Umpheim Mai refugee camp supply mission
by Daniel Pedersen on Jun.01, 2009, under Burma reportage, People, The camps
Relief supply mission May 19, 2009
Mae Sot, Thailand
May 19, 2009
Destination:
Umpheim Mai Refugee Camp, Tak province, Thai-Burma border, northern Thailand.
Team:
Damien Smee, Tommy Rogers, Methinet and Dan Pedersen, Warrant Officer Captain Eh Soe (KNLA Sixth Brigade, 201st battalion)
Cargo:
Food
20kg dried chillies, 20kg chilli powder, 20kg dried fish, 10kg palm sugar, 10kg salt, 60 cans of tinned fish, four cartons baby cereal, five 500gm boxes baby milk powder, carton Mama instant noodles, 10kg fish paste.
Durables
18 woolen blankets, eight four-person mosquito nets, eight sleeping mats, two 3m by 4m tarpaulins, 20 Karen language bibles.
Non-food consumables
100 candles, 12 toothbrushes , 12 tubes toothpaste, 24 bars of soap, 144 individual shampoo packets, two packets of cheroots.
Special budget
Widow Bo Pah received 3000 baht for six orphans for miscellaneous expenses related to caring for the children.
Donors:
Heather Innes, Jacynth Hamill, Markku Vesikko, Tommy Rogers (teacher Umpheim Mai) and Htaw Htoo (Chrestos Mission, Mae Sariang).
Brief:
After the fall of the Karen National Liberation Army’s Sixth Brigade 201st battalion base camp of Wah Lay Kee on April 28, families who had endured almost 12 months of intermittent but determined offensives against their homes finally evacuated.
They landed in Umpheim Mai refugee camp’s Section 14.
They had virtually nothing, photographs taken by medics of the evacuation showed people squatting next to plastic bags stuffed with a few clothes and the odd cooking pot. Tommy Rogers contacted Dan Pedersen on May 14 alerting him of the families’ precarious existence and work began on raising funds to alleviate their situation.
We scrambled together about 20,000 baht. Because of a lack of funds we had to prioritise funds dispersal to families most in need.
The first delivery of aid occurred on May 19, helping 12 of the 34 families in need.
KNLA Colonel Nerdah Mya described these people, who had lived under siege for months, desperately trying to farm land and eke out a subsistence living in their home country, as the “true heroes of the Karen revolution”.
Money is still urgently needed, there are a total of 34 families in desperate need of food and essential items for basic living.
This is an open appeal to anyone who can afford to help these people, victims of an ongoing campaign of genocide to force them from their home country.
By clicking on the donate button you can help.
ENDS
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"Secret Genocide is a scholarly book on the plight of the Karen of Burma. Author Daniel Pedersen writes about the secret genocide of the Karen people at the hands of the Burmese junta, who use murder, rape, forced labour and torture to quell their enemies. Decades after the Karen took up arms against Rangoon; there is no telling when - or if - their struggle for a secure homeland will finally be accomplished"
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