Akha (cultural, political, economic)

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Websites/Multiple Documents

Description: 53 sections on line (January 2006)
Source/publisher: Akha Heritage Foundation
Date of entry/update: 2010-12-14
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Description: "A Nation In Search Of A State" "Purpose of this web site: The purpose of this website is to provide definitive information about critical events effecting the lives of the Akha people in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, China and Vietnam. How to use this web site: This web site is broken down into five categories: 1. Information from and about the Akha; 2. Projects that assist the Akha; 3. Administrative information, reports and commentary; 4. Volunteer opportunities and how you can participate; 5. Information about the Akha Heritage Foundation. "The Akha Heritage Foundation delivers vital aid and services to a mountain network of more than 300 villages. "If you are interested in receiving information of events via e-mail you may subscribe to the popular Akha Weekly Journal on Yahoo Groups by clicking the link below. Feel free to browse through the many past issues in the Yahoo Archives. Akha Weekly Journal via E-mail Akha Weekly Journal is our e-mail newsletter about the life of the Akha people and our work with them. One of the items of content we sometimes discuss in the journal is "Akha Zauh". We use the name "Akha Zauh" because "Zauh" in Akha, refers to the Law, Culture and the "heart of" being Akha. "In a time when so many outsiders are denying that the Akha have a culture and have done so much to systematically eliminate these traditions we would like to show that the Akha, as much as any other people, have an extensive history, legal system, intricate culture and sizeable collection of literature. "The weekly e-mail journal gives updates of events here among the Akha as we work on providing medical services, clean water, literature development in Akha language, literacy in Akha language, seeds for nutrition, and advocacy services. This is not a highly polished journal, this is more the result of whatever the week?s work has involved, the highlights, interesting commentary and whatever else can be fit in while bordering on exhaustion..." There is an archive of "The Akha Weekly Journal" from February 1999 (click on the Yahoogroup link and/or subscribe to the list).
Source/publisher: Akha Heritage Foundation
Date of entry/update: 2003-06-03
Grouping: Websites/Multiple Documents
Language: English
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Individual Documents

Sub-title: Thousands adopt the slogan “Hope is Home,” during demonstrations in Bangladesh camps
Description: "Rohingya refugees staged mass demonstrations at camps in southeastern Bangladesh on Thursday to demand the world help repatriate them to Myanmar, as they marked the fifth anniversary of a brutal Burmese military offensive that spurred an unprecedented exodus. Officials from the United Nations, the United States and other members of the international community also commemorated the occasion by expressing their support for Rohingya, who refer to Aug. 25 as “Genocide Remembrance Day.” At about two dozen camps in Cox’s Bazar, the district where the refugees are sheltering along the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, thousands took part in rallies with the slogan “Hope is Home.” “We no longer want to be refugees. We want to go back to our homeland,” Mohammed Jubair, secretary general of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights (ARSPH), said during a rally at the Kutupalong camp in Ukhia, a sub-district in Cox’s Bazar. “I am requesting the international community to exert more pressure on Myanmar for a safe repatriation. Rohingya also demanded that those responsible for the bloody crackdown by the Burmese military that started on Aug. 25, 2017, be brought to justice and that those who were expelled be repatriated to Myanmar’s Rakhine state with full dignity and civil rights. “The world already knows how the Myanmar army killed the Rohingya people. That’s why we cannot forget this day,” said Khin Maung, director of the Rohingya Youth Association, who lives in Cox’s Bazar. “Now we live in camps. Food, living conditions, nothing is good. We’ve been here for a long time. That’s why we want to return to our villages, to our country, as soon as possible.” But the prospect of the stateless Rohingya Muslim refugees returning safely to their villages and townships in their home state of Rakhine has become dimmer because of post-coup bloodshed across Myanmar after Burmese generals seized power last year. A Rohingya youth who attended the Kutupalong rally said he and others worried about what might await them if they return to their Myanmar homes. “We want an end to such a refugee life. But the present situation in Myanmar is not safe enough, we want help from the world community,” Abdur Razzak said. According to one Rohingya human rights activist based in Rakhine, some 600,000 Rohingya who did not flee to Bangladesh in 2017 have been subjected to stricter repression since the 2021 coup and their movements within the state are even more limited. “Currently, they are facing many hardships. They are barred from visiting other villages and subjected to religious and ethnic discrimination all the time,” said activist Zarni Soe. “Now that the AA [Arakan Army] and the Burmese army are fighting again in northern Rakhine state, we might even see worse things coming.”..."
