Save People's Life In Indo-Myanmar Border: Clothes, Food, | Milaap
Save People's Life In Indo-Myanmar Border: Clothes, Food, Schools, etc
  • JORDAN

    Created by

    JORDAN RAINGAM
  • JR

    This fundraiser will benefit

    Jordan Raingam

    from Ukhrul, Manipur

Jordan Raingam is a social entrepreneur, a businessman (since 2004), a freelance graphic designer, and a computer faculty member. Also, he is handy with various tasks ranging from electronic gadget repairing to software engineering.
He has a desire to take responsibility for all the cause of humanity. He has devoted his life to the underprivileged children and has been a teacher to more than 50 jobless and destitute youths.
Also, he has spent time helping the elderly community and has extended free services to various local organizations.
It is owing to his selfless service and dedication that most children and youths from the region can now live sustainably. Also, these children have grown into a positive influence over the others around them. Being a Social Entrepreneur, he has a strong determination to save youths from frustration, addiction, gang-culture, etc. by providing free education and skill development training. Free distribution of notebooks and pens to helpless children is one of the most satisfying moments for him. Hosting of clothes donation campaign is also one of his yearly achievements. Currently, his friend Mr. Naogang Nangsa from Choyu Village (Promoter/volunteer) is distributing clothes in Ticksa and Ticknyu village from Yangoon with the help of well-wishers and friends (Details are already updated in "Updates" section). Most of the villagers in these neglected areas cannot afford to buy their daily commodities, foods, clothes, sandals, shoes, medicines, etc. So, to warm them up during this cold winter Mr. Jordan Raingam and Mr. Naogang Nangsa contributed some amount for executing this campaign, besides, they received some monetary help from well-wishers and friends for buying 100 Kilos of secondhand clothes. But, unfortunately, they are not able to buy adequate clothes for the villagers since there were no enough funds. Still, many more are left behind. 
File Photo of Phumching Village:


The families and children of Eastern-Nagaland are resilient but they must urgently receive more support to overcome their harsh humanitarian and traumatic experiences.
So please, know that your charity and donations, whatever the amount is, are greatly appreciated. And please, do share this with your friends and family and encourage caring people to do something good in the world to help those less fortunate families in Eastern-Nagaland.
NOTE/ To prove trust and confidence in our work, we make sure to show where your donations are spent by taking Pictures and Videos every weekend, holdings your name on a placard so that you can trace the progress of our work and easily.

This is how your donations will be spent:
100 Kgs of Secondhand clothes packages Cost $150
Secondhand Clothes needed: 5000 Kilos (Kgs)
Transportation Charges= $1500 (Yangoon-Homalin-Khamti- 4 Villages)
Number of villages = 4 (Choyu Village, Ticksa Village, Phumching Village and Ticknyu village)

Population to be served: 2500
Fundraiser's fees 5%+3%=8%
Basic winter needs=Clothes, Blankets, Bedsheets, Shoes, Sandals etc.

Short Story (ENDO-BOOK)

