. YABA (methamphetamines) is the new kid's candy in Burma. Wrapped in pretty coloured paper and sold for the same price as a sweet, the YABA trade inside Karen State has taken off. "The only people not using the drug are babies and old people", said a well know Karen leader. To help young people understand drugs. To educate. To present alternatives. "A free mind cannot be destroyed". Freedom is an important word in Burma.
The recent Military Coup against all the peoples of Burma has opened the door to safe passage of drugs from Northern Burma straight to Karen State, instead of through the Golden Triangle. Here is a no man's land. Drug mules will carry the heroin/meth/opium for a pittance. Many ethnic people of Burma are exposed to drugs they have never seen before. Villages inside Burma are anecdotally said to have addiction rates as high as 80%. For the drug lords profits are everything.
In 2016, DARE Network built its first treatment centre in Burma. . We are ahead of the curve. Prevention Education will continue in the 20 villages we have worked in and now move out to more through our local village coordinators. We have trained 8 new addiction workers in 2022 and despite being in the midst of a brutal war we continue to treat people for recovery from Addiction at our DARE Centre in Karen State.
DARE's short and long term goal is to reduce and prevent addiction. The war in Burma has brought extreme trauma to to the whole population. At DARE we must prepare for the enormous increase in addiction that the results of this terrible war will bring. We need your help to increase our capacity to meet this demand. It will be catastrophic to the outcome of the country and its people who already are under incredible stress.
This project has provided additional documentation in a DOCX file (projdoc.docx).
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