Creator/author:
Source/publisher: "RFA" (USA)
2022-08-25
Date of entry/update: 2022-08-25
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ၏ ဗဟိုအလုပ်အမှုဆောင်ကော်မတီထံ ပေးပို့သည့် ဝမ်းမြောက်ကြောင်းသဝဏ်လွှာ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ် ဇန်နဝါရီလ ၂ ရက် (၁၃၈၃ ခုနှစ် ပြာသိုလဆန်း ၁ ရက်) ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ၏ (၁၄) ကြိမ်မြောက်ပါတီကွန်ဂရက်ကို ၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ (၂၇) ရက်နေ့မှ ဒီဇင်ဘာလ (၃၀) ရက်နေ့အထိ အောင်မြင်စွာ ကျင်းပပြုလုပ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း ကြားသိရသဖြင့် များစွာဂုဏ်ယူဝမ်းမြောက်မိပါသည်။ ပါတီကွန်ဂရက်တွင်ပြုလုပ်သော ဗဟိုကော်မတီအစည်းအဝေးက ပါတီဥက္ကဋ္ဌအဖြစ် ခူဦးရယ်ကို ရွေးချယ်တင်မြှောက်ကာ ပါတီဗဟိုအလုပ်အမှုဆောင်ကော်မတီအား ဖွဲ့စည်းအတည်ပြု ခဲ့ကြောင်းကြားသိရသဖြင့် ဥက္ကဋ္ဌနှင့်တကွအလုပ်အမှုဆောင်အဖွဲ့ဝင်များအား ဝမ်းသာဂုဏ်ပြုပါကြောင်း ဖော်ပြလိုပါသည်။ စစ်အာဏာရှင်နှင့်အာဏာရှင်မှန်သမျှ ချုပ်ငြိမ်းရေးအတွက် အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အပါအဝင် တိုင်းရင်းသားလက်နက်ကိုင်တော်လှန်ရေးအဖွဲ့အစည်းများ၊ ကရင်နီပြည်နယ် ကာကွယ်ရေးတပ်ဖွဲ့များ၊ နိုင်ငံရေးပါတီများနှင့် ပူးပေါင်းဆောင်ရွက်မည်ဟု ဆွေးနွေးဆုံးဖြတ်ခဲ့ကြောင်း သိရှိရသည့်အတွက် အမျိုးသား ညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့် များစွာဝမ်းသာမိပါသည်။ အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရအနေဖြင့်လည်း ပါတီဥက္ကဋ္ဌခူဦးရယ်ဦးဆောင်သော ကရင်နီ အမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ နှင့် အတူလက်တွဲလုပ်ဆောင်ရန် အဆင်သင့်ရှိပါကြောင်း သတင်းစကားပါးလိုပါသည်။ ကရင်နီပြည်အတွင်း စစ်ကောင်စီ၏ ကရင်နီလူမျိုးများ အပေါ်အစုလိုက် သတ်ဖြတ်မှုများ၊ ညှင်းပမ်းနှိပ်စက်မှုများ၊ နိုင်ငံတကာလူ့အခွင့်အရေးနှင့်လူသားချင်းစာနာမှုဆိုင်ရာဥပဒေများကိုချိုးဖေါက်မှုများနှင့်ပတ်သက်၍လည်း များစွာ စိတ်မကောင်းဖြစ်ရပါကြောင်း ထပ်လောင်း ဖေါ်ပြလိုပါသည်။ ၂၀၂၂ ခုနှစ်၊ နှစ်သစ်အခါသမယ မှသည် ကရင်နီအမျိုးသားတိုးတက်ရေးပါတီ၏ရှေ့လုပ်ငန်းစဉ်များ အောင်မြင်ပါစေကြောင်း ဆုမွန်ကောင်းတောင်းအပ်ပါသည်။..."