 
The world knows about the Naga people of Northeastern India. Still, little is known about the Nagas in Eastern Nagaland on the other side of the India-Burma border in a remote area of northwestern Burma. Eastern Nagaland is in the Sagaing Division and adjacent townships in Kachin State. It is an isolated and forbidden place since foreigners are generally not permitted by the Burmese Government to visit this land of the Eastern Naga people.
The only time that foreigners can travel to Eastern Nagaland is during annual Naga New Year Festival held in January. This festival is sponsored and tightly controlled by the Burmese government. Only a limited number of foreigners are allowed to observe the festival. Even then, they are escorted to the festival site and not permitted to visit other villages in Eastern Nagaland. Consequently, foreigners have no opportunity to see firsthand the very poor living conditions of the Eastern Naga people.
The origins of the Nagas remain a mystery. What is known about them is that they are one of the Mongolian racial groups who migrated overland through China to the present day Nagaland (Northeastern India and Northwestern Burma). Otherwise, their origin remains a mystery.
Without the knowledge or consent of the Naga people, their original lands were divided, along the Patkai Range in 1914, by the British among India and Burma with the more significant portion being made part of the present-day Indian state of Nagaland. The remaining Naga lands, given to Burma, are located in the Sagaing Division - Homalin, Khamti, Leshi, Lahe and Namyun townships - and the adjacent Shingbwi Yang and Tanai townships in Kachin State.
Before the 1974 Constitution of Burma, the areas of Eastern Nagaland in the Sagaing Division were called the Naga Hills District. Then with the 1974 Constitution of Burma, the Naga Hills District was replaced by and divided into five townships - Homalin, Khamti, Leshi, Lahe and Namyun. In the recent 2008 Constitution of Burma, Homalin and Khamti(Singkling) Townships (plains areas) were carved out, and the remaining three townships of Namyung, Lahe, and Leshi (hilly areas) were re-designated as the Naga Self-Administered Zone. These changes were made without the consent and against the will of the Eastern Naga people and represent an administrative confiscation of integral parts of Eastern Nagaland by the Burman ethnic majority.
The Naga people have been living independently since time immemorial. In the past, Nagas had no overall king or a government to rule over all of the Naga people. Each village had its independence as a village republic and was ruled by a village chieftain. No village or community was subjected to another village or community. The Nagas had no contact with the outside world until the Second World War when the British fought against the Japanese in the Naga Hills (Eastern Nagaland). The Nagas also did not know about the Burmese, except for their immediate neighbors like Kachins. Only after the 1950s did the Nagas come to know the Burmese when the Burmese government claimed that Eastern Nagaland was an integral part of Burma. The Burmese government has appointed village chairmen, but the Naga people regard them as a village representative to the Burmese government with no authority to rule their assigned village.
Lands of the Nagas in Burma are hilly with tropical forest. The only plains are along the banks of the Chindwin River. There are no vehicle roads, except one from Khamti to Lahe, which is under construction. However, vehicles will only be able to travel on it during the dry season. The Ledo Road, a vehicle road constructed by the Allied Forces during the Second World War from India to the Yunnan Province of China, has not been repaired since the end of that war. Therefore, transportation in Eastern Nagaland is only over foot or bridle paths. There are no telephone communications in this area. Eastern Nagaland is hilly with tropical forest.
In most of the Naga villages, the land belongs to the village community. In other villages, the land belongs to the founder of the village. Yet once the land is cultivated, it becomes the private land of the cultivator. This land is passed on to the next generations of the cultivator. From time immemorial, the Nagas have paid no land tax to any government.

The Eastern Nagas are the poorest people in Burma. Their economy is solely dependent on shifting cultivation except for the Somra Region where they have developed terrace fields. Eastern Nagas are solely dependent on shifting cultivation. In the Namyung and Lahe townships, the villagers are not only dependent on shifting cultivation, but also grow poppy crops for their income. The villagers grow poppy for their income.
 
As a consequence, most of the Naga men have become opium addicts irrespective of age, and Naga's lives, family and culture are being destroyed. The Burmese government is doing nothing to deal with these problems of poppy growing and drug addiction. Moreover, the roads from Burma to India, especially from Khamti to Noklak, the Pangsau Pass to Nampong, and Tamu to Moreh, have become drug trafficking routes.
Education in Eastern Nagaland began in 1950 by Christian missionaries. When General Ne Win declared military rule in 1962, all the missionary schools were closed. However, no government schools were established in the Naga townships of Sagaing Division in place of the closed missionary schools, except for five primary schools built in the villages around Burmese military camps in the Naga townships of Sagaing Division. In 1964, a high school was established by the Kachin Baptist Mission for the Nagas in Shingbwi Yang, but later the Burmese government closed down that school. Finally, forty years later, in 2007, the Burmese government established a high school in Shingbwi Yang. Then in 1976, some Naga national workers were able to start basic education for Naga youths by opening a few primary schools in Khiamniungan, Lainong, and the western part of the Heimi Region. Yet it was only after 1980 that the Burmese government opened primary schools in some villages that had no Burmese military camps. However, villagers had to provide for the rations of the teachers.
Many students stopped their education after primary school because their parents had no income to support them for further studies. Only a few students have been able to manage to attend high school. It was and still is, a distant dream for them to attend college and university. Thus, the Eastern Naga people have remained very backward in their remote corner of Northwestern Burma, and the Burmese government has offered no plans to change this situation.
The Naga were animists until American Baptist missionaries brought Christianity to the Naga people in Western Nagaland (India) in 1872 and then to Eastern Nagaland (Burma) seventy years later after World War Two in 1946. Now a majority of the Eastern Naga people are Christians. However, after the 1990s, some Naga Christians were forced by the Burmese military to convert to Buddhism. Those who converted to Buddhism are given many benefits such as financial support, clothes, rations, and exemption from forced labor, portering, and mike-in (daily duties of the village). Only those Nagas who are Buddhists are allowed to become government servants, army officers, or Police officials. Hence, the Burmese government is practicing discrimination against Eastern Naga people along religious lines.
Today, the Eastern Nagas are living in extremely vulnerable circumstances with the constant threat of contracting dreaded diseases, such as AIDS from Burmese soldiers and workers at the jade and gold mines in Eastern Nagaland. Many villagers are dying from treatable diseases and conditions due to the lack of access to medical treatment, clean water, proper sanitation, good nutrition, maternal and child care, and health education. The only dispensaries and hospitals are found at the headquarters of the Burmese military in Eastern Nagaland and not in the villages where they are needed the most. There is also a lack of medicine in Eastern Nagaland, and any available medicine is sold at exorbitant prices to the Eastern Naga people. Hundreds of villagers are suffering from curable diseases, no one is there to provide proper medication. Besides, the villagers have no proper sanitation.

