Before I take off for Malaysia, I thought it would be worthwhile to post a general overview of the situation with Burmese refugees there, and what I will be doing.

My first trip to Malaysia was just over a year ago - I stayed there during November and December after I left Thailand, and before I returned home to the U.S. I went after being asked to do so by Victor, a Chin community leader who lives and works in Chiang Mai. The idea was to help the Chin Refugee Committee with improving their office operations - stuff like organizing, writing reports and grant applications etc. At least, I think that's what the idea was, although I'm not sure how much I actually helped with that. I did write up a few reports for grant applications, and I wrote a couple official letters to other agencies. I also helped facilitate a few meetings with the Executive Committee to determine priorities for the CRC's future development, and come up with ideas for restructuring the organization to fix some problems they were facing. Unforutanetly, many of these solutions, like having staff members who were focused on community outreach, and developing a communications strategy, required money that's hard to come by. The CRC was formed with the moral support of the UNHCR, and they were tasked with managing the Chin community and handling pre-registration of asylum-seekers, but to the best of my knowledge, that moral support was not backed up by financial support. All of the CRC staff were volunteers, working for room and board, and small stipends to cover some work related costs.   more »