Burma trip will be an eye-opener
Posted By TEVIAH MORO, THE PACKET AND TIMES
Posted 2 months ago
Tha Dar Hsae paid little attention to politics when she lived in Burma.
The 23-year-old York University student says she didn't think much about how the military regime had limited her freedom.
In retrospect, Hsae realizes it's because she was never given the chance.
"We are not allowed to talk about politics -- or anything," she says, walking the grounds of the sprawling university campus.
In Burma, officially known as Myanmar by its dictatorship, she learned that "government is always good."
She remembers marching to public rallies with her classmates.
But brainwashing would only go so far.
The threat of real danger and a yearning for higher education awakened Hsae, driving her from her home in southern Burma to Thailand.
Though she paid politics no heed, Hsae's aunt was active, and had become a potential target.
The government was "very suspicious of whatever we do," she recalls. "There's no freedom whatsoever."
On her own at a refugee camp along the Thai-Burmese border, Hsae found grounding -- and a chance to learn without feeling watched.
A pair of retired educators from Orillia are in the midst of their own journey of discovery in Thailand.
Former public school principals Eric and Cathy Sayle are spending most of their six-week trip in the border town of Mae Sot to learn more about Burmese refugees.
As recently minted board members of the charitable organization Project Umbrella Burma, they wanted to see the fruits of their fundraising efforts.
"We're really excited to see what Project Umbrella Burma is really like in action," Cathy said in an interview before their departure. "We need to be there and feel it."
Now in its eighth year of providing aid to refugees in Mae Sot and area, the grassroots fundraising organization has more than one focus.
Funds buy supplies for refugees studying to further their education. Money also goes go toward basic hygiene necessities and medical supplies for a clinic there.
Burmese migrants have fled their country for decades.
Ever since the southeast Asian nation shook the grip of its British colonizers in 1947, its people have weathered internal strife.
That's included the armed campaigns various ethnic minority guerrilla groups have waged against the regime.
Rape, narcotics, forced labour, imprisonment, murder, hunger and malnutrition are some of the by-products of that struggle.
Detained democratic icon Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, has won over support from most of the international community.
In Mae Sot, one goal the Sayles have is to organize existing curriculum and materials for use of the project's voluntary teachers.
"Many of the people have experience teaching, but they don't have their materials," Eric said.
But they'll tackle another one of Project Umbrella Burma's crucial tasks after touching back down at Pearson International Airport.
"The most important thing is awareness," Cathy said.
David and Cathy Downham, the Washago-based founders of Project Umbrella Burma, say their goal is to "infect" volunteers and encourage them to spread the word.
"It's very hard for people to speak on our behalf if they don't have that exposure," said Cathy Downham, who is also already in Mae Sot.
The Sayles have done their homework. They've read books, magazine articles and surfed the Internet.
In early September, they joined the Parliamentary Friends of Burma for a reception in Ottawa with four Burmese activists from Thailand.
A week later, the Sayles attended a conference exploring the complexities of Burmese ethnicities.
But before their departure, they still had many questions.
"I think that's why we're going," Eric said. "We'd like to have answers."
"We'll be in a much better position to make people aware," Cathy added.
It was their 24-year-old daughter Hilary who infected them.
Last December, she and her friend Sarah Weber spent a month working with students at the college, located a couple of hours north of Mae Sot.
Regular dispatches from Hilary further raised the parents' interest, initially piqued through their former schools' involvement with Project Umbrella Burma.
Though seasoned travellers, the Sayles don't expect anything will quite measure up to their trip to Mae Sot.
"I don't think I've had any experience that would prepare us for this," Eric said.
At York, Tha Dar Hsae is coming to grips with her future.
She's separated from her five siblings and parents, and alone in Canada.
"It's kind of tough."
But she doesn't think about going home.
When she graduates, she wants to help other recent arrivals to Canada become grounded in their newly found freedom.
tmoro@orilliapacket.com
