Burma
Full country name: Union of Myanmar
Area: 671,000 sq km
Population: 50 million (growth rate 2.1%)
Capital city: Yangon (Rangoon) (pop: 4 million)
People: 65% Burmese, 10% Shan, 7% Karen, 4% Rakhine and Chin, Kachin, Mon. etc. Moreover there are Chinese, Indian and Assamese minorities
Language: Burmese, also Shan, Karen, Chin and Kachin
Religion: 87% Theravada Buddhist, 5% Christian, 4% Muslim, 3% animist
Current Focus and Concerns
The civil war still on going in Burma, especially in some of the ethnic states, causes many internally displaced persons (IDP) in the country and refugees to neighboring countries. Moreover the civil war also effect the living condition of the whole of Burma. Severe human rights violations occur frequently. Due to mismanagement, cronyism and high expenditures on military, the economy of Burma is in severe crisis. The regime has been selling off the country's natural resources to foreign investors in its attempts to survive, with no regard for the serious social and environmental impacts. Inflation increases every year. Government has to control foreign exchange rate currencies. People have to take care themselves very much in many respect. Rural areas are abandoned. Many illagers barely survive by collecting some food in the field or as poorly paid wage laborers (1/2 USD per day).
Tdh Germany currently supports 9 projects along the Thai-Burma Border and inside of Burma. Most of projects along the border concern children of migant workers and children in refugee camps, with focus on education and health. Projects inside Burma aim at community development and income generation for people on the grass root level.
Future Thrusts and Projections
1. Tdh will continue to support initiatives that promote and advance children’s rights, especially those children in poor rural and urban areas in Burma, migrant children in the cities and children in refugee camps in Thailand. This thrust implies that priority attention will be given to issues affecting child workers, and children in remote areas where their basic rights to education and health are denied.
2. As armed conflict is likely to continue in the immediate future, those children instrumentalised in and traumatised by war deserve special care. Project preventing children from being used and brutalised by war, and those which provide care to traumatise children victims, shall be encouraged and supported.
3. Greater efforts will also be exerted to link with, and support projects, promoting biodiversity and ecological conservation.
4. Gender mainstreaming and capacity building will be pursued both on the local and regional levels through skills training, orientational seminars, exposure and study visits, partner meetings and the implementation of working groups’ plans of action.
Area: 671,000 sq km
Population: 50 million (growth rate 2.1%)
Capital city: Yangon (Rangoon) (pop: 4 million)
People: 65% Burmese, 10% Shan, 7% Karen, 4% Rakhine and Chin, Kachin, Mon. etc. Moreover there are Chinese, Indian and Assamese minorities
Language: Burmese, also Shan, Karen, Chin and Kachin
Religion: 87% Theravada Buddhist, 5% Christian, 4% Muslim, 3% animist
Current Focus and Concerns
The civil war still on going in Burma, especially in some of the ethnic states, causes many internally displaced persons (IDP) in the country and refugees to neighboring countries. Moreover the civil war also effect the living condition of the whole of Burma. Severe human rights violations occur frequently. Due to mismanagement, cronyism and high expenditures on military, the economy of Burma is in severe crisis. The regime has been selling off the country's natural resources to foreign investors in its attempts to survive, with no regard for the serious social and environmental impacts. Inflation increases every year. Government has to control foreign exchange rate currencies. People have to take care themselves very much in many respect. Rural areas are abandoned. Many illagers barely survive by collecting some food in the field or as poorly paid wage laborers (1/2 USD per day).
Tdh Germany currently supports 9 projects along the Thai-Burma Border and inside of Burma. Most of projects along the border concern children of migant workers and children in refugee camps, with focus on education and health. Projects inside Burma aim at community development and income generation for people on the grass root level.
Future Thrusts and Projections
1. Tdh will continue to support initiatives that promote and advance children’s rights, especially those children in poor rural and urban areas in Burma, migrant children in the cities and children in refugee camps in Thailand. This thrust implies that priority attention will be given to issues affecting child workers, and children in remote areas where their basic rights to education and health are denied.
2. As armed conflict is likely to continue in the immediate future, those children instrumentalised in and traumatised by war deserve special care. Project preventing children from being used and brutalised by war, and those which provide care to traumatise children victims, shall be encouraged and supported.
3. Greater efforts will also be exerted to link with, and support projects, promoting biodiversity and ecological conservation.
4. Gender mainstreaming and capacity building will be pursued both on the local and regional levels through skills training, orientational seminars, exposure and study visits, partner meetings and the implementation of working groups’ plans of action.
