Dead Set on Helping
covering burma and southeast asia
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Magazine

CULTURE

Dead Set on Helping


By Htain Linn DECEMBER, 2003 - VOLUME 11 NO.10


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Using the advice of physicians, they hope to save a life or two by helping especially those women with complications requiring surgery. The subcommittee foots the bills, and has helped women in four different Rangoon hospitals. The stories of poor people receiving FFSS assistance are often tragic. One morning four or five months ago, a father called the association because his 17-year-old daughter had passed away. She was his only child. The association carried her body from home to a mortuary. At noon on the same day, the mother called to say that her husband had died of heart failure. "If she hadn’t received any assistance, not only material help but also consolation from us, that woman could have gone mad with grief," says Than Myint Aung, a famous writer and the association’s information officer. She also works actively to provide assistance for psychiatric hospitals, orphanages, and projects involving leprosy amelioration and HIV/AIDS prevention. Burma’s poverty and economic uncertainty make an association like this one indispensable. Many Rangoon residents are struggling just to put food on the table, so they often need such extra support. But social workers must balance their desire to achieve official acceptance with their need to fight the public’s superstitions. Still, the association’s founders have not lost their focus or their vision. As Kyaw Thu puts it, "We may have to keep nourishing cooperation and loving kindness. I believe that if we can develop enthusiastic interest, compassion and sacrifice, then we will be successful."


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