Myanmar Crisis Appeal

Dear Friends,?

Myanmar needs our?urgent?solidarity and action at this time. You may?have seen news of the?"Myanmar?Crisis" and?escalation of?misery reaching every corner of?this nation now.?

I had the privilege to be on a zoom last week with with Kyaw Ni, the National Unity Government’s?Minister for Labor in Myanmar and some allies in Australia (Bishop Philip Huggins, Denise Nichols and long time Burmese activist friend Kyaw Some).

We also heard from Swam Yee, who is part of the civil service and labor movement and joined the Civil Disobedience Movement to resist the Military after their bloody Coup in February 2021. Like so many, he had to flee to the jungle for his life as over 1000 democracy leaders were killed and 5,000 in-prisoned in Covid infested jails. There are now over 350,000 Civil Disobedience Movement workers, like Swam Yee, who are resisting the Junta, but can’t work in regular jobs now and need urgent help.

There are three requests from National Unity Government leaders that can support the Civil Disobedience Movement in Myanmar that I think we can help with:

1. There is an urgent need for short courses (eg enterprises, organising) and vocational courses (eg baking) and to seed grants to help Civil Disobedience Movement workers in those in liberated areas to start small businesses to generate income. We plan to help resource a pilot scheme in Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border where we’ve had links for over 25 years. We would run this part online from February and then visit in person in July.

* Could you help run some of these courses or give financially to help make this possible?

2. There is an?urgent need of humanitarian assistance for the Civil Disobedience Movement workers and their families. Through the NUG we can get the needed resources to the right people.?The organisation I lead is called Seedbeds and our vision is to grow leaders and communities into fullness of life. This seems like a key opportunity to act on this in such a strategic way and we would love your support. https://seedbeds.org/support-us.? If you have another NGO or charity that is willing to help that you know better, we can provide the bank details of our NUG contacts.

* Could you give to help workers in Myanmar survive this crisis?

3. Write to our MPs calling our Governments to recognise and deal with the democratically elected government of Myanmar which is the National Unity Government (and not the Military Junta)? Sending AID money to the Junta, for example, will?only hurt the people of Myanmar.?

* Would you stand with the people of Myanmar in their darkest hour?

Thanks for all you doing.?

Shalom,?

Rev. Dr Ash Barker

Seedbeds.org

PS. You can give financially here:

Seedbeds – Growing leaders and communities into the fullness of life

Account Name:?Newbigin School of Urban Leadership CIC

Bank: Lloyds Bank

Sort Code: 30-98-97

Account Number: 45448268

Reference: Please include your name and areas of support. If you wish to be anonymous please put Anonymous Donation.