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Tag: Myanmar

From Sewing Sanitary Napkins to Three-Layer Face Masks

Banner image: Theit Theit Shwee sewing face masks made by cloth (Source: CEDAR’s partner) “Kacha…Kacha…” Theit Theit Shwee, a woman from the slum area of Myanmar, sat in front of a sewing machine and sewed the fabric. She carefully wrapped the two white bands and sewed them with the fabric and finished making a three-layer cloth mask. This has been her daily job, making cloth masks with other women in the community center of CEDAR’s partner. Due to the local outbreak of COVID-19, Theit Theit Shwee, who was already over 40, immediately lost her job. She had been working so hard to raise her child for many years, but the pandemic has made her lose all her income.

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My Plastic Reduction Action – after the CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018

Banner Image: Sarah Hong (far right) Written by: Sarah Hong (Participant of CEDAR’s Exposure Trip 2018) The world God first-created was in a stable and balanced peaceful condition, which illustrated Shalom. He gave us the responsibility to manage the land. Yet, we failed our task, destroyed the land and its eco-system and caused a lot of problems, such as climate change. I joined the CEDAR’s exposure trip to Thai-Burmese border and rural northern Thailand in December last year. During the trip, my companions and I visited UHDP [1], CEDAR’s partner. UHDP understood God’s heart for reconciling relationships between human and other aspects, including the nature. Therefore, they adopted an agricultural principle that can sustain development, protect the nature and reconcile

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CEDAR’s Second Phase of Relief Assists 2,500 Burmese in Western Myanmar

Banner image: Villagers who fled conflicts are temporarily living in an abandoned government office building The conflict between the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an armed group fighting for greater autonomy in western Rakhine, has not ceased since December 2018. In June 2019, the Myanmar Government ordered telecommunications companies to shut down mobile internet service across local townships, hindering external access of updated information which the safety of civilians are of concern. [1] CEDAR Fund and our partner in Myanmar, Full Moon Children Development Family, began the first phase of relief work in the conflict-affected region in February 2019. Collaborating with us in relief distribution was a local team led by Pastor Aung Din, who had rich experience

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CEDAR’s Emergency Relief to 2,100 Displaced People while Conflict Continues in Western Myanmar

Banner image: People in western Myanmar evacuated due to conflicts The Myanmar military and the Arakan Army, an armed group fighting for greater autonomy in western Rakhine, has been in conflict in Rakhine and Chin states since December of 2018. The conflict has caused over 30,000 people to flee from their homes [1]. The Myanmar military oppressed the rebels by bombing villages and executing extrajudicial murder, which resulted in heavy injuries and deaths of the innocent. In May this year, Amnesty International gathered evidence and said that the military is committing war crimes and other human rights violations. Noticing a vast group of displaced people, CEDAR and its partner Full Moon Children Development Ministry distributed food and blankets

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CEDAR Calls for Emergency Assistance for Chin People Living in Conflicts in Myanmar

Since December 2018, the conflict between the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military) and the Arakan Army (AA, Rakhine rebels) in southern Chin State and northern Rakhine State had escalated, which had caused 6,000 people homeless till the mid of February. In the first week of February, there were over 180 villagers from Paletwa in Chin State fled to Bangladesh. CEDAR’s partner in Myanmar stated that there were at least 20 temporary campsites built along the border. The diaspora sojourning in the campsites urgently needs humanitarian aids now. CEDAR funded our partner* USD 18,000 (approximately HKD 141,300) this February to provide 6 days of food and blankets to 218 families from Paletwa in the temporary campsites. Temperature difference at the campsite

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CEDAR VISITED ROHINGYA REFUGEE CAMP

Banner Photo: CEDAR’s Project Officer Pui Shan visits a Rohingya family in Cox’s Bazar. The mother, who gave birth to a newborn baby, heard about infant vaccination service during regular household visit conducted by community health workers. While strolling through a muddy and dusty field, CEDAR’s Project Officer Pui Shan saw rows of tents sitting next to each other that were simply built by timber and canvas. This refugee camp is located in Cox’s Bazar, southeastern Bangladesh, which is the largest refugee camp in the world to date. The military force of Myanmar has been oppressing the Rohingya since 2017, which resulted in death of thousands and over 700,000 Rohingyas in the Rakhine State of Myanmar fleeing to

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CEDAR Fund & Integral Alliance Continues to Walk with the Rohingyas

Since a renewed outbreak of conflict in Rakhine State of Myanmar in August 2017, another 702,000 Rohingya refugees arrived at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh; increasing the total refugee population to 915,000. Approximately, 1.3 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the area. CEDAR and other Integral Alliance(IA) members have been responding to the situation by not only providing support to the Rohingya refugees, but also assisting the host communities. CEDAR has allocated funds to support Tearfund Bangladesh and the Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB) to install facilities like latrines, tube wells, solar light systems; distribute items such as cooking stoves and mosquito nets; and set up Child Friendly Spaces for children and youth to learn.

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The Ever-Roving Lisu

One might readily connect words like “refugees” and “war” to the Syrians, the Rohingya people, or the South Sudanese. In fact, besides the Rohingya refugee crisis in Rakhine State of Myanmar, another 200,000 people in the country were forced to be internally displaced from Kachin State in the north, Shan State in north-east, and Kayin State in south-east due to unceasing armed conflicts. The United Nations estimated that close to 172,000 individuals in these three states need humanitarian aid. Unfortunately, humanitarian effort is limited due to safety concern or inaccessibility in non-government-controlled areas. We have been helping the displaced Lisu people in Kachin State since mid-2017 through our partnership with the Kachin Lisu Christian Council. Lisu people whose village was destroyed or whose communities became unsafe due to

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Me as An Ordinary Person

Amongst the children ministries of CEDAR and its partners, post-war children ministry in Myanmar must be the most well-known one. You may ask, “Why do we still support this particular children ministry after two decades?” The answer is simple: Because it is worth it. We saw how God worked amazingly on these children, and we hope that they will become ambassadors for reconciliation. “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies.”(Luke 6:27a) This verse can well describe our Burmese partner, Full Moon. Some thought they are just a children’s home, taking care of children separated from families due to internal conflicts, but Full Moon’s core ministry is to repair relationships and heal wounds. The children’s home

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The Letter from CEDAR | December 2017

Dear friends of CEDAR, May peace be with you! There is a say that Ma On Shan, the place where I live, is a “food desert.” I am not sure how true this claim is, but no doubt, as compared with Jordan where CEDAR’s office is located, Ma On Shan is far behind Jordan in terms of the choices of food. Commuting between the two districts every day, I often find it hard to decide where to go for lunch – there are just too many options. In development work, we often encounter similar situation. The world has over 7 billion population and close to 770 million of them are struggling for survival with less than HK$15 a

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