The annual Coast Hotels Just Golf Tournament & Dinner Party is the principal fundraiser for Just Aid. This year’s tourney is on August 25 at the University Golf Club. Check it out at the Just Golf page and register at: http://www.justaid.ca/registration.htm.
Last year’s event on August 26, 2009 was the 7th in the series and it was true to form. Golfers and diners enjoyed themselves immensely while generously contributing to Just Aid. For an account of the event, and some photos which confirm the participants’ enjoyment, visit "the 2009 Event" page at http://www.justaid.ca/event.htm.
Click here to purchase this beautiful Daylily AND donate to the Foundation.
Established as a registered Canadian charity in 2006, the mission of the Foundation is to: assist individuals and groups adversely affected by the failure of democracy in Burma; raise public awareness of the situation in Burma; provide financial, technical and other support to individual and community initiatives intended to improve the living conditions of people in Burma, as well as Burmese people on or near Burma’s borders and in displaced communities elsewhere; and provide financial and direct assistance to individuals and organizations engaged in delivering or receiving any form of health care, in assisting others to access health care, or in health promotion.
An army coup overthrew the last democratically-elected government in 1962. The ensuing military regimes have been among the world’s most brutal violators of human rights. The country is in an almost permanent state of civil war. Summary executions, forced labour, torture, compulsory relocation, land confiscation, and the systematic use of rape as a weapon of war have been widely documented. The result is an estimated one million internallydisplaced people, particularly in the ethnic states of Burma, and more than a million (some say closer to two million) refugees in neighbouring Thailand, India, Bangladesh, China, as well as in nearby Malaysia.
This large-scale displacement of people has created a humanitarian and human rights crisis both inside and outside the country. The internally-displaced have little or no access to basic human services except for whatever assistance is provided from neighbouring countries. Rates of maternal mortality and morbidity for displaced Burmese women are among the highest in the world. The conditions for most of the external refugees and migrants in the region are not much better. Over 800 Karen refugees were resettled in Canada in 2006, and Canada has announced that 2,000 more will be accepted. But the increased public awareness tends to focus on Canada’s role as a host country instead of the root causes of the dramatic and devastating movement of people in and from Burma.
Displaced people have created organizations to develop health services, schools, orphanages, refugee camps, training programs, and related activities. Women’s groups have developed initiatives that respond to the needs of displaced women. There are now a number of very competent civil society organizations involved in delivering support programs and representing the interests of displaced people. The Foundation currently supports two of these organizations: The Mae Tao Clinic (MTC) and the Back Pack Health Worker Team (BPHWT). In accordance with its registered corporate objective, the Foundation provides funds to the respected Canadian charity Inter Pares which works closely with an NGO in Thailand called the Burma Relief Centre. The BRC supports community-based organizations in the areas of health, women, youth, community development, human rights, environment and information/media. The Foundation’s funds are directed to the MTC and the BPHWT.
The MTC in Mae Sot, Thailand, estimates that it provides medical services to a target population of 150,000 displaced people on the Thai- Burma border. The clinic employs 200 health workers, logistical and administrative staff and physicians who provide an array of health services with a particular focus on women and children. The MTC is also a major training center, organizing and conducting training for medics who are deployed at the clinic or elsewhere in the border region. See much more about the MTC in the Supported organizations/activities page.
The BPHWT, also based in Mae Sot, trains and coordinates paramedic teams that provide primary health care, health education, and emergency services to displaced people in Karen, Mon, and Karenni States of Burma. The courageous paramedics perform their perilous work in both ceasefi re and combat zones. See much more about the BPHWT in the Supported organizations/activities page.