Burma and the Photographer's Burden

How you can Help

by Don Lyon (June 10, 2008)

Many of you have written or called to ask about our Burmese Guide Daniel (Sai Woon Sone) and what you can do to help ease the pain and suffering that the May 3 cyclone has inflicted on a people whom so many of us have taken to our hearts. Daniel is fine. I’m in touch with Nee Nee, Daniel’s business partner at Zarmani Tours. She reports that he and the other guides are busy helping with the relief efforts, volunteering their time and spending their own money to buy supplies for less fortunate neighbors.

If you are among the hundred or so CUE veterans who have traveled to Burma (or Myanmar) you are probably doing the same as I -- scouring the papers and the web for news and angry that the military junta of Burma has been so heartless in their denial of this is the photographer's "burden" -- the people we meet and photograph become members of our (very) extended family. We see their faces on our walls, when we hang a show or present a travelogue -- and we remember the moments of connection that we shared -- as members of the family of man.

It is a burden that we gladly shoulder. When I see how ignorance of other cultures fosters fear or indifference to suffering among my neighbors who have not traveled, then I know it is time to put my images to work -- to help educate my neighbors about the people I have met and photographed in strange and foreign lands.

CUE has taken on two projects to deal with the photographer's burden. I invite you to be a part of them! First of all, a little background on Nee Nee Myint of Zarmani Tours, Daniel's business partner. Zarmani Tours is CUE's tour operator in Burma, providing us with our guide (Daniel), hotels, flights, transportation, and other incoming tour services. If you take a look at www.zarmani.com, you will see a banner. Click "Information" and choose "Charity Projects." Here you will learn that Zarmani Tours is the chief financial and motivational sponsor of several schools and orphanages run by nuns, monks, and some paid staff. Over 800 orphans or very poor children are cared for at these institutions.

After the May 3 cyclone, these schools and orphanages became refugee camps for the survivors from the nearby villages in the delta region surrounding Yangon. Zarmani's regular aid efforts have been rechanneled to provide services for the refugees including grants of building supplies, tools and seeds. A few days ago Nee Nee learned that they had over 100 new orphans to care for. She said she didn't know how they will do it -- but they will! Clearly Zarmani Tours is an organization that believes in giving back to the community and I am very pleased that we have found such a company with which to do business in Burma

Nee Nee was in the States during the May 3 cyclone, meeting with tour operators and raising money for her charity projects. I was able to get $800 cash to her on the day she left San Francisco to return to Burma. I told her $100 was from me and all of you would reimburse me for the remaining $700. If you would like to participate in this direct aid to Nee Nee's orphans, please send me a check made to Donald Lyon. Any funds I receive beyond $700 will be delivered to Nee Nee by the December 2008 CUE tour group who will visit the orphans during his stay in Yangon. CUE support for Zarmani projects will continue as long as CUE is offering trips to Burma.

The second project concerns a non-profit located in Eugene, Oregon (my home town, about 25 miles from my current home in Brownsville).   Thirst Aid ( www.thirst-aid.org ) helps local communities in third world countries build small manufacturing factories to produce home water filters.   Safe drinking water is the number one need in developing countries--especially after an event such as the May 3 cyclone that contaminated all of the wells in the delta region with salt water.   Prior to the cyclone, Thirst Aid had just finished building two factories in the Yangon area that were each producing about 90 filters per day.   The plant in Twaite, just across the river from Yangon, was destroyed.   Curt and Cathy Bradner, the principles of Thirst Aid were back in Burma within a week of the cyclone, preparing to rebuild, distributing water purification tablets and other aid items that they could buy locally.   Dazed survivors were wandering around naked when Curt arrived in Twaite, so "longyiis" (the Burmese sarong worn by men and women) were a first priority.   As I write this, the Twaite plant is back in production and a third factory is planned.   The Bradners hope to have it operating and be home by Christmas.   The military junta has not interfered with Thirst Aid projects, apparently because the "low tech" nature of the design and the fact that the factories are run by locals using local materials appeals to their own vision for a self-sufficient population.  

Thirst Aid (unlike the large international organizations that were unable to get visas for their dozens of aid workers or permission to import and distribute supplies) trains local people from poor communities to manufacture the water filters -- using local materials. They empower the local community with knowledge and enthusiasm. It is a model that can be repeated all over the world, addressing the number one problem in the world -- access to safe drinking water. All that is needed is the seed money to deliver the technology to the community, monitor production standards and, of course, more people like the Bradners, who are able to deliver the know how.

I am working with Thirst Aid's Communication Director, Bree Ervin, to raise funds. My job is to present my slide program on Burma to help people understand that Burma is a country and a people -- not just a disaster. We have had two events in our local Willamette Valley area so far and are planning more. I urge you to support Thirst Aid with your check, sent to CUE if you like, or to the Colorado address on the web site. A receipt for your tax deductable contribution will be mailed to the address on your check.

Or, consider using your own images of Burma, and schedule an event in your community that will help educate others about the Burmese people. Make use of your direct experience to raise funds for Nee Nee, Thirst Aid, or the organization of your choosing. If you have not been to Burma (or it has been awhile), now is the perfect time. CUE returns to Burma in December. At that time we will include visits with Nee Nee's orphanages as well as a Thirst Aid water filtration manufacturing site in our tour and you can have the first-hand experience of seeing your caring at work. Take your own images and make use of them in your own community. The May 3 cyclone brought Burma into the international limelight, but the plight of the individual Burmese affected by this storm and in a larger sense, affected by the repressions of the Burmese government goes on.

It is the photographer's burden to remain connected to the people and places that touch our hearts. It weighs heavily at times when natural and man-made disasters seem to be coming one right after the other. Those that give to large organizations such as UNICEF or the Red Cross can be excused for occasional bouts of donor's fatigue. I know, however, from the personal experience described here, about the satisfaction of giving when the beneficiaries are the same people that you photographed the year before. That is when the photographer's burden is a joy to carry.