Update on Burma

Morning offering for the nuns at the Shwen Dagon Pagoda

Dear friends,

I would like to thank you all for your calls and emails about my family and the orphanage in Yangon. I was about to prepare a note to update some of you on the progress we have made with the orphanage that I have been supporting for eight years, and then devastation that hit Yangon area last Saturday, and it is deeply sad that the orphanage is severely damaged.

Last nite, I heard from my friend Kit Young, who runs the music school, Gitameit . She wrote to me that she will drive over with the American consulate jeep to check on the orphanage and some of my family members today. And here is her note below to those that wrote to me about contribution.

Gitameit has turned into a disaster relief organization. The musicians and I drove to outlying townships today. In our Gitameit Center backyard alone and - the hindu temple ceremony hall - there are 800 people camped out with less than satisfactory sanitation, diminishing clean water supply and very little else than rice porridge in the last two days.

The Karen Women's Group will assess the most urgent needs of families there and tell us tomorrow. The Myanmar Red Cross was in today - but does not have enough supplies of rice orwater and needs donations.

The regime is busy chopping up fallen trees on roads - beginning to work on electric poles - in rich areas of town. Survival for the poor or communication with citizenry is not their fault. They even neglect their own... As I passed some soldiers cutting trees yesterday, I asked if they'd eaten breakfast. Of course not! So, I went back home to get them some bread.

There is a big issue of Myanmar gov't wanting supplies but not relief personnel to come into the country. After today's slight confrontation with this Shwebaukan thug trying to control things, I understand why.

We've identified these communities linked to us already - around 3000+ people. We figure we will need to raise at least $150,000 in the coming weeks - just to keep these communities afloat until some of the markets get up and running. We will try to put progress reports up on the Gitameit website, there is paypal system at http://www.foundationburma.org the Foundation for the People of Burma website –thank you so much for your support, Kit.

p.s. the contribution to the orphanage and the cyclone victim checks are written out to Friend without borders, 59 fourth avenue, New York, NY 10003..att: irene khin wong…I will wire the fund directly to kit.