Soup kitchen - Partners International for internally displaced people in Myanmar

A global soup kitchen
helping the Internally Displaced in Myanmar

A soup kitchen is defined as a place where food is offered to the poor for free or at a reasonably low price. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as an establishment for preparing soup and supplying it to the poor or unemployed, either free or at a very low charge.

The essence of a soup kitchen is to supply the basic needs of the poor and helpless. In this modern age, we would have thought that it is not hard for people to meet their basic daily needs on their own.

The truth is there are many people who cannot do so, not because they do not want to, but because the government who is supposed to protect them is persecuting them, burning their villages and crops, and killing them on sight, children and all.

I am referring to the internally displaced people in Myanmar.

The United Nations defines an internally displaced person as a person who has been forced to flee or leave their home as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of:

Armed conflict
Generalised violence, violations of human rights
Natural or human-made disasters, and
who have not crossed an internationally recognized border.

The Burmese leaders has been systematically burning villages and arable land and displacing their own countrymen, leaving them without shelter and any means to support themselves. They are also threatening neighbouring countries not to admit these people, effectively keeping them within their reach to continue harming them.

Partners Relief & Development has been helping internally displaced people in Burma for a number of years. Partners is registered as a non-profit charity in the United States, Canada, Norway, and Australia. Currently Partners helps thousands of refugees and displaced people in Thailand, Burma, and Indonesia.

They are appealing for international aid support through the 5 Alive campaign, essentially a global soup kitchen.

Join Partners' 5 Alive Campaign Today!

Keep 5 people alive for a month with USD 50.00.

Your money will be used to buy the following basic items for a group of 5 to survive in the jungle:

75 kilograms of rice; 5 kilograms of salt
1 cooking pot
1 lighter
1 machete
1 large plastic sheet for making a roof in the jungle

Find out more about the 5 Alive Campaign.

Find out more about Partners Relief & Development.

Make a difference now, keep 5 alive.

Dear soup friends,

I first came across Partners Relief & Development in Melbourne during a church service. Steve Oddny, one of the co-founder of Partners shared about the dire straits of the Karen and Shan people in Burma. I can tell he was pouring his heart out about the injustices suffered by the ethnic minorities in Burma.

I did not know that such terrible things were happening in Burma, a country not too far away from mine. I know about the famines in Africa, the war in Iraq and the earthquakes in Turkey. I did not know about the internally displaced people in Burma. Goes to show how much media publicity these people get.

What really got to me was that this people had no one to turn to. The people that was supposed to protect them were the ones oppressing them. On top of that, they cannot get out of their country because their government had warned its neighbours not to interfere in its domestic affairs by accepting refugees.

I felt I needed to be their voice too. So, I am writing and sharing about them here. I appeal to you to help them too.

"Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue,
but in deed and in truth."
1 John 3:18

Regards, Phoebe

Make a difference now, make a donation now.

Other ways we can help

Support the IDPs in Burma by buying a few of the following. Click on the pictures to order:

The 2008 Refugees calendar is full of beautiful, inspiring photos that bring you face to face with the people of Burma.
US12.00

The Partners greeting Cards (blank inside) include 5 cards of each captivating design. Each set of ten cards includes envelopes for only $12.50 (plus shipping and handling)

Displaced Reflections.
Refugees and displaced people from Burma shed light on life, love, and faith.
Open this book and meet the peoples of Burma. They are beaten, displaced and victimized by their own government. Yet they are beautiful, full of grit and humor, and deeply rooted in a rich history of faith. In this book of photos and reflections, Oddny Gumaer and Brent Madison do more than tell stories. They open a door for us to live in the shoes of people who define what it means to demonstrate grace under pressure. You will be moved and inspired by this 125 page masterpiece.
US19.99

A global soup kitchen helping the Internally Displaced in Myanmar

Join Partners' 5 Alive Campaign Today!

Make a difference now, keep 5 alive.

Make a difference now, make a donation now.

Other ways we can help

A global soup kitchen
helping the Internally Displaced in Myanmar