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Migration – so many people talking but not listening

posted on November 16, 2016 by Frank Bird

10873443_1246263918733308_8656712566083215933_oMany people talk about migrants but don’t listen to their stories. Compassion happens when we really listen to another’s story.

Archbishop Charles Bo, the leader of the Catholic Community in Myanmar recently shared a moving message highlighting the pain and also the hopes of so many migrants and refugees forced to remain ‘away from their home’ of Myanmar.

It is a striking message highlighting the challenge of migrants and the response of host countries.

He asks that we become like parents to the ‘orphans’ who arrive in foreign lands.

We urgently plead with all bring peace.  Do not displace our people. Our families are broken into pieces.  Please give a chance and make our people be united in the families.  Pope Francis calls for the integrity of families as the first duty of all.  We urge you unite our families. Let our children live with their parents, and parents have the joy of seeing their children every day.

Below is his full message delivered on a special day for the People of Myanmar – Parents Day – when families and communities celebrate and show great respect to their parents.

Parents’ Day Message and Prayer – Charles Cardinal Bo, Yangon Myanmar, 2016
God is our Father. God is our mother. The Bible has a beautiful sentence. Even if the mother forgets her child, I shall not forget you.  When we honor our parents we honor God himself. I extend my prayerful wishes to all the parents.  The Bible is full of praise for parents. It opens with the first parents.  Abraham is our father of faith. We have the holy family.  Jesus was brought up by two holy parents. Parents are closer to God since they cooperate in bringing life to this world.  Life is a gift from God. Parents are willing to receive that gifts and nurture it and help the life to go.

But this year we wish to turn our attention to those who are away from our dear mother land – Myanmar.  We know we are around 55 million people.  We are from 135 tribes.  We are all sons and daughters of this nation.  But this year I wish to bring to our attention the heart breaking conditions of millions of our brothers and sisters who are living like orphans away from this land.


fishing-image-2Migrant workers without any legal protection

Nearly three million of our brothers and sisters do not live in this mother land. They are living in foreign lands.  Many of them left in the eighties and the nineties – often trafficked by the human trafficking mafia since this great nation and its rulers those days refused to give a quality education, refused to create local opportunities for employment, our innocent youth were forced into risky migration.

Many of them are slaves in Thailand, in Malaysia and in China.  Recently we read about the ‘ boat slaves’ who were chained to the boats every day after their work.  They are all from Myanmar and some of them were considered dead by their families because they could not communicate with the outside world. Our heart goes to them.

We appeal to authorities; these are made orphans by an inhuman system. Our Myanmar people are graceful people, non-violent and kind to all and this has become a liability. They have become the slaves of South East Asia. I urge the government to become their parents and bring them home.  This land belongs to them. They are not orphans.

Refugees in the Camps       
Thousands fled the civil wars of the last five decades. Many were given asylum in the first world countries.  But thousands were waiting in futile hope of being resettled in the third country. That hope is turning into a night mare.  No third country is willing to accept them.  For decades our people termed as refugees are standing in queues looking for the international handouts.  But these hand outs are dwindling.  International community is tired of the Myanmar refugees.  The camp conditions are abominable.  We recently made a visit to these camps. These are black holes of despair sucking our people into a bottomless bit of despair and inhumanity.  These are children forgotten by mother Myanmar.

I urge the government of Myanmar and Thailand and the UN agencies to accelerate the process of safe return and rehabilitation of thousands of our country men and women. I urge the government to hand over the lands of our people, ensure quality education and employment, making the return a dignified process for our people whose camp life is really  turning into  a valley of bones.

I urge the concerned people to blow the spirit of hope into these camps and let the children of Myanmar come back to their mother land. They cannot sing the Lord’s song in an Alien land.

IDPs internally displaced people inside Myanmar
War, mines, natural disasters, and dams have displaced nearly a million in our country. They are away from their homes.  Nearly 300,000 of   victims of civil conflicts languish in the camps. Their youth are not with them. Their families are fragmented.  Youth are trafficked to China, to Thailand and to Malaysia.  Their mothers cannot be consoled because unscrupulous elements snatch their children.