Source/publisher: National Unity Government of Myanmar
2022-01-02
Date of entry/update: 2022-01-02
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, 9 September 2021 – August 2021 marked four years since almost a million Rohingya people fled to Bangladesh from neighbouring Myanmar, settling in a broad network of refugee camps in the coastal city of Cox’s Bazar. Rendered stateless, the Rohingya were seeking dignity, rights and protection from persecution. The Government and people of Bangladesh were the first responders to the crisis and even after four challenging years, they continue to generously host more than 860,000 Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar district. With the support of UN agencies and over 130 national and international NGOs, the Government of Bangladesh continues to provide life-saving assistance. All this time, UNFPA has had the honour of being a part of these efforts and continues to constantly devise new ways to respond to the varied and evolving needs of the refugees, and also support the local host communities of Cox’s Bazar. Here are just some of the stories of the support UNFPA is providing to safeguard the sexual and reproductive health and rights of the refugees, and to help prevent and respond to gender-based violence and harmful practices against women and girls. Safe places, emotional relief: UNFPA’s Women Friendly Spaces As a result of the refugee crisis, Cox’s Bazar is home to some of the most vulnerable women and girls on Earth, many of whom were subjected to rape and other horrendous forms of gender-based violence in the past. To help women and girls overcome their traumatic experiences, UNFPA supports a network of 28 Women Friendly Spaces in the camps and surrounding host communities. The Women Friendly Spaces provide women and girls a safe space where they gather to interact with each other and engage in recreational activities such as henna making, tailoring, tie-dyeing and drawing. In addition, each Women Friendly Space employs midwives and caseworkers to provide emotional and psychosocial support and to host awareness raising sessions on crucial issues like gender-based violence, safe pregnancy and childbirth, family planning, , healthy relationships, child marriage and human trafficking. Hamida, a 27-year-old Rohingya woman who began to attend the awareness raising sessions shortly after arriving in the camps in 2017 was immediately inspired by the new things she was learning about. “I realized that information is power and I started looking for opportunities to develop myself, as well as for ways to contribute to the collective betterment of my community,” she recalls. In no time, she had become a teacher and mentor for other women in the camps through the Women Support Groups peer outreach initiative. The Women Support Groups are a network of thousands of female Rohingya camp volunteers, who advance the rights of Rohingya women to make autonomous choices about their bodies and lives. “Through my efforts to help other women and girls in the camps, I have gained the respect of my community, family members and husband. At first, no one listened to me. However gradually, they started to embrace me as they understood that information gives them choices and opportunities,” Hamida proudly declares. Family planning methods and male engagement In addition to building the network of Women Friendly Spaces since 2017, UNFPA has been active in ensuring that family planning services remain available to women and girls in the camps. Currently, 40 partners in the UNFPA-led Sexual Health and Reproductive Working Group are collaborating to provide family planning information and services in 193 health facilities in the camps and surrounding host communities. Just between January-December 2020, almost 1.3 million condoms were distributed to men in the targeted communities, and about 135,000 women have been reached with a variety of contraceptive methods, ranging from contraceptive pills and intrauterine devices to intramuscular injectables and implants. To ensure that family planning information reaches communities at the grassroots level, UNFPA actively collaborates with religious leaders in the camps as part of awareness raising efforts. Nour Kolil is a Rohingya cleric working with UNFPA. “My role as an Imam is to guide young couples on achieving a healthy and fulfilling marital union,” he explains. “For this, I strongly encourage them to visit health facilities to receive more information on sexual and reproductive health and rights. My message is always about the happiness of the couples, making sure they have the ability to ensure health, education and food for their children. Managing the size of the family is also crucial.” Through peer group counseling and courtyard meetings, special measures are also taken to ensure that information on family planning reaches men and boys in the camps. As men often carry more decision-making authority within Rohingya families, it is absolutely crucial that they are aware of the benefits of managing family size, birth spacing and women’s rights. Midwifery services in the Women Friendly Spaces In addition to securing the availability of family planning, significant measures have been taken to ensure that every pregnant woman in the camps has access to a safe delivery assisted by a midwife. Between 2018-2020, the number of deliveries performed in health facilities in the camps increased from 4,870 to 6,064, contributing significantly to preventing maternal deaths. Midwifery services have also been integrated into the Women Friendly