Myanmar to visit CEDAR’s partner organisation, Full Moon. During this trip we had the rare opportunity of traveling to the mountainous areas in Mon State. Last year, CEDAR received a designated fund that supported the post-conflict rebuilding project in this restricted area, and the first programme of the project was to build a new school. In the past few decades, there were continuous conflicts between the Karen and Burmese government army inthose mountainous areas, causing countless deaths and injuries. Not all have access to this area; even the Burmese people do not dare to enter this mountain. The ‘peace leader’ who led our group up to hill for celebration, along with a hundred orphans from the Full Moon compound, is actually the ex-leader of the rebellion that killed numerous people, including even some of the parents of the Full Moon orphans. A year ago, the Burmese government went through a big reform. This ex-leader of the rebellion was willing to cease fire and bring peace to Karen people. He appreciates the support and partnership of Hong Kong Christians.
[ePrayer – Pray for the migrant workers in Northern Thailand]
The National Verification Programme of Thai government, requesting local illegal migrant workers to verifying their identities has been finished. From Next February to May, the Burmese government will then start issuing temporary passports to those illegal workers in Thailand. The decision is part of the plan by Thailand and Myanmar to end illegal migrant workers from Myanmar. According to the Thai Labour Minister, there are 266,677 workers from Myanmar and Laos, did not verify their nationality to Thai government within the December deadline.
Pray for the migrant workers in Northern Thailand:
Pray for CEDAR’s local partner MMF as they provide legal support to Burmese migrant workers on issues related to work permits & registration, processing labour disputes and reconciliation;
Pray for Wisdom and protection on MMF migrant team as they made regular visit to give care, advice and counseling to workers in their homes and at their work sties. Many face family & social issues within the migrant communities;
Pray that 25 young migrant children at the Learning Centre will receive basic care and develop spiritually and emotionally.
Last June, the conflict between the Burmese government and the Kachin rebel group in Myanmar has forced some 75,000 people displaced. CEDAR has been supporting one local Lisu church partner to provide emergency relief (food items and clothes) to displaced refugees. Unfortunately, the conflict has intensified recently.
For many years the Lisu people are caught in between the fighting and conflict of the KIA armed group and Burmese military forces. The Lisu people have no arms and do not fight but often out of their will reluctantly became a source of supply to the two armed groups. Their crops & livestock get taken away, their children get kidnapped and conscript to work as porters and child soldiers.
Our local church partner is now taking care of displaced Lisu people who are seeking safety at their churches and student hostels. As these newly arrived Lisu children and youth do not speak Burmese, our partner is hoping to provide tutoring lessons to assist them to pursue an education while giving the the children protection at the hostel. The annual cost to recruit four teachers is US$7,200.
Pray for the displaced Lisu:
Pray that our partner is able to hire teachers to give lessons to the war affected Lisu children;
Pray for more humanitarian access into the conflict area to meet the dire needs of the large displaced population;
Pray for a long-lasting peace in the affected areas.
Since the second half of 2011, CEDAR has put in much attention to evaluate and reflect on the impacts and directions of our children ministry. After a year of study and discussion, we finally set our focus to encourage community-based children development projects and to provide training to child care givers and service providers. This will be an collaborative effort with experienced overseas partners in order to give children better rights to protection, provision and expression.
Children at risk are the main target of our projects in Myanmar in partnership with local Christian partners. Full Moon is one of our local partners, founded in 1997 to provide hostels to conflict affected children. In January 2012, due to the ceasefire agreements reached by the Karen armed groups and the Burmese government, the local situation has so improved that our partner can start planning to help older children/youth to return and reintegrate into their home villages.
Prospect in the Coming Year
Conflict is a cross-cutting issue in Myanmar, having impact on various social issues, such as ethnic conflicts, education, health and hygiene, and human trafficking. Women and children are most vulnerable in conflicts. Therefore, in coming year we will endeavour to assist the resettlement of conflict-affected communities, particularly of the Lisu people in Kachin State and the Karen people in Mon & Karen State, and seek protection for women and children from human trafficking and exploitation, child labour and abuses through education and empowerment.
Lisa’s Sharing
‘During a monitoring visit to Myanmar at one children home with children affected by cyclone, I used a “River of Life” exercise to encourage children to explain the events that they believed are important in the past, present and future of their lives. In the exercise, a girl drew picture of a school of fish swimming together before the cyclone in 2008, followed by a fish left along in the river after the cyclone. At the end of the river of life she had three fishes swimming together again. It breaks one’s heart to see her River of Life yet it helps us to understand the painful experience in her, allowing her to express this feeling and hopefully we and our partner can better response to her needs.’
After the exposure monitoring trips and discussions in the past two years, according to a series of measurement, such as the human development index (HDI), Gini coefficient, political and social stability, uniqueness and the possibility of monitoring project, we have finally chosen Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Myanmar and China to be the focus countries for our projects.
[Annual Report 2011-2012] Mobilising Churches and Christians
Review of 2011 to 2012
‘Network the force of Christians and provide a platform for communication and action’ is a main direction of CEDAR’s work on mobilising Christians in Hong Kong. We have reformed ‘CEDAR Club’ since last July by pro-actively gathering and mobilising the concerned Christians to help the poor more systematically. We also re-organised the monthly activities of the Club with regular sharing meetings, visiting programmes, and fellowship activities, to provide an in-depth experience for members to work at the issues of poverty, share experiences and practise serving the poor.
10 CEDAR Club’s gathering
2 exposure trip to Myanmar and Nepal
Learning and Prospect
‘Walk in Love – Low-Income Families Visit Programme’ and ‘Street-Sleepers Visit Project’ are two main long-term visiting programmes for club members to practise what they learnt at the course on poverty relief. Two programmes have been running for two to three years. We are exploring ways to help participants to move forward in their understanding and care on the HK society and the world, with the hope that their will engage locally and think globally. Furthermore, we hope more churches and Christian communities will involve as we mobilize and encourage different Christian groups to be ‘good neighbours’.
Shan’s Sharing
‘The achievement in past ministry year once again shows me how first hand experience is very significant in helping Christians to deepen their conscience and concern for poverty. It also confirms how effective organisation and a platform to practice is important to mobilizing Christians. In coming year, I hope that we can enhance the participation, initiation and decision making of core CEDAR Club members in programme and activity planning and development .’
After the exposure monitoring trips and discussions in the past two years, we have finally chosen Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, India, Nepal, Myanmar and China to be the focus countries for our projects. We have since strengthened our partnership in these focus countries through cooperation and communication to promote our mutual capability on project operation and management to provide more appropriate and effective assistance to impoverished communities.
In recent years, the Chinese and Nepalese governments have loosened official restrictions on local Christian churches. In addition to reforms in the political process in Myanmar, there is a new turning point for the growth of Christian relief and development work in these countries. CEDAR hopes to seize this opportunity to seek furthering the cooperation of Hong Kong churches with overseas churches and Christian organisations. Project sites in the above six focus countries will become important platforms for Hong Kong churches to participate in appropriate response to global ministry in the practice of integral mission. Hong Kong churches can provide strong support in human and financial resources to these overseas partners engaged in frontline ministries. This way we can develop the partnership between different nations, regions, churches and organisations in better synergy.
As a member organisation of the Hong Kong Church Network for the Poor (the HKCNP), CEDAR will endeavor to mobilise local churches to work with frontline organisations, social enterprises and government, facilitating the development of district network for social concern among churches. We look forward to churches becoming the real neighbour to the poor, giving them timely, suitable and holistic care and assistance.
