Burma Relief Launches $13,000 Fundraising Campaign on Crowdfunding Site HelpersUnite.com; Funds Provide a Home, Education for Burmese Refugee Children

New York-based Burma Relief launches $13,000 fundraising campaign through crowdfunding site, HelpersUnite, to complete construction of a boys’ dormitory for 50 Burmese refugee children.

New York, NY, October 11, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Burma is the forgotten country: one of the poorest nations in Southeast Asia and ranked next to last in international aid received. Furthermore, Burma is home to forced labor, human trafficking and child labor from which children and families often flee to bordering Maesot, Thailand, where new perils await.

New York-based Burma Relief meets these children and families at the Maesot border, offering housing, food, medical treatment and education for children. Led by Executive Director Jeremy Taylor, the organization has helped over a thousand Burmese children living in Maesot: it has provided malaria testing and treatment for 800 Burmese, life saving heart operations for 4 Burmese children and three months of rice for 450 children. It recently built a dormitory with bunk beds for 50 orphaned Burmese refugee girls at the New Blood Migrant School in Maesot. Burma Relief’s next project is to construct a new 3,000 square-foot dormitory building.

After a successful gala event last month, Taylor raised $7,000 for this building, $13,000 short of his $20,000 goal. Taylor has now launched a campaign on HelpersUnite.com to raise the remaining funding, with 100% of all capital received going towards completing its construction and the necessary bunk beds, electricity, computers and housing for English teachers. In exchange for donations, the organization is offering personal thank you notes, t-shirts and DVDs of the documentary that served as Taylor’s call to action.

Taylor founded Burma Relief soon after filming his documentary, “Burma: An Indictment,” morphing his project into a movement for these children. “Learning of the humanitarian crisis while making our documentary was the epiphany it took for me to create this organization dedicated to orphaned Burmese refugee children,” says Taylor.

GoodWorldCreations was founded in early 2011 and specializes in leveraging complex, state-of-the art web and social technology to help make the world a better place. Its flagship platform, HelpersUnite.com, is the first-ever platform to combine fundraising for creative and business ventures with charitable giving and online event ticketing.

For more information, visit www.HelpersUnite.com.

Amu Peter and U Gasta
[ Photos by Steve Latimer ]

A little background: I’ve been working as a volunteer activist with Amnesty International since, oh, forever. One of the things Amnesty does is take up the cases of people who’ve been imprisoned (or persecuted or disappeared or otherwise had their lives and human rights trampled upon) because of their beliefs, speech, affiliations, identity, political activities, and so forth.

For the last ten or so years I’ve been part of efforts on behalf of political prisoners in Burma (these days officially called the Republic of the Union of Myanmar), which is run by one of the most despotic, despicable regimes on earth. You may recall the Saffron Revolution of 2007, in which many Burmese, include thousands of Buddhist monks, took to the streets; these protests were put down violently. Some of the monks escaped to the Thai border and were granted refugee status in the U.S. U Pyinya Zawta’s story is the stuff of movies–the difference, of course, being that his story is all too real. While he was making his way out of the country in disguise, the authorities arrested his mother and siblings; fortunately, they were let go once Pyinya Zawta let it be known he had crossed the border. You can read more about U Pyinya Zawta and some of the monks now living in the U.S. in a fascinating article by Susie Poppick.

Burma Relief On The Lou Show from Jeremy Taylor on Vimeo.

Executive Director Jeremy Taylor is interviewed on Arizona based "The Lou Show". They discuss the many issues going on today in Burma and touch up on the connection between the Burmese refugees and the Mexicans at our own border.

Burma Captured In Images and In Spirit

A multimedia affair that captures the plight of the Burmese people

Friar's Club
57 East 55th Street
New York, NY

Monday September 19, 2011
7:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Open Bar and Dinner Served 

Please RSVP at http://burmacaptured.eventbrite.com by September 1st.

RSVP

To learn more about Burma Relief review our brochure.

Burma Relief Brochure