Supporting Displaced Lives: A Visit to the Monastery Sheltering IDPs
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to all who have donated to support those displaced by the ongoing conflict in Myanmar. Your contributions allow us to assist those most in need, such as the vulnerable internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have taken refuge at a monastery in Kyi Kaing Village, near Pyin Oo Lwin. These IDPs, who fled their homes in Kyaukme due to violent clashes between the Myanmar military and ethnic forces, have been under the compassionate care of the monastery’s abbot. Earlier this year, we were able to deliver much-needed supplies, including rice and dried fish, to support the abbot’s efforts. Below, our team leader shares his firsthand account of this visit, offering a glimpse into the ongoing hardships faced by these displaced families and the vital role your donations play in providing them with hope and sustenance.
We went to the monastery where the IDPs from Kyaukme were staying. There are about 100 IDPs who are taking refugee in this monastery in Kyi Kaing Village outside of Pyin Oo Lwin. We heard from our friend who was also helping the people there. These vulnerable people evacuated from their homes in Kyaukme due to the combats between the Myanmar junta’s forces and the TNLA, an ethnic armed force. We heard that there were more than 200 IDP persons at the beginning! The abbot of the monastery has been accommodating and feeding these vulnerable people since the beginning of the war in Kyaukme. Our friend informed us about the IDPs that the monk needs help and he was passing the message to all his friends and he went to the monastery to help him offering vegetables that he grew in the backyard of his house. His wife told us that she saw those vulnerable people with sad faces, sitting on the handrail of a nearby bridge outside the monastery. As far as she talked to them, the two men who went back to Kyaukme to check their houses, were shot and killed by the junta’s forces with the suspicion as resistance force members.
Using the funds generously given by the overseas donors, we offered 5 sacks of rice and some dried fish to the monk so that he could manage and use them in cooking and feeding the refugees in his monastery. Some of them reflected to me that they drove from Kyaukme to Pyin Oo Lwin on a motor cycle at the nighttime and they could not sleep, then they arrived in the village’s monastery in the next morning. Our friend requested us not to take photos of the people there as they were so sad and they were also feared of the local authorities of the junta. As far as he was helping the abbot, he explained to us that the latter has bravely saved them in his great compassion and most of them lost their homes: the rest who are still staying at the monastery and that we saw, had all lost their homes and could not go back to Kyaukme or any other places as they do not have their relatives in Pyin Oo Lwin or anywhere else in the central mainland of Myanmar. Some of the people already left the monastery for finding jobs in Yangon or Mandalay.
It was quite sorrowful to hear that these vulnerable people were in trauma though the compassionate monks have saved them. As much as I went and looked around the monastery to talk to a few of them, it was apparent that the people were still struggling to survive their life after their peaceful stay in the monastery. I was truly pleased to help the kind abbot who has been helping them. Meanwhile, I came back with some sad thoughts for these vulnerable people. Anyway, I am glad that your support allowed us to help them in some small way.
