The Amazing Project - Stepping Back to Burma

Warm Greetings from Karen State

Although the majority of our population are the Karen people in Karen State, our Step Back to Burma project includes the goal of reaching out to other ethnic groups in other ethnic states of Burma.

 We decided to focus first on the Kachin people of northern Burma. There are a couple of reasons for this. First and foremost, the Kachin people suffer from the highest rates of addiction in the country. This is largely due to the Jade Mines and the Opium Poppy growing in the region. Jade is a rich resource in Burma and much loved by the Chinese people. The Jade mines of Kachin State produce some of the finest Jade in the world. This requires many workers to mine the Jade, which is a labourious and dangerous job. Many of the “ Jade Lords” pay their workers with Opium and Heroin. Heroin is refined in Northern Burma and readily available at a very cheap price. Addiction to Heroin is a major problem in Kachin State. Needles are shared and HIV is rampant. The need for intervention is great.

 The second reason for focussing on the The Kachin people is historical. During the Second World War, the Japanese invaded Burma with the support of General Aung San (Aung San Suu Kyi’s Father). The British Colonialists resisted with the help of the Karen and Kachin Armies. The Karen and Kachin were then brothers in arms and suffered together greatly at the hands of the Burman armies. Later Aung San realized the Japanese were a cruel partner and changed sides in return for Independence from Britain. From this time the Karen and Kachin have been sympathetic to each other and continue to suffer at the hands of the Burmese Military Regime. Currently, the Kachin people are under attack daily by the Burmese Military.

 The Kachin people are in majority, Christian. There are many churches in Kachin State including Caltholic and Protestant sects. The response to the addiction problem has been strong, well intended but largely misguided through misunderstanding of how addiction works. The Kachin are very organized and have an excellent infrastructure with many treatment centres set up. However, the treatment program consists of chained up cold turkey detox accompanied by reading of the bible.

 DARE Network has much to offer in terms of education and skills to this group that works hard to help their people. Our Program Director Law La Say and our Kachin Addiction worker Ay Lin, who is in Mae La Refugee camp travelled to Kachin State late in 2017, as a follow up to our approach to the Kachin, in 2016. They visited several treatment centres, did a needs assessment and learned from the Kachin workers. Now together they are planning a Detoxification Training in June to share our systems and provide skills to the Kachin Addiction workers, so that they can be more effective with their recovering addicts.

We will let you know how this goes.

Thank you so much for your support for our Amazing Project.