Burma’s ethnic minorities and pro-democracy activists are in a decades-long struggle for survival and freedom from a repressive military dictatorship.
It has one of the worst human rights records in the world. In support of these minorities, young Western and ethnic activists, man WIN’s forward-based, cross-border coordination center in the region.
The focus here is on training, equipping and coordinating a number of initiatives designed to give ethnic minorities and activists the capacity to survive against the military dictatorship in Burma.
These initiatives are designed to empower minority groups to tell their story to the world, while developing grassroots leadership and self reliance to protect basic human rights and ancient cultures over 2000 years old. (Learn more about Burma...)
Humanitarian Assistance
Orphans Landmine Victims
Refugees and IDPs Disaster
Relief Capacity Building Youth
Leadership Development
Human Rights Reporting
Multi-media Skills Practical
Skills Conflict Resolution
KENYA
Former warring tribes on the Kenya-Tanzania border are attempting to build a cooperative community together on the Kenya side of the border.
WIN partners with tribal leaders on a school-orphanage project as a common basis to unite the community.
This involves support to both women’s and tribal community self-help groups, building and expanding a primary and secondary school, as well as support an orphanage on school ground.
One of the aims of this project is to empower young girls and women, who are the objects of long-standing cultural repression. (Learn more about Kenya ...)
Inter-tribal School and Orphanage
Co-op Groups for Community Development
MEXICO
Impoverished families just across the US border in Mexico struggle to establish homes and community in the face of violence and economic lack.
Here WIN leads mission trips for the purpose of family home building and support to orphans.
This is about raising the awareness of American youth and young adults to reach out to these communities-in-need through personal involvement. (Learn more about Mexico ...)
Orphanage
Home building
Burma
Humanitarian Assistance.The following initiatives focus on the most at-risk people in the region. Orphans. WIN supports several orphanages in the Thai-Burma border region. These children have lost their parents in the war the Burmese Army is waging against hill tribe farmers in Karen State and Eastern Burma.
Support to orphanages focuses on building facilities, food and hygiene for children, critical equipment and supplies, stipends for teachers and care providers, monthly maintenance costs, and care packages for orphans’ daily needs. These young children, totaling around 150 in two orphanages, are the most at-risk of all refugees. Supporting them is a matter of protecting the defenseless. The following are present needs:
Landmine Victims.In Eastern Burma over 3,500 villages have been burned and strewn with landmines so villagers cannot return to farm ancestral lands. Many tribal villagers are killed and maimed as a result.
WIN supports a border sanctuary for about 20 blinded landmine amputee refugees ranging in age from 14 to 45. The focus here is on renovating their dormitory, providing a new roof, building beds, providing daily food and hygiene articles and clothing, as well as finding sources for prosthetics, wheelchairs and stipends to take care of victims’ families. Providing musical instruments has proven to be important too.
These “brave young men” have become quite a singing sensation in their camp and are now in high demand at social events and church services. In their darkness they have become a light to others. Their needs are as follows:
Refugees and IDPs. On any given day there are over 470,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Eastern Burma. Karen and other ethnic minorities are sitting on ancestral lands rich in natural resources including oil, natural gas, precious gems, teak wood and hydro-power potential.
This makes them the object of attack by the armed forces of Burma’s dictatorship in an effort to drive them from lands over 2000 years in their possession. In addition to IDPs in Burma, over 150,000 refugees have fled to Thailand and are now in a string of refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border.
These are the attention of most international aid donations, while the vast majority of IDPs under attack in Burma receive only a fraction of international aid, if at all. WIN attempts to work with a limited number of Western and ethnic aid organizations to provide cross-border support in the form of health care, education, food and clothing.
Needs are as follows:
Crisis quick response fund for food, shelter and clothing, $20,000
Emergency medicine fund, $10,000
Satellite communications sets, 4 @ $1500 each ($6000)
Capacity Building. Youth Leadership. The future of ethnic cultures depends on developing grassroots youth leaders. There is a youth “brain drain” in the region that is threatening these ancient cultures.
A toll on youth has been taken because of the effectiveness of the dictatorship in destroying ethnic communities and reducing all survivors to a life of endless poverty. Many have immigrated to third countries, while others languish in refugee camps with no future. Still others are enticed with high paying jobs working for international aid organizations owing allegiance to these and abandoning allegiance to traditional ethnic leaders and communities.
WIN supports a youth leader development center through training that assists attacked villagers in the fields of first aid, preventative medicine, counseling, planning, humanitarian relief, teaching, community development and human rights reporting.
These young men and women risk their lives daily as servant leaders to their people in the war zone of Karen State. They have become an inspiration to all.
Their needs are these:
School operating costs, $1000 a month ($12,000 annually)
Re-supply and equipping of graduates in the field, $5000 per year
Advanced skills training for graduates in the field doing humanitarian relief missions, $3500 per year.
School food costs, $1000 a month ($12,000 annually)
Individual equipment for relief operations (camera, compass, canteens, mosquito net, hammock, flashlight, boots, first aid kit, sewing kit, backpack, 15 watt solar panel), $600. Present need is for 15 sets ($9000)
Trainer stipends, 6 @ $100 a month ($7200 annually)
Clothing, medicine and hygiene, $50 a person per month ($600 a student per year)
Human Rights Reporting. While the world knows somewhat of Burma’s imprisoned pro-democracy elites, intellectuals and urban activists, it knows relatively little about human rights abuses of primitive ethnic minorities in Eastern Burma. There is an imbalance in awareness of who is doing most of the suffering and dying in Burma today. The United Nations is virtually blind here, because it only has access to areas that the Burmese Army has pacified. They have no access to where the dying is routinely going on.
