For the past 3 weeks, my team has been walking around the city of Chiang Mai, going from business to business to try and get sponsors and donations for this 5k run. We are working with a non profit called Free Burma Rangers (FBR). Here in Chiang Mai, they’re known as Free the Oppressed. FBR brings health, hope and love to the people of Burma. In the Burma villages, people are getting chased out and killed from their houses by their OWN Burma military. FBR goes in and helps teach and educate the people living in the villages, and they put on what looks like a “fire drill”. Much like in school, a fire drill is used to practice getting out of a building as fast as you can so you can get out of the fire. But this kind of fire drill is real life. They practice running out and fleeing their own houses and village to run for their lives to get away from their military.
For over 65 years, there has been a civil war in Burma. The military is constantly attacking its people and forcing people to fight for them. Meaning, they would have to kill civilians, their own people. FBR also trains rangers. Men and women who are taught to fight off the military, and they are taught how to do basic medical operations/simple medical things, like how to treat and bandage a wound, and how to put in an IV and how to take care of the wounded. The school is called JSMK, Jungle School of Medicine – Kawthoolei.
FBR also helps with the people in Iraq, Kurdistan and Sudan. All similar situations. They help get the people free and out of harmful situations, and they bring medical help as well.
FBR just had a movie come out in the states, but only in theaters for 2 days. (Feb. 24-25) We asked our boss, Sara, if my team could see the movie before we left, because it doesn’t come out until March 14th in Thailand. (We leave March 1st). We had a movie night with my team and a lot of the FBR volunteers and a few people from other teams on my squad. The movie was all footage caught on camera from the field, of all the civil unrest and maltreatment that goes on in Burma. Not a lot of people know about these things, due to the fact that it doesn’t reach the news. It also showed how FBR evolved from just helping Burma to helping Burma, Iraq, Kurdistan and Sudan. By the end of the movie, I had cried at least 7 times. Men and women who have to go through being driven out of their houses and killed, for no good reason at all. Words can’t even describe what the men, women and children are going through in these countries and probably way more than we know. And I’m over here complaining how I’m sweating so much from walking around the city to try and get supporters for this 5k that’s raising awareness for these people, and there’s people who are dying of dehydration in the jungle from running to keep themselves alive.
This isn’t a blog to make whoever is reading it sad or ashamed of how they live knowing how other people are struggling. I’m writing this blog to speak about the harsh reality that we live in today called the world. I wrote this to raise awareness for those who aren’t able to. I wrote this to help bring a voice to the people who need it the most. Most of all, I wrote this because people deserve to know, so they can help and get involved.
If you would like more of an explanation of FBR please please please check out their website at:
