Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia, has been, by all means poor, living under dictatorships and authoritarian strong men for well over 60 years. It used to be the dark heart of Asia, and one of the club members of rough states, together with North Korea, Kazakhstan, or Afghanistan. We have the recorded longest civil war in the world, of over sixty years and still going on between the government forces and the ethnic insurgent forces , starting from several years after, we gained our independence from the Brits who colonized our country for about 120 years. We have China beside us as our bordering neighbor and that ‘big brother’ has been influencing us in the same way they have been doing to smaller and poorer countries elsewhere (in both positive and negative ways). With all those factors, it is no wonder we are this way; very poor and still ranking at the absolute bottom in the list of Southeast Asia family members.
Since from a decade ago, we have gotten two constitutionally elected civilian governments, each ruling our country for a five-year term. We are a very young democracy as well as a newly emerging market and a bright star on the eastern-world horizon, holding onto the helping hands of ever-kind Japan.
Yes, we used to be so poor and dark, facing the sanctions of almost every kind imposed upon us by the free world when we were under the last Junta. So dark that, in those times we needed to be a helping hand to one another, especially when it comes to some social security and safety affairs. (We have been ranking at the bottom in terms of health care among world nations.)
That was the point, and the reason why the 'Brahmaso Humanitarian Aid Organizations were formed across our country. There were bad old days we had, when there would be no one to help us when we were facing a serious health problem that would cost us a good amount of money for healing. You can't expect much from hospitals in a poor country, save the loving kindness, the care and the affections of medical professionals, a bedding, and poor medical provisions, and diagnostic readings using, ‘not so modern equipment.).
Money, oxygen, sufficient blood donations, etc....no. And when someone died, the relatives needed to manage to make bookings for the shanty bad-conditioned funeral cars from the municipalities, for carrying the corpse to the cemetery before it was getting bad. Suppose there was a suicide case in a neighborhood, it would be trouble to all the people around. Suppose, there was a midnight bus crash on the highway outside of the town and everybody on the bus was in serious condition. There was no efficient organized manpower or vehicles to help them out, and to carry all the victims in time to the hospital in town.
That was how we were. And many, many other things as well. And those days, under the junta, that was in 90s, forming a civil organization was unthinkable, whether it was political or not. Foreign NGOs and their agents in our country were under close watch. But luckily for us, we have our monks and influential elders who would try and manage to form up a civil organization for solving away all those problems. It all started with a very influential old monk in my hometown of Mandalay. He made a call on other monks and influential laymen in our tow. Everybody responded and the organization was formed up in his monastery compound. That was in 1996. That was the birthplace.
Donated, brand new funeral cars, began arriving there, and an office was set up in the monastery compound for seeing to all those above-mentioned health related and other social issues. These issues were now being collectively managed by monks and the respected elders .All the respected townspeople started actively supporting the organization, both in terms of materials and by volunteering in activities. The active youths gave volunteer service to the organization, and it was a big, big relief, help, and delight to us all.
Not long after the success of this new organization, at its birthplace in Mandalay, it began to spread nationwide. One big town after another, one small town after another, and then... everywhere, and each copied after the identical fashion of the mother unit. All the same activities, and under the same organized rules of ‘dos and don'ts’. There have even been national meetings and conferences of the organization, and many respected elders, celebrities, and active youth of our country are volunteering for the organizations. (The basic rule is you need to bring everything from your home (including your coffee) to your workplace there and everybody happily does that. So, from those organizations, the social safety nets have been spreading around our country. Now they even have small medical units of their own giving free medical services to the poor, funeral cars, and also mother libraries. By 'mother libraries', I mean, you can get almost all the help and assistance from there for setting up a smaller library at your place, preferably in villages.
And now, these days, we are again seeing very, very hard days for our Myanmar people. The ‘Third Wave of Covid’, floods, and political unrest are ravaging our lives and also the economy is spiraling downward.
The Brahmaso Humanitarian Aid people are again, as usual and as always, at the forefront in the unsung battles against imposing hardships of their fellow citizens. I am proud to be a Mandalay man. I am proud that I used to be guarded and trained by my brother, U Than Htike, who has been working as the head librarian at Brahmaso Humanitarian Aid (Mandalay Branch) for over a decade now.
Yes, we have hidden treasures here!
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