The Dangers of Giving
Recently we shared the account of one volunteer who described the abuse that poor communities were facing in Yangon, and the difficulty prospective donors had in reaching them. Today we hear from another volunteer who has been receiving part of our donation fund and (very carefully) has looked for ways to distribute aid in impoverished areas.
The donation that you are contributing goes a long way in Myanmar, although it is not without its perils and risks. The military is trying to beat its citizens into submission, and so starving them out and denying medical assistance are two ways they are hoping to achieve this goal. This is accomplished by intimidating and arresting donors, confiscating donations and sharing them with Tatmadaw sympathizers and informants, blocking off entire neighborhoods, and arbitrarily declaring martial law. This is all borrowed from an old playbook: when Cyclone Nargis devastated the Delta in 2008, the only action the military designated was to post soldiers on roads preventing local donors from reaching the hardest-hit areas, and confiscating emergency aid kits provided by international organizations.
All of this is being shared to provide you detail of how valued your donation is at this time, and the great courage of the volunteers who are putting it to immediate use in service of others. Please do what you can to continue supporting them at this time.
“Such sadness and it just doesn’t seem to end.”
“The simple act of giving…….
…… is now anything but simple. Myanmar is a country well known for its generosity but in these times it is dangerous to give money, shelter or even food to another person. A couple of days ago a rice seller in a neighboring community was trying to help neighbors. One person purchased 1 kg of rice he would donate to them 1/2 kg. People were very happy about this but by the end of the day, government officials learned about what he was doing and the shop owner was promptly arrested. In another instance some young men were trying to donate meals to local residents in a very poor area and the food was soon confiscated by local officials. The donors were told that if they wanted to donate anything they must give what is being donated to government officials who would then distribute it. Of course, that would never happen, because the donation would be stolen.
Like many people, I have been trying to help those in need, but beyond the obvious risks it is challenging and can take a great deal of time to plan so as to keep ourselves safe as well as those receiving the donation. For a variety of reasons it is most challenging to get assistance to the poorest areas in part because of a large military presence in these areas.
Recently we had planned for 3 days to donate rice to a very poor quarter. Two days before we were to execute the plan a large number of military check points were set up throughout the city making it even more risky to accomplish our goal. After discussing it amongst ourselves we decided to go ahead with the plan as it had just taken a lot of time to coordinate everything and we did not want to reschedule everything. It turned out we got a break because on this day the checkpoints were unmanned as the soldiers and police had turned their attention from the main roads and instead were focusing on areas within the local Quarters rather than the more heavily travelled routes.
As planned, the rice was delivered to several waypoints and from there it would be further distributed to local residents in several Quarters. Our direct contact was only with 6 or 7 people that we met with individually and that we were certain could be trusted. But even with that trust the fear was still there.
As we met with these people, the stories we heard were heart-wrenching. People have very little money and they are unable to afford bags of rice, but instead are forced to purchase it by the cup. Many of these people will make a porridge of the rice just to stretch it out. In addition to food and financial problems there were also the stories of those who had been wounded, beaten and killed during the recent demonstrations and of those who were forced to flee their homes. Such sadness and it just doesn’t seem to end.
We finished what we needed to accomplish in 5 or 6 hours we then headed home. We were to make 1 additional stop along the way but because of a large presence of soldiers in the Quarter we were forced to abandon that one stop and continued on our way home without incident. Hours later we began to receive phone calls from those who had delivered rice to individual persons and we were brough to tears by what we heard. Everyone who had received the rice was so grateful and most surprising to me was how happy they were to receive a good quality rice which many rarely have the chance to eat even in the best of times.
But the most touching reports we heard was how happy the people were who risked their own safety to distribute the food to others. We had explained to each of those we gave large quantities of rice to that this was now their rice and theirs to do with as they wished. We further explained to them that while their own situation was now very difficult we reminded them that there were others whose situation was even more dire and when they shared with others it would be their donation and not ours. What we later heard from each of them was how happy they were to be able to donate to their neighbors as they have never before had the opportunity to do so in the past and how happy it made them to be able to donate to others in such a way. It was all incredibly moving and I only wish that those of you who made this possible could have heard this for yourselves. All of us thank you very much.
And now we have already begun planning for similar deliveries…………”