Over 800,000 forced laborers toil daily for the purpose of enriching Burma’s dictatorship and businessmen. This is enabled by international corporations and businesses that do business with the regime in order to tap Burma’s natural resource wealth. There is no end in sight to all this.
The only option that rural ethnic minorities have is to engage in digital photo-based human rights reporting, which is extremely dangerous. At issue here is the ability and capacity to accurately and credibly report on “Jungle Truth” – the oppression of ethnics “in the shadows.”
WIN provides training and equipment for both rural and urban activists to capture what is really going on in Burma in both urban and rural area. This is done under the theme: “Truth visually revealed, is a force more powerful.” The following are critical needs to sustain this effort for 2010 putting 10 teams in the field is:
Quarterly training program, $1500 per session. Total for 2010 is $6000.
Multi-media Skills. WIN also assists in the training of ethnic youth in a range of multi-media techniques by use of both a mobile and virtual training center.
This is for the purpose of turning reports and digital photos / videos into web-based products, such as websites, blogs, social network products (Twitter, You Tube, etc). This also includes the development of documentary films, videos and visual presentations.
Ethnic youth receive training not only from mobile experts, but through internet teaching from Western activist students acting in common cause. This project is about empowering and enabling the passion of youth and young adults working in an international collaborative network.
This is WIN’s newest initiative encompassing the following needs:
Practical Skills. The survival of ethnic minorities in Eastern Burma hangs on sustainment of basic survival skills in the fields of health services, farming, sustainable energy, community building and economic development. WIN supports an expanding system of training centers and mobile training teams in order to train trainers and leaders who can then teach and help their people.
The approach is to partner with other aid organizations, as well as with both ethnic and Western experts in various fields to leverage their expertise in an organized manner. The formula here is one of empowerment through “Expert Training plus Equipment Plus Advisory Assistance”. Our goal is to build a multi-purpose Community Development Center to train trainers in a broad range of skills.
This project entails the following:
Medic stipends for 20 medics, $2000 a month ($24,000 annually)
Equipment, hardware and supplies for vocational and agricultural skills, $10,000
Conflict Resolution. Since 2004 WIN has worked with most pro-democracy groups in the region teaching conflict resolution and a range of other subject matter.
The aim of this has been to promote unity of effort among the pro-democracy movement in general, as well as facilitate internal harmony within various ethnic organizations.
Ethnic minorities form roughly half of Burma society and half of Burma’s fourteen states, with over 130 ethnic groups and tribes across the country. In this light, pan-ethnic unity is essential for balanced solutions and enduring peace in Burma. This starts at village and community levels, but has to be worked on at all levels concurrently.
WIN runs workshops and seminars on demand in support of this effort, which have the following needs:
Inter-tribal school and orphanage. WIN supports Ngochoni Petals of Africa School with its on-site orphanage in Western Kenya. Here Luo and Kuria tribes have united in overcoming their past warring history through focus on the education and care of their children.
This school is a model for tribal cooperation and academic excellence in the region. We attribute this to the quality of the leadership at tribal, directing staff and teacher levels. WIN’s intent is to empower these proven leaders with resources as follows:
High school construction, $20,000
Tractor for agricultural development, $15,000
School bus, $10,000
Sponsorship for American young adult trainers to serve as faculty, $4000 x 2 teachers annually ($8000)
Solar power expansion project, $5000
Orphan care, $100 / child / month x 50 orphans
Laptop computers, 1 per teacher K-8 and head mistress @ $400 ($4000)
Co-op Groups. The intent in working with the school and orphanage is to promote community development and self-reliance. WIN started with support to a women’s group and is presently helping a community self-help group involving leaders and farmers from both tribes. The goal here is to support money-making initiatives that repay these co-ops and build strong community.
The enterprises to be supported now are as follows:
Ngochoni Women’s Group
Home building, $100
General Store, $200
Restaurant, $200
Sewing machines, 4 @ $100 each
Inter-tribal Community Self-help Group
Milk cows, $900
Motor Cycle for hire, $1500
Farming land lease, $2500
Corn grinding machine, $2700
Mexico
Orphans.
The goals are quarterly maintenance trips to support a border orphanage.
Building repairs, $2000 annually
Operating cost support, $500 per month ($6000)
Care packages, $25 each x 125 orphans ($3125)
Home building.
The goal is two youth trips annually for a total of 20 youth requiring the following costs:
Building materials, $5100
Furniture kit, $1350
Sponsor student builder, $255 each for 10 youths ($2550)
How to Contact Worldwide Impact Now (WIN): Tim Heinemann | email | skype:timothy.scott.heinemann |
USA (913) 240-1627 [GSM International] worldwideimpactnow@msn.com
Refugees and IDPs.
WIN supports a youth leader development center through training that assists attacked villagers in the fields of first aid, preventative medicine, counseling, planning, humanitarian relief, teaching, community development and human rights reporting.
The only option that rural ethnic minorities have is to engage in digital photo-based human rights reporting, which is extremely dangerous. At issue here is the ability and capacity to accurately and credibly report on “Jungle Truth” – the oppression of ethnics “in the shadows.” 
Multi-media Skills.
This is WIN’s newest initiative encompassing the following needs:
This project entails the following:
This school is a model for tribal cooperation and academic excellence in the region. We attribute this to the quality of the leadership at tribal, directing staff and teacher levels. WIN’s intent is to empower these proven leaders with resources as follows:
Co-op Groups.
