Burma

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Current Situation

Current Situation

Once the ‘rice bowl of Asia’, Burma is now one of the poorest and most corrupt nations in the world. While the repressive and corrupt military regime lives off the spoils of natural resource exploitation, the majority of the population live in fear and in poverty, and many are displaced or seeking asylum in neighbouring nations.

•	Infant Mortality Rate - 48 deaths per 1000 live births (U.N. Children's Fund - State of the World's Children 2009)
•	People without enough to eat- 5 million (World Food Programme, WFP, 2007)
•	Refugees resettled in third country’s - At least 1 million (Refugees International, June 2006)
•	Internally Displaced - At least 503,000 (as of 2008) (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2008)

Burma’s history is one of ongoing conflict which rarely reaches the ears of the international community. However, several emergencies have raised international attention in recent years such as the Saffron Revolution, Cyclone Nargis and the continuous suppression of human rights by Burma's ruling military Junta.

Act for Peace in Burma

Act for Peace partners in Burma have been working to build civil society, reduce poverty and protect human rights for over 20 years. Act for Peace has been working with our largest partner, the Thailand Burma Border Consortium (TBBC), for over twenty years. TBBC is a consortium of currently twelve non-government organisations from ten countries working to provide food, shelter, select non-food items and capacity building support to Burmese refugees and internally-displaced persons living on or near the Thai-Burma border.

Over 135,000 refugees reside in the camps on the Thailand side of the border.

TBBC also supports internally displaced Burmese living in the conflict zone in eastern Burma. In 2008 TBBC assisted over 100,000 displaced people fleeing from military offensives or from forced labour, people who left their homes with little other than the clothes on their back.

TBBC provides food, cash which is used mainly to purchase food, educational support, community rehabilitation and development, some healthcare, and administrative support to the local community organisations who take on the burden of caring for these people.

In 2007-2008, Australia resettled the second largest number of refugees from the border, nearly 2,000 people in total.

	can provide a Burmese refugee with one month’s rice
	can provide a Burmese refugee with one year’s worth of nutritious food
	can feed a Burmese family of five for six months