How can we help Burma?

Many of you have been asking us if Hle Bee School is OK following Cyclone Nargis. School parents have been saying, 'Is our wee school in Thailand OK? How can we help them?'

The good news is that our wee school is OK. Mae Sot is far from the disaster area in the south of Burma. Our friends are all safe and well.

The dreadful news is that so many Burmese people have been killed, injured and gone missing. Check out http://www.irrawaddy.org/ to see current estimates of the number of Burmese people affected. Irrawaddy's pictures show the despair of those left, who are unhelped by either the Burmese junta or the aid agencies who are not allowed into Burma.

When we were in Thailand last summer, we visited an outstanding Swiss charity called Child's Dream. They wrote to us to say that they have local people and organisations who can get aid directly into the people who are suffering most.

'While the UN and international NGOs await visas for Burma in Bangkok and the few emergency relief supplies are blindly handed over to the military regime, some of our partner organizations from the Thai - Burma border have put together an Emergency Assistance Team. This team is currently on the ground in Rangoon and the Irrawaddy Delta and is working with networks of community based organizations and concerned individuals. The team is split into 8 groups with 5 members each. They are distributing water purification tablets, procuring rice and other food, building shelters and repairing houses, assisting with cremations, and providing basic medical treatments, including oral rehydration supplementation.'

If you want to get help directly to the Burmese people who really need it, we recommend supporting Child's Dream. You will find details on their website - http://www.childsdream.org/.

Forthview children have started to make and sell Saffron ribbons for £1 again. Each £1 goes straight to Child's Dream's appeal. Contact Forthview on 0131 332 2468 or via Headteacher@forthview.edin.sch.uk if you want ribbons to sell.

Yippee!

Today, we heard from DfID Global Schools Partnerships that our application for a further year to develop the partnership between Hle Bee and Forthview has been successful. We can now prepare for 2 teachers from Forthview to visit Hle Bee and 2 teachers to come back to Scotland. Superb! We're raring to go so keep watching the site...

Waiting to hear ....

We are waiting to hear if DfID Global Schools Partnerships will approve our application to continue our Hle Bee - Forthview partnership for a further year. Our application gave details of joint curricular work we want to do in Art, Health, Writing, Social Studies, Emotional Literacy, Critical Thinking and Citizenship over the next 15 months. Fingers crossed.....

Our Lives Exhibition June 2008

Here is a sneak preview of the next joint learning venture between Forthview and Hle Bee schools. 80 children in the 2 schools have etched and written about an aspect of their lives. The children's works will show how different and yet how similar the lives of a Scottish child and a Burmese refugee child can be.
On the left, Nyin Nyin Htet etches her dream to be an artist. On the right, Caitlin etches her dream be a Member of the Scottish Parliament.
In Scotland you can see this exhibition at Ocean Terminal Shopping Mall and in Mae Sot, Thailand, you can see this exhibition at Borderline Gallery. The exhibition will be from 10 - 30 June 08, timed to coincide with Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday on 19 June 2008.

Walk a mile for a friend

On Friday 14 March 08, Forthview P1-7 walked a mile, which was 5 times around the building. Each child brought a donation for Hle Bee so that we can help them by wash hand basins. Forthview has 50 wash hand basins and Hle Bee have none. Altogether we made £200 and that works out at about 10 wash hand basins for Hle Bee. The wash hand basins are really important because Forthview and Hle Bee teachers are going to work together on a Healthy Hands project where we encourage our children in both schools to wash their hands to reduce infections. In the pictures you can see P4 set to go, the fastest boy who was in P3/4 and P3 shouting HLE BEE!

On the last day of term, a member of staff donated £40 so we could get another 2 wash hand basins. So that's enough for about 12 wash hand basins. Thank you!

PS 22 April 2008 - the children counted the money wrongly! So we only made £160 which makes the total £200 = 10 wash hand basins. Still good!

John Loughton, winner of Big Brother, bothers about Burma!

John Loughton is a former pupil of Inchview, one of the 2 schools that merged to become Forthview. His little brother, Christopher, is in P6/7 and has a pen pal in Hle Bee School. As Chair of Scotland's Youth Parliament, John has always supported Christopher and Forthview's interest in supporting Burmese children.

Today John made a surprise visit to Forthview, which delighted us all as we have supported him right through his Big Brother experience. On Big Brother he was a wonderful and shining example of how great Pilton folk are. Last Friday we had a great big party to celebrate his win.

When he spoke to the children in assembly today, he told us all that he was going to give a small gift of £100 from his win to Hle Bee School in Burma. The children gasped, 'WOW! £100!'

What a local hero! John is such a kind and generous person who believes in justice for young people. Thank you John from the bottom of our hearts. We are so proud of you.

"Our Lives" to be displayed in galleries in Thailand

Murray has been in both Mae Sot and Chiang Mai, negotiating places to hold the joint exhibition of “Our Lives” etchings and stories linking our two communities in Edinburgh and along the Burma border.


“Borderline” is a famous gallery in Mae Sot and “Suvannabhum” is a wonderful gallery in Chiang Mai.


Murray met with Aung Zin Oo from the exiled National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma (NCGUB) whilst visiting “Suvannabhum” yesterday. Aung Zin Oo had represented the NCGUB in Edinburgh at the formal ceremony for Aung San Suu Kyi in 2004, when she was awarded Freedom of the City of Edinburgh.


Aung Zin Oo was very interested in the links that Edinburgh has been making with the peoples of Burma through the work of BEST, Forthview, Amnesty and the City Council and looks forward to seeing our exhibitions in June, when they will be shown simultaneously in all three places.
He was very impressed by the way Forthview, Edinburgh and Scotland were creatively raising wider awareness about Burma and the struggles of its peoples.


Our friend Mar Mar who runs “Suvannabhum” said that she would be delighted to help us by hanging the exhibition in her gallery for 2 weeks to a month, marking Daw Suu’s 64th birthday, U.N. International Refugee week and the fourth anniversary of Forthview’s link with Burma.