Cyclone Relief Fundraiser / House Party

Sunday, Sep 28, 2008 - 6:30-8:30pm
(program starts 7:00pm sharp)
San Francisco Mission location, near 24th/Mission.
Email earthviewmusic@yahoo.com for location and directions.

Local Burma expert Rick Heizman has been to Burma 20 times—and is going again in early October—for the third time this year. Rick will give a short dynamic presentation and answer questions about the mega-disaster and his related work. Rick will be raising funds to rebuild and repair schools and orphanages, sponsor and facilitate art and music therapy for traumatized kids, and help people reestablish their livelihoods and help kids regain a hopeful childhood.

8-8-08 - 20th Anniversary of 8-8-88 - Photos

8808 Berkeley
Album | Slideshow

8808 San Francisco
Album | Slideshow

8-8-08 - 20th Anniversary of 8-8-88

August 8, 2008 (8-8-08) is not only the day of the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics; it is also the twentieth anniversary of historic protests that ignited a global movement for change in Burma.

In the San Francisco Bay Area, the cities of San Francisco and Berkeley have proclaimed August 8th, "Burma Day."

To commemorate this there will be three events:

- Flag raising in Berkeley, 7:45 - 8:30 am
- Rally in San Francisco's Union Square, 4:00-7:00 pm
- Gallery event in San Francisco, 6:00-9:00 pm

For info on these events visit: www.badasf.org

For info about other events around the world, check out:

www.globaljusticeforburma.org/b8-events
www.8808forburma.com
www.uscampaignforburma.org/8808-events

Food Bazaar: Burma and China Disaster Relief

Fund Raising Food Bazaar and Silent Auction
Sunday, August 10, 2008 - 11:00am–2:00pm
3003 Scott Blvd, Santa Clara, CA

More info»

Candles for Burma

The non-profit advocacy group, Ethical Traveler, has revived their Candles for Burma campaign.

This campaign - wherein visitors to the ET web site can post images in solidarity with the people of Burma - originally ran for Aung San Suu Kyi's 60th birthday.

Now, three years later, the campaign is being revived to draw attention to all prisoners of conscience in Burma (including Aung San Suu Kyi) and to show solidarity with the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Show your solidarity with Aung San Suu Kyi and all the prisoners of conscience in Burma.

Show your solidarity with the victims of Cyclone Nargis.

Candles for Burma»

June 17 - Flashpoints Radio

Dennis Bernstein updated his listeners on the post-cyclone situation with the help of Kenneth, Nandi, and Nick (just back from Burma).

Listen here:
kpfa.org/archives

June 14/15 Events - Photos

The events on June 14 and 15 were both very successful. View photos from each by following the links below.

June 14 - BAWA Burma Women's Day, Fremont

View Photos»

June 15 - Nargis Fundraiser, San Bruno


View Photos»
View More Photos (from Ko Ko Lay)»

Bay Area Burmese Community Continues Humanitarian Assistance Work

A message to the media...
Bay Area Burmese Community Continues Humanitarian Assistance Work for the Victims of Cyclone Nargis Using Underground Networks

The past few weeks have shown that the Burmese military junta, once again, is not true to its word.

Head thug Than Shwe gave Ban Ki-Moon assurances that he would allow the free flow of aid to the cyclone victims. Ban went away happy and has barely been heard from on this topic since. Assistance continues to be hampered by the Burmese regime as a million or more people suffer without proper help.

International giving has paled in comparison to that for China quake relief because donors are concerned that their money will go to the junta instead of to the people. They have good cause to be concerned.

The Burmese community abroad knows there is an alternative. They channel money through the sangha - the Buddhist monks. The monks are in a unique position to effectively provide assistance to the cyclone victims via underground, grassroots channels.

Here in the Bay Area, the Burmese community has raised over $100,000. This money is being channeled through Sasana Moli - the International Burmese Monks Organization. Sasana Moli is stepping in to care for the people, where the government is not.

This coming weekend - June 14 and 15 - there will be two important fund-raising events in the Bay Area.
The local Burmese community recognizes the critical need to keep the fund-raising going and to keep this story in the news.

Please consider covering one or both of these events.

