The orphans of Myanmar wait far from Big Sky Country, but sometimes this seems the only place where help comes from.
For Pastor Wes Flint, their plight is too close to ignore. He's made 10 trips to Myanmar (he calls it by the old name, Burma) in the past three years, taking fellow Montanans to the Thailand river border where thousands of refugees seek security.
"These people have been abandoned, victimized and forgotten," he said of the Karen and Shan ethnic groups who've drawn the genocidal wrath of the country's army. "They have been broken, and the world just lets it go by. I can't do that anymore."
The leader of Victor's Crosspoint Christian Fellowship found an outlet for his hope in the international Christian organization Visions Beyond Borders. The group has straddled the political challenge of working with the country's military junta government to build orphanages there while at the same time helping its displaced people to escape.
Visions Beyond Borders was one of several aid organizations that tried to deliver food and supplies to victims of last year's Typhoon Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and left 60,000 children parentless. Flint said the group's internal contacts helped it deliver materials where others failed to clear the government roadblocks.
"But what I've been exposed to in the last year and a half or so - I'm trying to find the right words," he said during a visit to the Missoulian. "Shocking. Shocking human rights violations."
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While most Myanmar news coverage has focused on imprisoned dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Flint said his time there has been spent with victims of rape, torture and sadistic abuse by the government.
One man in Flint's collection of photos lost his hands and eyes to a land mine that soldiers forced him to defuse. In a photo of a large group of children, Flint said half had witnessed their parents' murder, while the other half didn't know what had happened to their families.
Most of the refugees are concentrated on the Myanmar-Thailand border, which is both a physical and medical danger zone. The area is rife with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases.
The Myanmar military frequently raids villages there, Flint said, driving the residents away and then planting land mines to keep them from returning. Thai authorities are not interested in harboring more refugees. And there are no jobs or farms to work, so no one can raise money or food to leave.
As a result, Visions Beyond Borders volunteers work both sides of the border, supporting a network of local activists who try to keep communications and aid moving. The group, which recently moved its headquarters from Sheridan, Wyo., to Bozeman, has made Flint a board member and given him the task of gathering national awareness to the Burmese efforts.
"We're always trying to find people with nursing or medical skills," he said of his volunteers. "We're also looking into hiring a counselor to help these children deal with what they've been through. But a lot of times, we're just there to load food and carry duffel bags. It's important to just let them know that someone cares."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.
For Pastor Wes Flint, their plight is too close to ignore. He's made 10 trips to Myanmar (he calls it by the old name, Burma) in the past three years, taking fellow Montanans to the Thailand river border where thousands of refugees seek security.
"These people have been abandoned, victimized and forgotten," he said of the Karen and Shan ethnic groups who've drawn the genocidal wrath of the country's army. "They have been broken, and the world just lets it go by. I can't do that anymore."
The leader of Victor's Crosspoint Christian Fellowship found an outlet for his hope in the international Christian organization Visions Beyond Borders. The group has straddled the political challenge of working with the country's military junta government to build orphanages there while at the same time helping its displaced people to escape.
Visions Beyond Borders was one of several aid organizations that tried to deliver food and supplies to victims of last year's Typhoon Nargis, which killed an estimated 140,000 people and left 60,000 children parentless. Flint said the group's internal contacts helped it deliver materials where others failed to clear the government roadblocks.
"But what I've been exposed to in the last year and a half or so - I'm trying to find the right words," he said during a visit to the Missoulian. "Shocking. Shocking human rights violations."
***
While most Myanmar news coverage has focused on imprisoned dissident and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, Flint said his time there has been spent with victims of rape, torture and sadistic abuse by the government.
One man in Flint's collection of photos lost his hands and eyes to a land mine that soldiers forced him to defuse. In a photo of a large group of children, Flint said half had witnessed their parents' murder, while the other half didn't know what had happened to their families.
Most of the refugees are concentrated on the Myanmar-Thailand border, which is both a physical and medical danger zone. The area is rife with malaria, dengue fever and other tropical diseases.
The Myanmar military frequently raids villages there, Flint said, driving the residents away and then planting land mines to keep them from returning. Thai authorities are not interested in harboring more refugees. And there are no jobs or farms to work, so no one can raise money or food to leave.
As a result, Visions Beyond Borders volunteers work both sides of the border, supporting a network of local activists who try to keep communications and aid moving. The group, which recently moved its headquarters from Sheridan, Wyo., to Bozeman, has made Flint a board member and given him the task of gathering national awareness to the Burmese efforts.
"We're always trying to find people with nursing or medical skills," he said of his volunteers. "We're also looking into hiring a counselor to help these children deal with what they've been through. But a lot of times, we're just there to load food and carry duffel bags. It's important to just let them know that someone cares."
Reporter Rob Chaney can be reached at 523-5382 or at rchaney@missoulian.com.
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