Modern day Herods target a whole generation through war and displacement. The lands of our people are confiscated by those who have guns – both the government and non-state actors are culhousepable in making our people orphans – depriving them of their core identity – land.  Millions of acres of our people’s land have passed on to the cronies and companies.  Our people are refugees in their own land.  These landless people are the latest and the largest group of orphans.

We urge the international community to pressurize both the government and the non-state actors to return the lands of our people.

Our brothers and sisters – victims of fear and continuing war
Thousands of Karens and Kachins are like children without parents. They are refugees for decades.  Land mines abound in their original places. War continues. They want to come back but fear chokes their spirit. If there is no peace,   millions of our people are made orphans due to fear. They refuse to return.  How can we be happy of return of democracy and a leadership lauded for moral witness when millions cannot be at peace? Myanmar needs peace.  War has created conditions that are like an orphanage in many parts of our country. Our people are orphaned when the state and the non-state actors instill great fear in them with arms.

In many places our innocent people have to face two governments and two armies. We urgently plead with all bring peace.  Do not displace our people. Our families are broken into pieces.  Please give a chance and make our people be united in the families.  Pope Francis calls for the integrity of families as the first duty of all.  We urge you unite our families. Let our children live with their parents, and parents have the joy of seeing their children every day.

People of Good will who are away from their parents because of sacrifice to their fellow human beings

I wish to send my wishes to Myanmar brothers and sisters serving in many nations, as church personnel, NGO workers and in other vocations. You are away in a sign of great sacrifice.  You have brought joy and hope to thousands where you serve.  You have sacrificed the joy of seeing your parents and dear ones, while you serve people from other cultures.   May God be your father and mother and we pray that your sacrifice be rewarded hundred fold.

I also gratefully wish all those foreigners, church personnel, NGO personnel and others whose contribution to this nation and church is an abundant blessing.   You have made this your country; you have made our people your brothers and sisters.  Many of you are away for a long time from your families and parents.  We wish you a great day and affirm our filial love to you ensuring our grateful sentiments. You are our brothers and sisters. As a nation we are marching towards a destiny of hope.  We expect our leaders to be like our parents showing no discrimination based on creed or race.

As a church we assure that it will be a kind and merciful parent to those at the margins.  As a church we affirm our commitment to serve the migrants, refugees, IDPs, and those who are away from homes. God was the parent to Adam and Eve. God was the parent to the Jews who became slaves in Egypt. God was the father who sent his only son to redeem the world.  It is the same father, the Abba, protects us all today.

14712882_1602023203157376_6707209327185498717_oMarist Asia Foundation celebrates 10 years of supporting Burmese Migrants in Ranong in 2016 with Education, Health and Migrant Support Programmes. We are grateful to so many funding agencies, friends and supporters that allow us to show compassion in action and grow a positive hope for the future in the lives of young Burmese Migrants. 

Filed Under: Front Page Image, News

University Education Partnership

posted on July 18, 2016 by Frank Bird

IMG_6250

Australian Catholic University (ACU) has partnered with Marist Asia Foundation since 2009 and is committed to providing Higher Education Opportunities for Burmese Migrants for the next 5 years.

Australian Catholic University has entered into a new partnership with Marist Asia Foundation to support Burmese Migrants gaining a University Education for the next 5 years.

ACU’s Thai Burma Border Programme, supporting Burmese Refugees and Migrants has been running for the past 10 years, but has partnered with Marist Asia Foundation since 2009.

This partnership has changed the lives of many young adult men and women who would otherwise never get a Higher Education in the Refugee camps or Migrant Worker communities.

Students in Ranong study online and with visiting lecturers  to complete their Arts and Liberal Studies Diploma. Courses include Academic English, International Development Studies, Youth Development, Introduction to Management, Global Health Challenges, Human Rights, Global Change and Development, Education for a Sustainable Future.

Fr Kevin Medilo, Director of Marist Asia Foundation, met recently with ACU staff in Sydney and shared how significant the University Online Diploma Programme is for the Migrant Community in Ranong on the Thailand Burma Border.

26 young leaders have graduated and become Teachers, Health Workers, Community Leaders. We have 12 current students and another 20 waiting to apply for the 2017 year.

