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Support the Karen Refugees
The Karen, a tribe in Burma's (Mynamar) eastern regions, number between four and five million, and have fought for half a century to keep their land and identity. Many - at least 40% - are Christians, and have suffered particularly harsh treatment. Burma is ruled by one of the world's most brutal regimes, which took power by force, ignored election results, and survives by creating a climate of fear. The military regime takes people for forced labor, uses villagers as human minesweepers, captures children and forces them to become soldiers, systematically rapes ethnic minority women, and and burns down villages and crops. It has killed thousands, and stands accused of ethnic cleansing and genocide. ver a million Karen people are displaced in the jungles without food, shelter, or medicine. 1,500 political prisoners remain behind bars.
Over 200,000 of these Burmese people are seeking refuge in Thailand, just to the east of Burma. Bethany Methodist Church and friends of Bethany are supporting a young Christian woman in Thailand named Ivy Aye Aye who has made it her mission to help these refugees. A Burmese Karen by birth, Ivy has lived in Thailand most of her life and is fluent in Thai, Burmese and English. She is our missionary and we are her sole means of support. |