Spaces, an approach which has proven to be particularly useful during the COVID-19 pandemic with its movement restrictions and other challenges. “Each day, I serve about a dozen women who come to our midwifery room to request family planning methods, counselling and general information on bodily health,” says Jannatul, a 24-year-old midwife working in one of the Women Friendly Spaces. “I also give advice on preventing and treating sexually transmitted infections. I am happy that the women trust me with such issues. It is because my counselling is always respectful, confidential and non-judgmental.” Over a period of time, Women Friendly Spaces have become “go-to” places for women and girls to discuss sensitive topics. “Since the midwifery room is always open, I find it a practical and comfortable place to consult about contraceptive methods. I like that I get to talk to another woman about women's issues,” explains Monowara, a resident of the camps who regularly visits the Women Friendly Spaces to discuss her needs with Jannatul. Building the life-skills of adolescents through Psychosocial Support kits In addition to ensuring the availability of comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services, UNFPA is working hard to address the various needs of the enormous youth population residing in the camps. Approximately 22 per cent of the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar consists of adolescents between the ages of 15 and 24. Going through the complex psychological and physical changes of puberty is exceptionally difficult for them in the challenging conditions of the camps. To support Rohingya adolescents in making a smooth transition from childhood to adulthood, UNFPA has been providing gender-responsive life skills education in the camps since 2018. Just in 2020, almost 3,140 adolescent boys and girls participated in the programmes, equipping them with crucial skills to better cope with the daily challenges they face as adolescents in the camps. 17-year-old Mokaroma, a graduate of one of UNFPA’s life skills education programmes, cannot contain her enthusiasm as she describes the various things she learned about sexual and reproductive health, gender norms and COVID-19 during the sessions. “Before coming to Bangladesh, I used to go to school, but I was taught little about things like the negative effect child marriage and early pregnancy have on young girls,” she shares. “After attending the learning sessions, both me and my parents now know why child marriage is harmful. I don’t want to get married now, as I want to study more. I am happy that my family fully supports me in this decision!” As providing life skills education has been challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic, UNFPA has launched novel initiatives to ensure that the youth population can continue to cultivate these skillsets remotely. With the generous support of Australia, psychosocial support kits containing a radio and a memory card full of pre-recorded, educational radio episodes were distributed to over 2000 adolescents in 2020. The radio episodes covered topics such as gender identity, peaceful conflict resolution, healthy nutrition and menstruation. “From the episodes, I learned the dos and don’ts of menstruation. The information on healthy foods that are good for our body during our periods was completely new to me. I actually played the session for my mother, as she never had the opportunity to learn about these things when she was young. I have also shared what I have learned with my neighbors and friends, so my whole community is benefiting from the episodes,” shares 18-year-old Maimuna, one of the recipients of the kits and participant of UNFPA’s Champions of Change life skills programme. A possible future? Even after four years, operating in the refugee camps continues to be challenging. COVID-19 has particularly put established ways of working to the test and made organizations rethink the way they approach humanitarian response. Despite these challenges, UNFPA has not lost its determination, and new innovations and ideas have begun to flourish. For example, this year UNFPA has started to address lack of access to adequate menstrual hygiene products in the camps by training Rohingya women to produce their own reusable sanitary pads. UNFPA has also constantly arranged focus group discussions with women in the camps to keep track of their evolving needs and build the capacity of our staff members through training, including sessions on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA). While mobility restrictions and climate-related emergencies during the pandemic may have impeded or slowed down UNFPA’s essential operations from time to time, UNFPA’s efforts to address the ongoing crisis are currently more dynamic and creative than ever. For this, UNFPA thanks its donors including the Australian High Commission, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the United States, Canada, Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom, Friends of UNFPA, Japan, New Zealand, Norway, the Republic of Korea and Sweden and United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund, all of whom have loyally continued to support UNFPA’s lifesaving work throughout these four years. With renewed inspiration, UNFPA stands ready to push ahead despite the challenging times. Along with our many partners, we will not stop until every Rohingya person can be assured that their rights and choices are fully protected and that they have the opportunity to aspire for a better, more just future..."