The Nagas are simple, innocent, sincere, truthful and hard-working people. They do not know about international human rights principles. Yet, they have no class distinctions or discrimination, and no one is deprived of the right to worship or own property, including land. Even in the jungle, if someone finds anything such as a bees’ honey nest, logs, and even land. Others do not own it, they can make a sign (i.e., across) on it, and they will then hold it; no village chieftain or others will take it by force.
 The Nagas do not understand as to why the Burmese, who claim to be civilized people, treat the Nagas with such disrespect and brutality. The Burmese soldiers and government officials intimidate the Nagas, rape and molest Naga woman, and beat and torture Naga people for no reason. They forcibly recruit young Naga youth, including those less than 18 years of age, into the Burmese army, confiscate Naga land and property without permission or compensation, and force Nagas to become porters or workers without payment.
The Nagas are simple, innocent, sincere, truthful and hard-working people. They do not know about international human rights principles. Yet, they have no class distinctions or discrimination, and no one is deprived of the right to worship or own property, including land. Even in the jungle, if someone finds anything such as a bees’ honey nest, logs, and even land. Others do not own it, they can make a sign (i.e. across) on it, and they will then hold it; no village chieftain or others will take it by force.
The Nagas do not understand as to why the Burmese, who claim to be civilized people, treat the Nagas with such disrespect and brutality. The Burmese soldiers and government officials intimidate the Nagas, rape and molest Naga woman, and beat and torture Naga people for no reason. They forcibly recruit young Naga youth, including those less than 18 years of age, into the Burmese army, confiscate Naga land and property without permission or compensation, and force Nagas to become porters or workers without payment. The following are just a few of the many instances of human rights abuses committed by the Burmese military against the Eastern Naga people.
  • In May 1990, two sisters from Langnukniu Village were taken away by Burmese soldiers as porters. During their time as porters, they were repeatedly raped by the soldiers for nearly one month. They were finally released after they reached the soldiers’ headquarters in Khamti.
  • In April 1992, Mr. Lomsa, a pastor from Aungmye Village, was lying on his bed because of a high fever. Burmese soldiers entered his house and took him away as a porter. They would not listen to his pleas that he was sick. Whenever he was unable to carry their loads, the soldiers beat him. When the soldiers reached Longsok Village and took a rest, Mr. Lomsa laid down to also rest. A soldier then came up to him and kicked him down to the ground from the house. Pastor Lomsa died on the spot.
  • In 1993, Burmese soldiers came to Taungkungtha Village to get porters. They kicked the village headman, Mr. Satok, to death when he said he could not be a porter because he was sick.
  • In November 2005, Mr. Chaida, a pastor of Chawang Nukwuk Village, was beaten black-and-blue continuously for three days. While he was being beaten, the Christian members of his village were forcefully converted into Buddhism. When the pastor was finally released, he was maimed for life from his beatings. Also, Lumnu Church Pastor Wingap was brutally beaten by the same Burmese military group under the command of Major Khaing Htun Naing. When he was released and sent back to his village, he was forbidden to preach to the villagers. The pastor of Chamkok Village, Mr. Rego, was arrested and kept in an underground dungeon for weeks. One day when he was temporarily brought out from his dungeon, he managed to escape. While he was running for his life, soldiers fired several rounds at him. But by the grace of God, he escapes injury from the bullets.
The Burmese government has tried to control the religious life of the Eastern Nagas. In that respect, the Burmese government has had a program beginning in 1990 to convert the Eastern Nagas from Christianity to Buddhism. The Burmese military has burned and locked some churches, imprisoned and beat pastors, and committed many other forms of religious persecution of the Eastern Naga people. Also, as previously mentioned, no Eastern Naga can become a government officer unless they convert to Buddhism. Despite this persecution, only a few Eastern Nagas have converted to Buddhism.
But the world does not know of such human rights violations in Eastern Nagaland because of it being isolated and forbidden for travel by foreigners.

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