Laughing and crying together: reaching a forgotten people in Burma
Mission East visited Burma for the first time in February 2013. This remarkable journey allowed us to enter into a beautiful community - the Mara community - an ethnic minority group who lives high in the mountains of Burma, near the border with India. The Mara people have been cut off from much of the world throughout the military junta period. Lacking telecommunications, road infrastructure, market access, healthcare services, and higher education, one Mara elder referred to his people as a 'deserted, neglected, marginalized community'. Today, this part of southern Chin State is beginning to open up. Government reforms since 2011, a peace agreement to end active conflict in the state, and less restrictions to foreigners (like Mission East's delegation) are taken as signs by the community that change is coming. In the following photos, join us as we learn about the Mara people, their land, their struggles and their hopes. In the words of one elder we met, "In those times, we had no one to tell. We used to suffer alone. There was no one to listen. We laughed alone and cried alone. Now you have come to laugh with us and to cry with us."
Read More
There are government schools like this one throughout the Mara region, but many do not go up to high school, and there is no university in the whole state meaning that few children have a chance of higher education. Teachers have very low salaries, a lack of resources and few training opportunities.
While education is free, there are nevertheless many costs that must be borne by parents - costs which are nearly impossible to meet for families with little access to income.