Saturday, June 14, 2008
Burmese American Women's Alliance (BAWA) presents
A Celebration of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday & Burma's Women's Day
TIME: 5:00pm to 8:00pm
LOCATION: Los Cerritos Community Center
3377 Aldar Ave
Fremont, CA
View Map
View Details (blog post)

Sunday, June 15, 2008
SF Bay Area Burmese Community presents
Cyclone Relief Fund Raising Event
TIME: 10:00am to 3:00pm
LOCATION: Capuchino High School
1501 Magnolia Ave
San Bruno, CA
View Map
View Details (blog post)

Thanks for your support,

~Gregg Butensky
Member, Board of Directors
Burmese American Democratic Alliance

Exiled Burmese Monk Lambastes Junta

Viji Sundaram's interview with U Pannya Vamsa during his recent Bay Area visit.



Editor's Note: Chairman of the International Burmese Monks Organization - 81-year-old U Pannya Vamsa - speaks to New America Media about the way Burmese monks are organizing to give aid to cyclone victims in Burma. Viji Sundaram is an editor for New America Media.

The world community has been watching in shock and amazement as Burma’s military government continues to watch the victims of Cyclone Nargis starve while relief just waits offshore. The May 2 cyclone left some 133,000 dead or missing and 2.4 million survivors. Latest reports from the United Nations indicate that about 60 percent of the survivors have still not received any food, water or shelter. Read more»

Compassion With Fashion - Event Photos

The Compassion With Fashion fund-raising event was held on Saturday, June 7.

View photos by Ko Ko Lay»

RebuildBurma Fund-Raiser Success

The June 6 fund-raiser was well attended and about $1500 was raised for cyclone relief efforts.

View photos by Kenneth Wong»

Venerable U Pannya Vamsa Vists San Francisco

Venerable U Pannya Vamsa visited the San Francisco Bay Area on May 31 and June 1 along with Ashin Nayaka.

The visit was covered in an article by Christine Morente in the San Mateo County Times.
Read the article online»

View Ko Ko Lay's Photos

Compassion with Fashion: A Benefit for Burma

Art and Creativity Power Compassionate Acts of Kindness

• Date: Saturday, June 7, 2008
• Time: 6:30pm to 10:00pm
• Location: San Rafael Community Center
  628 B Street
  San Rafael, CA 94901
• Admission price: $5.00 (entry only)
• Admission with appetizers: $15.00

A Kid-to-Kid Production
Students at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael, feeling great empathy towards the Burmese children, quickly mobilized to create a fashion show and silent auction to raise money to help in the relief efforts.

More info: compassionwithfashion.org

Burma News and Analysis on Flashpoints [KPFA FM]

Recent coverage on Flashpoints, hosted by Dennis Bernstein, includes the following two radio shows.

Flashpoints, May 28 listen»
Guest: Kenneth Wong

Flashpoints June 2 listen»
Guests: Kenneth Wong, Ko Ko Lay

Flashpoints airs each weekday from 5:00-6:00pm on KPFA FM in Berkeley (and online). Tune in Tuesday, June 3, as Dennis will have guests calling in with first hand reports from inside Burma.

kpfa.org

Women's Day / Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday

Burmese American Women's Alliance (BAWA) Presents

A Celebration of
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's Birthday &
Burma's Women's Day

DATE: Saturday, June 14, 2008
TIME: 5 PM to 8 PM
LOCATION:
Los Cerritos Community Center
3377 Alder Ave, Fremont, CA
View Map»

Aung San Suu Kyi is a national hero in the fight for a free Burma and a symbol of hope in the downtrodden country. In 1991, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights" and became an international symbol of peaceful resistance and courage in the face of hardship and oppression. In 1990, she was put under house arrest by the government and remains there to this day.

The event will include...
►BURMESE MUSICAL ICON DAW MAR MAR AYE’S SPEECH AND PERFORMANCES
►PRAYERS BY PRIESTS AND MONKS FROM MULTIPLE RELIGIONS
►A SHORT FILM ABOUT BURMA & DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI
►BURMESE FOOD WILL BE SERVED.

For more info, please visit:
bawalliance.org

Rebuild BURMA - Fund Raiser at Space Gallery

Cocktails - Silent Auction
Burmese Appetizers - Burmese Dance Performance

Space Gallery
1141 Polk Street, San Francisco, CA

Friday Jun 6, 2008
7 PM to Midnight

On June 6, we plan to tell the story of the Burmese cyclone victims’ plight with an intimate photo exhibit, as well as a silent auction of gorgeous Burmese photos for the benefit of the disaster survivors.

View Flyer [PDF]

Cyclone Relief Fund Raising Event Announced

We want to cordially invite you to our Cyclone Relief Fund Raising Event as a first ever SF Bay Area Burmese Community effort for Cyclone Nargis Victims of Burma.

