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Tag: Myanmar

Me as An Ordinary Person

Amongst the children ministries of CEDAR and its partners, post-war children ministry in Myanmar must be the most well-known one. You may ask, “Why do we still support this particular children ministry after two decades?” The answer is simple: Because it is worth it. We saw how God worked amazingly on these children, and we hope that they will become ambassadors for reconciliation. “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies.”(Luke 6:27a) This verse can well describe our Burmese partner, Full Moon. Some thought they are just a children’s home, taking care of children separated from families due to internal conflicts, but Full Moon’s core ministry is to repair relationships and heal wounds. The children’s home

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The Letter from CEDAR | December 2017

Dear friends of CEDAR, May peace be with you! There is a say that Ma On Shan, the place where I live, is a “food desert.” I am not sure how true this claim is, but no doubt, as compared with Jordan where CEDAR’s office is located, Ma On Shan is far behind Jordan in terms of the choices of food. Commuting between the two districts every day, I often find it hard to decide where to go for lunch – there are just too many options. In development work, we often encounter similar situation. The world has over 7 billion population and close to 770 million of them are struggling for survival with less than HK$15 a

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Local Churches – the Local Power of Community Development

Written and edited by: Tsun Wan Yan, Jojo Poon The act of poverty alleviation often gives the impression of aid workers carrying with them gifts of livestock and funds sponsoring children and their education to some remote villages. However, have you ever considered that the local churches are better suited in bringing continued and sustainable development and support to the people in need? To address the root causes of poverty for the poor, we must help the poor learn how to fish instead of relying on outsiders’ help. To prevent dependency on foreign aid, which would consequently hinder community growth, the average span of a development project is usually five to 10 years, and the development organisation will

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CEDAR Works with IA to Plan for Humanitarian Response to Rohingya Refugees in Western Myanmar

The crisis in Rakhine state, in Western Myanmar, is not new. Rakhine state is one of the least developed states in Myanmar, being prone to natural disasters from storms and cyclones. The socio-economic situation there has deteriorated since the outbreak of intercommunal violence in 2012. Renewed tensions in northern Rakhine state in August have displaced Rohingya communities (mainly Muslims) and many fled to Bangladesh. According to the update provided by the Inter Sector Coordination Group (ISCG) of International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 26 September: 480,000 accumulative arrivals (since 25 August) 190,000 people in makeshift settlements/camps 201,000 arrivals in new spontaneous sites 89,000 in host communities On 21 September, Integral Alliance (IA) members Medical Teams International, Medair, and World Concern

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Human Trafficking

Author: Jojo Poon Martha (obscured) spent her early years with her mother who worked as a sex worker in the red-light district of Mumbai, India. “At the age of 16, my mother met a guy when she was in Nepal. He said he could refer her to work at better places in the cities, and she ended up being sold to work at the red-light district in Mumbai.” With the help of a generous woman from her hometown, Martha was spared from having to suffer the same fate as her mother’s. “Every one of us could fall prey to human traffickers with a tiny change of situation,” as expressed time and again by the frontline workers serving sex

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The Letter from CEDAR | June 2017

Dear Supporters of CEDAR, Poverty and injustice often result in “hopelessness”. One common goal of our projects is to restore hope. That is why I often ask our project participants this question – “What is your dream?” For CEDAR and our local church partners, we also need to have dreams, because without dreams ourselves, we wouldn’t be effective in helping our project participants to re-gain hope. Few weeks ago, I was in Yangon, Myanmar, for a workshop with our partners to envision the future of their ministries as well as CEDAR’s. On the second day of the workshop, I led a devotion about “dream”, and I would like to share it with you here. The dream portrayed in

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Myanmar Lisu Churches’ Journeying with War-ridden Ethnic Group

Banner image: A 72-year-old pastor partnering with a younger pastor to visit the refugees The Myanmar government and the anti-government forces were at war for the past 10 years. As the conflict was reinitiated in 2016, the estimated number of internally displaced population has reached 660,000. The conflicts in Kachin State alone forced close to 100,000 to flee to Yunnan, China. The peace-loving Lisu in Kachin State never took up arms, but their crops, livestock, even villagers, became resources targeted by both the Myanmar government forces and the opposing Kachin forces. The great unrest drove the Lisu away from home who became refugees in Thailand, Malaysia, India, etc.; a lot of them fled to other regions of the

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Sharing Land and Cultivating Lives

Traditionally, our impression towards children ministry might involve sponsoring a child or orphan in their daily expenses or education, but did you know that we could now combine children ministry with community resettlement and agricultural development? There was a rapid increase in the number of homeless and orphaned children in Myanmar due to civil wars and natural disasters in the past 60 years. CEDAR’s partner, Full Moon, started building children’s home 20 years ago to take care of the children affected by wars, disasters, and poverty. However, God has instilled a vision in Full Moon’s founder, U Ba Hla, that urged him to not only provide for the children, but to also fight for the welfare of the

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