Burma: Catholic students sought for voluntary summer project

Pagoda, Myanmar

Young volunteers are sought for a pioneering project to help a poor community in Burma this summer. The 20-day project, supported by Lord Alton, and aimed principally at university students, is due to take place from late August to mid-September, and involves helping to build a school for a rural village near the Thai-Burmese Mae Sot-Myawaddy border.

The initiative is jointly promoted by the Thai-based Good Friends Centre and by Netherhall House in London and is their third joint project to help poor Burmese communities.

The volunteers must contribute to raising funds for the project. Various fund-raising activities are organised, including selling raffle tickets in parishes, which the young people can take part in.

The project involves sharing the life of local Burmese people, living in bamboo huts, and hard manual work from Monday to Friday. It also involves sharing the joy and heroism of these communities and visiting different places in this beautiful country.

Burma - also called Myanmar - has been much in the news in these months as the country slowly opens itself to more democratic government. Very recently Prime Minister David Cameron visited Burma to meet Aung San Suu Kyi, a heroic woman who has been at the forefront of the pro-democracy movement.

Until recently it would have been impossible to do such a project in Burma itself. Indeed, the two previous projects focused on building schools for Burmese immigrants - particularly from the Karen ethic group - who had been forced to flee to Thailand to escape poverty or oppression. But with the new political situation, projects in Burma have started to become possible and this will be one of the first to be carried out.

Alvaro Tintore, secretary of Netherhall House and the project leader, says: "We see this initiative as a way to bring young people in Britain into contact with the great poverty borne so bravely by people in poor communities. We can learn so much from them. And in giving to others we grow ourselves."

One of Britain's foremost human rights campaigners, Catholic peer Lord David Alton, has thrown his weight behind the project saying: "I think this is a really worthwhile initiative and one which should capture young people's imaginations at a time when Burma faces a real opportunity to bring enduring change."

The initiative has also been welcomed by Benedict Rogers, East Asia Team Leader at Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), and one of the UK's leading experts in Burma. "The people of Burma need solidarity and support now more than ever, as they begin to change their country and rebuild after decades of oppression and conflict," he believes.

"Now is the time to carry out such initiatives to help the people of Burma out of poverty and to address the enormous economic, social, health and education needs they face. Young participants and their parents need not fear: it is perfectly safe and will be highly enriching. I support this project wholeheartedly," says Rogers whose new book, Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads, is to be published in July by Random House.

As on previous trips the group will be accompanied by Fr Joseph Evans, chaplain to Netherhall House and Catholic chaplain to King's College London and the Institute of Education. There will be daily Mass and other religious activities for those who wish. "Projects like these are great opportunities to grow in our relationship with Jesus Christ", he says. "We learn to share His love for the poor and seeing how simply these people live one learns that in fact we only need God."

The Good Friends Centre is an initiative to support Burmese people in Thailand and Myanmar, founded by a French missionary priest, Father Olivier Prodhomme.

Netherhall House is a university residence in Hampstead, London, promoted by the Opus Dei prelature.

Places are limited so applicants are encouraged to apply soon, and by Thursday 10 May at the latest. Applicants must be between 17 and 24 years old. For more information, contact Alvaro Tintore on secretary@nh.netherhall.org.uk