The Rohingya people are experts in stoicism. Showing emotional vulnerability isn’t something that happens in their culture.
So you can imagine how hard it was to see a grown Rohingya man weeping openly.
Tears ran down his face as he begged for food. He couldn’t speak English, but with a few gestures he showed us he had four small children – all starving. (I have a picture of this man while he was crying and pleading with our team. Send me an email and I’ll send it to you if you want to see what he looked like. It felt like it would be a betrayal of something sacred to post it on social media)
Look at the potential, the raw material of the future, the beauty of a boy facing the lens with nothing to hide; nothing to lose. He’s a Rohingya boy, one of 150,000 + who live in concentration camps and isolated pockets of people who continue to exist on the thin provisions we are able to provide them.
I’m so thankful that we were able to tell him rice was on the way for his desperate family. Thanks to generous friends like you, Partners had just purchased 17.5 tons of it were already preparing distribution. That along with 472 pounds of vegetables and oil were immediately delivered to feed him and the rest of the 5075 displaced people living in the run-down section of the encampment.
Many hadn’t eaten properly in three months.
It’s a similarly dismal story for over 150,000 Rohingya people who’ve had to flee their homes in Burma and now find themselves trapped and malnourished in woefully inadequate camps.
They’re without proper shelter, medicine or other basic essentials. They are why I am posting a year end appeal for Partners Relief & Development who are doing all they can to help them.
Chalk it up to decades of military rule that has devastated Burma, and sectarian violence that has led to the ongoing destruction of villages. About 500,000 people in Burma are internally displaced … and suffering terribly.
The country has so far to go before peace and democracy become reality. In the meantime, the reality for children is harsh.
Together with you we touched the lives of well over 250,000 refugees and displaced people in 2014. Read that again. We are an amazing team.
Burma’s children are vulnerable in so many ways …
Malnutrition is stealing lives. Education is rare. In some areas of Shan State as few as 4% of children attend school. Trafficking and exploitation are prevalent in the ethnic states. And still, more than 5,000 child soldiers are experiencing untold horrors in the Burma Army.
Poverty and violence are driving forces behind these problems.
With your help Partners Relief & Development can accomplish so much to help the vulnerable in the New Year … like training our children’s homes within Karen State to become fully self-sufficient … equipping communities with opportunities for education and sustainable income generation … stopping trafficking and other exploitation of children … and bringing in emergency relief that prevents needless deaths from malnutrition.
Your support allows us to be on the ground working with local communities to create sustainable development that is bringing change like nothing ever seen before.
You can be a voice for the displaced and oppressed as their voices go unheard. Like the father too desperate to hide his tears.
A wonderful way to show God’s love is through a practical response to someone’s physical suffering. If ever there were people who needed you to show them God’s love through a helping gift, it’s the children, women, and men suffering in Burma. The end of the year is when we count on your support the most.
You can help his children live free and full lives. Please don’t let them wait. Act today with your loving generosity and make a massive difference in the lives of suffering people.
Happy new year friends. Thanks for being part of a team that is saving lives and making the goodness and compassion of God a visible reality today.
Your brother,
Steve Gumaer
A few closing words from my leader: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35
Steve Gumaer
CEO, Partners Relief & Development
