Benefit for Human Rights in Burma

A celebration and benefit October 5th at the Berkeley Unitarian Fellowship from 5:30 to 10:30 will offer a multi media presentation documenting the perseverance of devoted Americans and Burmese people who are struggling to secure health and freedom in Burma. The celebration will include traditional Burmese food, children’s activities, traditional crafts and a holistic services auction. Support from this event will enable BHM to sponsor backpacking medics to deliver medical aid to remote villages in Burma.

This event offers a unique opportunity for the Bay Area community to support and learn about the Burma Humanitarian Mission. The need for medicine is especially great for the Karen people of Eastern Burma who have been pushed into hiding by the brutal military regime that currently rules their country.

The missions have been phenomenally successful in providing medicine to remote Karen hill-tribe villages in eastern Burma. Often living in hiding, many Karen people no longer have access to their food crops and traditional medicine. People live without access to clean water or basic public health services, precipitating the spread of malaria, HIV, typhoid and tuberculosis. In January through March, 2001 BHM delivered a year’s supply of medicine for roughly ten thousand people. With each visit to Burma, BHM aims to share technical and medical knowledge with the Karen to empower them to realize their goals of stability, health and democracy in their country.