The programs of the event will include:

• Food Fair from Burmese Organizations and Donors
• Burmese Ethnic Cultural Shows and Dances,
• Multi-religious Prayers,
• Speakers and Cyclone Aftermaths Presentations.

• Burma’s most renowned Classic Singer Daw Mar Mar Aye will help perform in our event with Metta.

• Students of Theravada Dhamma Society (TDS) will offer Swan (Alms food) to Buddhist Monks from Bay Area Monasteries.

• Karen Fellowship will help perform the Karen Bamboo Dance if chance is given.

• United States Burmese Medical Association (USBMA) will offer a free Health Screening and Education program for the community. There will be a First Aid team during the event too.

Sunday, June 15, 2008 -- 10:00am - 3:00pm
Capuchino High School Campus
1501 Magnolia Avenue, San Bruno, CA
View Map»

Nick Leaving for Burma Tomorrow

Lisa Amin Reporting
ABC7 KGO News - Watch Video

Chairman of IBMO in San Francisco Bay Area - update

photo by Peter Morris

Venerable U Pannya Vamsa
Chairman of the International Burmese Monks Organization
will be in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend

Burma - The Local Angle

On May 5, members of the Burmese Community in the San Francisco Bay Area responded to news of the devastating Cyclone Nargis in Burma by forming a Joint Action Committee.

Just two days later, individuals and representatives of some 27 organizations came together for the first meeting of the JAC. At that meeting it was decided to initiate fund raising on multiple fronts and to channel relief funds via the International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO) - aka Sasana Moli.

Because the ruling junta in Burma has shown that it can't be trusted to channel assistance to those in need, donor contributions have paled in comparison with those for the recent earthquake in Sichuan, China.

Some 2.5 million lives are at stake in Burma. The Burmese monks are trusted by the people and they are not waiting for permission from the junta to bring critically needed assistance to the cyclone survivors.

The International Burmese Monks Organization (IBMO)

The IBMO was formed last October following the brutal crackdown of peaceful demonstrators in Burma the previous month. Burmese monks living in exile around the world came together in Los Angeles and formed the organization to raise international awareness of Burma's situation and to lobby international governments.
burmesemonks.org

The internationally renowned Avaaz organization has raised over $2 million and is channeling this money primarily through the IBMO. A recent report from Avaaz is here:
www.avaaz.org

Venerable Sayadaw U Pannya Vamsa

Venerable U Pannya Vamsa - co-founder and Chairman of the IBMO who makes his home in Penang, Malaysia - will be in the San Francisco Bay Area this weekend.

U Pannya Vamsa has been on an international tour, urging the global public to join the ongoing struggle for Burma. For over 50 years, he has tirelessly worked to establish Buddhist centers around the world. He has now taken up the responsibility to raise funds for the victims of cyclone Nargis and to ensure efficient distribution of the collected donations. We encourage everyone to take advantage of this rare opportunity to hear a sermon by the abbot.

Scheduled Sermons:

Saturday, May 31, 2008, 6:00 PM
Metta Nanda Vihara Dharma Retreat (Monastery)
4619 Central Avenue
Fremont, CA 94536
Contact: (510) 795-0405

Sunday, June 1, 2008, 6:30 PM
(Both English and Burmese languages)
Jefferson High School
699 Serra Monte Blvd.
Daly City, CA 94015
Theravada Dhamma Society
Contact: (415) 793-2512

More Info [PDF]

More on U Pannya Vamsa:
smh.com.au
nzherald.co.nz
jendhamuni.com
havecoffeewillwrite.com

Eyewitness to Nargis

(Image: Sitagu Sayadaw reassures a patient suffering from dehydration and shock, from the flickr album by a user named Cyclone Nargis.)

In the aftermath of cyclone Nargis, a 165 MPH monster that ripped through Burma's Irrawaddy Delta and turned much of the fertile region into a waste land, green-clad soldiers from the Tatmadaw (the Burmese Army) are nowhere to be found. Instead, maroon-robbed Buddhist monks emerge as the heroes leading the rescue and recovery effort.

A flickr photo album from an anonymous user named Cyclone Nargis shows the efforts of Sitagu Sayadaw (the Abbot of Sitagu Monastery) to bring relief to the survivors.

Rangoon University, already suffering from neglect since the student-led uprising in 1988. now resembles a jungle. The congregation hall still stands, but surrounded by abandoned lecture halls and uprooted trees. A Picasa photo stream by MoeMaka shows the devastation.

Another Picasa photo stream (warning: contains disturbing images) by Salai Than shows a closer look at the human toll and the devastation to the land.