The Amazing Project - Stepping Back to Burma

July 1^st, 2015 marked the official opening ceremony of DARE Network’s Step Back to Burma training program! After months of preparation, the first DARE team to work in Burma have begun their 6-month long training in Mae La camp. 

These 15 trainees will form a mobile Addiction Worker team that will work in Hpa’an District of Karen State. Here they will become equipped to provide pioneering addiction treatment and prevention education programs to 20 rural villages where such services are vitally needed.

The Opening Ceremony was a day of celebration and a show of the strength of community support for DARE Network’s expansion into Burma. Conducted in both Karen and Burmese languages, and attended by camp leaders, former clients, their families, religious leaders of three faiths - Buddhism, Islam and Christianity, core staff, trainees, trainers, and the wider community of Mae La, the day was colored by a tangible sense of support and encouragement for the new trainees. Thanks in part to your generous donations, the fruits of "The Amazing Project – Stepping Back to Burma” are being realized in a substantial way.

Many leaders spoke a message of hope for freedom from addiction and the vital importance of solidarity. An uplifting and harmonious song performed by the trainees served as a sign of the strength of the team’s collective spirit and support for one another in this brave harbinger project of DARE’s. To solidify this, in one of the oldest shows of community, the Opening Ceremony closed with a shared meal. 

After the ceremony some trainees spoke up about why they had personally felt moved to join this training, and to work as part of DARE’s new Addiction Worker team. Stories of how addiction has affected their communities, their families, and themselves were shared in this new extension of the DARE family. Most of the trainees come from Thai border camps, and desire to return and contribute to their homeland.

The Opening Ceremony took place in the context of recent flairs of conflict in Karen State, which has led to increased instability and displacement of many more people. For as long as narcotics remain a political tool used to fuel and fund conflict, rural villages within Karen State will remain at high risk of suffering from the negative impacts of substance abuse. Proof of this can be seen in the 20-80% addiction rates found across rural villages in the region.

This conflict simultaneously has increased demands for DARE’s camp-based services, as more people seek refuge in the camps from bursts of conflict, whilst donors decrease services provided in camps as they shift funding into Burma to focus on in-country development instead. Addiction rates soar in camps and in rural villages in Karen State.

The Amazing Project – Stepping Back to Burma, marks the beginning of DARE Network beginning to reach out to those communities afflicted by addiction within Karen State, without reducing camp-based operations.

The next 6-months of training for these 15 new Addiction Workers has now commenced, with the promise of hope for real change amongst ethnic communities in Burma.