Causes

Famine has broken out in the hard-to-reach, extremely poor areas of Burma on the border with Bangladesh and India, and there are two main reasons why.

The underlying cause is the targeted genocide being performed by the governing military junta there, as soldiers murder, torture and rape women and children, deport regime opponents into forced labor, confiscate land, and enforce tithing and disproportionate taxation.

The other cause of the famine is the natural growth cycle in the bamboo and rat populations. In 2007, a specific kind of bamboo began to bloom in the area, which was gradually overwhelmed by hordes of rats. This is a natural phenomenon which takes place once every 50 years. The bamboo bears a fruit that provides plentiful nutrition to the forest rats, which multiply exponentially, overwhelming the area and liquidating the crops and food stores of the villagers. Thousands of acres of arable land have already been destroyed. It takes five years for the vegetation to recover and for the villagers to be able to sow their fields again.

Supporters

»Václav Havel (click to view the letter)

Impact

The impact of the famine is catastrophic. As many as 200 villages are affected, home to more than 100 000 Burmese of the Chin ethnicity, who are dying of hunger and malnutrition. Hundreds of families have left their villages and are heading for the Indian border to find food and work; in some villages, only the elderly and infirm remain, and more large-scale migration is expected. Chin self-help organizations are doing their best to ameliorate the results of the famine, but according to a report by the Chin Human Rights Organization, only 10 % of the victims are receiving the aid the need. The Burmese military government is ignoring the suffering.

Map of Burma with Chin State
(click for bigger view)

Affected region - Burma's Chin State

Burma's Chin state belongs to the poorest regions of the country. The mountainous township are difficult to access, and the ruling junta does all to cut off this part and its problems from the eyes of the world. Numerous reports have detailed the human rights abuses committed by the regime and its infamous army against the ethnic minority of Chin.

Chin children

You can make a difference

Their government will not help them and they cannot help themselves. Let's help provide rice and medicine to the starving from the Indian side of the border.

Affected villages send their people to the Indian border where they buy rice to carry home. These travels on foot take many days or weeks. Since the Chin State is among the poorest of Burma, the villagers face difficulties to find the money for purchasing food and medicine. Help can only be provided by Chin exile organizations that have established several bases for food supply along the border.

How you can help

The donors' sms are operated by the Donors' Forum. Technical part provided by ATS Praha. You can find more information on www.darcovskasms.cz

Chin organization is distributing rice

• Send a donors' SMS reading DMS BAMBUS from a number of a Czech mobile phone operator to the number 87 777. You will be billed CZK 30 for the DMS, CZK 27 of which will go to aid the starving. One DMS buys 4.5 kg of rice, enough food for one person for a week at least!
  Please find more information about DMS on www.darcovskasms.cz


• Send an annual donors' SMS reading DMS ROK BAMBUS from a number of a Czech mobile phone operator to the number 87 777 and you will be billed CZK 30 monthly. You can find more information at  www.darcovskasms.cz. The equivalent of one year of donors' SMS buys 55 kg of rice, which will feed one person for three months!
  Please find more information about DMS on www.darcovskasms.cz


• Request a permanent monthly donation to be sent to transparent fundraising account no. 4547242001/5500, which Burma Center Prague, o.p.s. has established for the POMOZME BARMÁNCŮM fundraising drive at Raiffeisenbank, a.s. (account holder name: Burma Center Prague, o.p.s.). For example, a monthly donation in the amount of CZK 130 buys 240 kg of rice and makes it possible for one person in Burma to survive for one year!
  


• Spread the word about the famine in Burma and the POMOZME BARMÁNCŮM fundraising drive to your friends and acquaintances.

The funds raised through this collection will be used to purchase and distribute food aid (especially rice and food supplements) and medical aid (particularly medicines, vitamins and basic medical supplies) and to purchase and distribute seed.

We will perform the purchase and distribution of the food and medicines needed on the Indian side of the border in cooperation with the Chin Famine Emergency Relief Committee and the Chin Human Rights Organization, both Chin self-help organizations which permanently monitor the affected area and are establishing centers and distribution channels for delivering aid at the Burmese border.

Thank you.

What is the value of one portion of rice for Chin people?

For Burmese of the Chin ethnic group one portion of rice can mean as much as the chance to live. Approximately 100 000 Chin from 200 villages are suffering from diarrhea, malaria and other diseases. Among the victims are mainly children. Thousands of people are commuting to the Indian border area in order to bring home food.

Further Information Sources

bambusový les s ovocem

If you like to learn more about the situation of the Chin population in affected areas, we recommend the following reports:

• "Life Under the Junta: Evidence of Crimes Against Humanity in Burma’s Chin State" - by Physicians for Human Rights, 2011
• "We Are Like Forgotten People" - by Human Rights Watch
• "Waiting on the Margins" - by CHRO, 2009 (PDF)
• "On the Edge of Survival: Conditions and Consequences of the Food Crisis in Chin State, Burma" - by CHRO, 2009 (PDF)
• "Critical Point: Food Scarcity and Hunger" by CHRO (PDF)
• Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO)
• Chinland Guardian

Disclaimer

The amount of rice bought with the money donated may fluctuate according to the current market price of rice on the Indian-Burmese border and according to exchange rates. We must necessarily use some of the money donated towards rice distribution costs and bank fees. For more information, please see our detailed distribution reports.

"Please use your liberty
to promote ours!"

Aung San Suu Kyi

media partner of the campaign: Radio Wave
www.wave.cz

This project is financially supported by the Czech Foreign Affairs Ministry as part of the Czech Transition Promotion Program.