The ACU Partnership is changing the education goals of the migrant community.

Young students are staying in school. Graduates are getting good jobs. Bright young confident Burmese Migrants are conscious of human rights and they are understanding the complex development needs of their home country in Myanmar.

Our University students are emerging as great role models and leaders for their community.

IMG_6260

Students study Monday – Friday 1.30-4.00pm with their tutor Fr Frank Bird to complete their Diploma in a 20 month course aimed at developing Leaders and Teachers for the Burmese Migrant Community

Discussions also took place to plan together for the future, including investigation of a Teacher Training Diploma that can give the many young migrant teachers an opportunity to get recognised qualifications as teachers.

This is such a vital need on the Thailand Burma Border with hundreds of thousands of migrant and refugee children struggling to get an education and their teachers struggling to get recognition of their learning and teacher experience.

Marist Asia Foundation is delighted to deepen its education and funding partnership commitment with ACU and would like to express its great thanks to Professor Tania Aspland (Executive Dean), Professor Geraldine (Deputy Dean, Faculty of Education and Arts) and Kirk Doyle (International Partnerships) for the work on developing this Education Partnership.

Special thanks also to Teacher Maya, Co-ordinator of the Thai Burma Border Programme, whose great passion and encouragement toward our Migrant and Refugee students has encouraged so many to ‘aim higher’ for a brighter future with education.

Filed Under: Front Page Image, News

9 visits to Ranong

posted on July 18, 2016 by Frank Bird

IMG_6467I first came to the Marist mission in Ranong in 2007 to work there for 3 weeks by teaching the children of Burmese migrants.  Asia is not Europe It was a strong and moving experience. Heat and rain made their presence felt on an Irishman.

The mission had just begun and I was teaching in what was little more than a garage.  Physically it was demanding but so satisfying.  Imagine teaching those who otherwise would not get an education.  They could only wander around the streets before trying to get a job in a fish factory.

Has the mission changed in those 9 years.  Incredibly yes.  The Marists now have a fabulous new school.  It did not drop out of the sky.  There was so much hard work done in raising the money to buy the land and then to build the school.  I want to say thank you to Misean Cara, the Irish development agency who funded the Irish student2building.

The Burmese children are graceful and happy with smiling faces.  They must belong in many respects to a rich culture. Yet materially they have so little but make the most of what they have.

It is lovely to see children turn into adults.  To see a smile grow on the face of a child and settle into the face of an adult is beautiful.   To be able to remember them in class and see what they have become is a miracle.  In the case of this mission, the time of 9 years is the measure of charming change and I can only think, ‘Thank God I have been able to be a small part of that’.

After my first visit to the Marist mission in Ranong I thought it would be good if that experience could be shared with the students of St. Mary’s College where I work.  About 9 students and two teachers come with me.  This now is the 8th time we have done this.   They love teaching the Burmese children and it’s a mutual feeling.  It’s a classic win-win situation.irish student

Thanks to Fr Jimmy, Teachers and the many Irish students who have loved and volunteered with us over the past 9 years. Young Burmese and Thai students grow in such confidence as they experience the love and concern from visitors and volunteers from overseas.

We hope its been a blessing also for students to come to a poor community. As the saying goes ‘may you be ruined for life’! May you be forever changed by your love and service among the poor and forgotten.

Thanks for being part of our Marist work among the poor and forgotten in Asia.

Irish group

Filed Under: News, Visitor stories

An experience of Marist Mission

posted on July 18, 2016 by Frank Bird

IMG_6410In Ranong, the busy fishing port in Southern Thailand bordering Myanmar’s most southern point, the Marist Asia Foundation serves the poor through well-run education and health programmes.

From Myanmar, easily visible just across the strait, a short trip in small open boats transports thousands of Burmese seeking refuge in Thailand.  If they do find work it is often poorly paid and in challenging conditions as in fish or charcoal factories.

The long rows of their cramped single-room dwellings, often alongside or within factory enclosures and regularly swamped by the region’s frequent rain, reflect the poverty of their family environment.  Hindered further by language and political difficulties, the Burmese refugees are the true poor of Ranong.