Source/publisher: United Nations Population Fund via "Reliefweb" (New York)
2021-09-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "If they want to achieve their rights they need to fight with education, not weapons, they said Rohingya children should be educated in their own language as they need to cope up with their life in Myanmar in future after getting repatriated, speakers said at a webinar They were speaking at a webinar titled, ‘Education for Rohingya children’ organized by PEN Bangladesh, on Wednesday, marking International Literacy Day. Masum Billah, of the Out of School Education Program of Brac, said the Rohingya children need to get educated in their vernacular language or in English. “They will learn Bangla naturally as they are living here. However, the medium of their schooling should not be Bangla. They should get educated in English or in their own language in schools. That will help them in the long run,” he said. He also said, Brac is running 700 learning centers in the camps; however, young adults do not have many opportunities to study in the camps. “Only two schools are there for secondary education,” However, there are some religious schools in the camps but some children do not want to go there, according to the Brac official. “They are more eager to go to learning centers as they can have cultural activities like drawing, singing and dancing there,” he told the webinar. Journalist Israt Jahan Urmi said the people who had a traumatic childhood are more prone to get involved in criminal activities later in their lives but education can save them. “Children need education to keep them occupied. When they get repatriated, they need to go back with institutionalized education,” she said. Security analyst AK Mohammed Ali Sikder said the Rohingya children should learn their vernacular language and need to be educated about their culture and heritage. “If they want to achieve their rights they need to fight with education, not weapons,” said the retired Bangladesh Army major general. PEN Bangladesh Vice-President Biswajit Ghosh, who presided over the webinar, said: “Literacy is a human rights issue and Rohingya children should not be deprived of it just because they were displaced from their homeland.” Researcher Gouranga Mohanta said: “If we can plan the right kind of education program, implementation would not be a real challenge.”..."
Source/publisher: "Dhaka Tribune" (Bangladesh)
2021-09-09
Date of entry/update: 2021-09-09
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: Abstract: "The spread of telecommunications networks and the growth in cross-border trade and travel bring minority language communities in Myanmar into ever greater contact with external influences presenting those communities with new choices and new challenges for their language, culture and group identity. In this context, it is important for a community to be able to assess the vitality of their language at the present moment as well as the likely direction of movement in coming years. This paper describes a sociolinguistic study of language vitality of the Akha communities in Eastern Shan State, Myanmar. Fieldwork involved data collection in 18 Akha villages during Apr-Jul 2014. Factors including Age, Gender and Religious Affiliation were used in the research design. The Extended Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale (EGIDS) (Lewis & Simons 2015:104-117) was used to characterise language vitality and the FAMED conditions (Lewis &Simons 2015:159-189) to assess the extent to which the current level of vitality is sustainable. Overall, Akha language vitality was assessed at EGIDS level 5: ?the language is used orally by all generations and is effectively used in written form in parts of the community (Lewis & Simons 2010:110)”. The study found considerable dissimilarities among different villages, with religious affiliation a major predictor of literacy proficiency and usage. The role of the non-formal literacy program operating in Christian villages in sustaining the current level of vitality will be discussed.".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Creator/author: Ah Suhn Ghoemeh
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 434.04 KB
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Description: Abstract: "Women?s political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. This paper selectively reviews the literature on gender gap and women?s participation in politics, focusing on women?s formal political participation particularly from 2010 general election in Burma/Myanmar. The paper discusses, however, various barriers and challenges including traditional, religion, lack of education, experience in public discussion, participation and more importantly the military drafted 2008 constitution for women?s political participation and representation in Burma/Myanmar. It also explains significance of women?s political participation as well as the role of international mechanisms and gender quotas particularly the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Electoral Quotas System for empowering women?s participation in politics. Then, it explores the gap between the 2008 Constitution and the CEDAW standards. Throughout the review, the paper demonstrates a very low level of women?s political participation from secondary data as well as in-­‐depth interviewed with women parliamentarians explained the challenges and difficulties for women participation in politics of decision-­‐making. It also reveals the most common mechanism for increasing women?s political participation-­‐quotas and in order to have an effective the gender electoral quotas system it is explicitly important both men and women attend training and skills development. Importantly, the paper also asks what degree and under what conditions elected women actually do represent women and contribute to gender equality, democracy and whether women are distinctive—does having more women in office make a difference to public policy?".....Paper delivered at the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015.
Creator/author: Sang Hnin Lian
Source/publisher: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies: Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges: University Academic Service Centre (UNISERV), Chiang Mai University, Thailand, 24-­26 July 2015
2015-07-26
Date of entry/update: 2015-08-08
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 180.74 KB
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