In 2006 the Marist Fathers initiated a social justice mission project to serve these poor at their expressed point of need through two main ministries. They provide education as a key to development out of poverty and into leadership, and they care for HIV patients by personal home visitation, medical education, and by practical assistance in dealing with agencies and government.

The early mission project has developed into the well-respected Marist Asia Foundation.  Under that name, Marist Fathers (SM) work alongside Mission Sisters (RNDM), paid local staff, and also volunteers from overseas. Both the education team and the health team cooperate well and work in and from a suitably simple but well-built Centre.  Education is targeted by local need to preschool and secondary levels.

The mission also involves working alongside students of the Australian Catholic University On-Line programme, and those studying more English in hopes of entering that programme, as they all aspire to become worthy future leaders for their families and country.

The health team cooperates with the hospital and receives their referrals.  The Foundation structure was approved in 2014. It sets a base for hopefully ensuring a reasonable level of ongoing financial support, an environment of good responsible practice and professional process, and to conform to government regulations.

It has been my pleasure, privilege and joy to work alongside the Marist Community and their leadership teams, families and students for 3-4 weeks and to experience again the challenges and joys of mission in the tropics.  My earlier 18 years working in the Oceania mission field in Samoa, American Samoa and Tokelau Islands, prepared me for feeling very much at home again as a Marist in this mission environment.

The big difference is working in Asia.  Ranong is more densely populated and has its own unique merging of cultures, religions, relationships, difficult-to-learn languages and demands of life coping with life in Thai society.

I enjoyed being Marist in the pastoral and mission-minded team of Marist confreres, invited to share from the inside some of their joys, hopes, griefs and practical challenges. They expressed a genuine Marist spirit in positive and encouraging relationships with Sisters, staff, families and students, and their easy teamwork approach resonated well with me.

The true Marist heart of Marist Asia Foundation is clearly evident, given and received.  The fact that the Burmese refugees we work among are mainly Buddhist, with a few Muslims and only a handful of Christians, adds a unique and respectful dimension to that interesting experience.

A happy and caring community atmosphere is strongly felt throughout the ministries. The Burmese families are clearly very appreciative of the practical compassionate help given to raise them up from very difficult living conditions and for the personal (Marist) attention shared with them.

Another special joy for me was how the On-Line University students were so happy to trust us and our responses as Fr. Frank and myself worked with them one-on-one through their stories and essay work by posing open ended questions to help them improve their expression of thought and grammar. Their moving personal stories covered topics like their real family situations and their journey to education, and also their well-considered reflections on key issues they knowingly face as future emerging leaders of their families and country.

To be trusted to listen alongside them as they struggled to clarify their own thoughts and their hearts’ deep desires with such openness, honesty and passion is a specially privileged Marist memory I will prayerfully reflect on further.    We also worked among other senior students studying more English grammar with earnest hopes for entry into the On-Line programme, and I realized that, even there in the context of coping with difficult Burmese and Thai languages, I have much to learn again even in English!

Visiting with Fr. Gil and his health team some HIV families in their poor lodgings, listening as they willingly shared their personal stories in eager and much appreciated dialogue (I knew only the visible emotions in their nonverbal communication), also exposed me to a variety of human struggles and caring interactions important for ongoing reflection and prayer.

During these my last few days, Fr. Kevin has just returned from overseas.  As Director of the mission he has the overall administration responsibility of the whole project and also has special pastoral care of the staff and students of the pre-school and secondary programmes.  He also unites the Marist Community in their prayer and action in this vital Social Justice work.

During our daily Mass and community prayer, sitting in the Marist community’s “upper room”, an open verandah chapel that overlooks the beautiful ever-changing mists on the Ranong mountains, I gratefully reflect in prayer on the many key changes of the human heart and life, in myself and in those we serve.

Probably much like my confreres, my own journey to Ranong started long ago in a family environment of prayer and commitment to social justice and so developed into a longing to serve as a Marist and priest on mission among the poor. I take to heart and prayer my varied experiences as a Marist on mission as I now prepare to continue my travel journey to process it all during a Hesburgh sabbatical renewal in Chicago.

I leave Ranong with a very big thank you to you my Marist confreres for the opportunity and privilege to share a little of your life and mission from the inside. Also a big thank you to the Sisters, staff, volunteers and families we worked alongside.

A final huge thank you to the ever cheerful, respectful and engaging students who so enjoyably shared, with amazingly open simplicity and trust, their deepest joys and new hopes, their griefs and challenges of being Burmese refugees in Ranong, poor but ever so grateful for being given a new chance to radically change, develop and lead others by their adopted family, the people and supporters of the Marist Asia Foundation.  Thank you.  Thank you.  Khorp khun khrap.    Ce zu tin ba deh.

Fr John Jolliffe SM

Filed Under: Front Page Image, News, Visitor stories Tagged With: Among the poor, Education, Marist Mission, Online Learning Programme

3 Ingredients to make HIV: Poverty, Migration, Desperation

posted on April 11, 2016 by Frank Bird

house Moe Set arrived in Ranong from Dawei, Myanmar, as a migrant worker in 2007. She got married to a fisherman.

In 2009 she found out that she was HIV positive and she was two months pregnant that time. She went for HIV treatment and underwent the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission (PMCT). The doctor and nurses encouraged her to ask the husband for HIV test but he refused to go for HIV test and treatment.

When the baby was born they went back to Myanmar. After two years, the husband became very weak. He was very sick, and he passed away. She felt alone and afraid. She shared her status to her families, neighbors and friends, but their response was not pleasing to her. Instead of being consoled by them, she felt discouraged. They told her that like her husband she would also die very soon. It was so depressing for her. She felt hopeless.

Nobody was there to support her and to help her. One day, when she looked at her little daughter, it came to her mind that she needed to be alive for her daughter. She became hopeful. She believed that she would not die very soon.

She asked her mother to look after her daughter and she came back to Ranong to work. It was not easy for her to be far away from her daughter. She worked very hard and sacrificed many things to achieve her dream that before she dies she could do something for the future of her daughter. She wanted to have a house in Myanmar for her daughter.

While in Ranong she tried to do any work and she worked very hard to try and stay healthy. It was a challenge for her financially because she he had to save money to buy ARV drugs (HIV medication). In March 2011, she met the Marist Mission Health Team members at the hospital. They assisted her not just financially to buy the drugs but also to belong to a group where she can share and find more support and encouragement.

Several years have passed now but she still stays healthy with the right medical treatment. She was able to build her own house in Myanmar. Her daughter is now 15 years old and now studying at high school. Her dreams and hopes continue on. She would love to see her daughter graduate from university to achieve a brighter future.

For Moe Set, it was her daughter who gave her hope to live. She said the there is always a reason to live and to hope.

Each day the HIV Health Team from the Marist Asia Foundation accompany some of the poorest of the Burmese Migrants in Ranong who seek to live and hope for a brighter future. A common story of poverty, migration to Thailand, lack of knowledge and desperate living conditions, are the root cause of many young women now living with HIV AIDS.

Filed Under: Front Page Image, News

2015 Annual Report

posted on April 9, 2016 by Frank Bird

Compassion in Action.

Thanks to all our friends and supporters. In our Annual Report for 2015 we share our achievements. Click on some of the photos to read some of the stories and highlights.

We had a record number of teenagers begin secondary school, all of our preschool graduates will start school and we continued quality support of Burmese Migrants living with HIV AIDS.

A preview of the report is below. You can view the full report and share a link with your friends to support us at this link https://magic.piktochart.com/output/12624585-maf-annual-report-2015 

 

The 2015 Marist Asia Foundation Annual Report is available in a pdf file here

Filed Under: Front Page Image

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Marist Asia Foundation

Ranong is a fishing village in the South of Thailand where migrant Burmese come to escape conflict and poverty in their own country.

The Marist Mission Ranong seeks to help Burmese refugees by offering educational opportunities, supporting their basic health needs, and assist migrants as they seek a better future for themselves and their children.

The Marist Mission Ranong is an initiative of the Society of Mary and it relies heavily on the involvement of its friends and supporters.

Recent news

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