Youth Network Update From ActionAid in Burma
On 13th January 2010, AA UK country executive Mr. Richard Miller and AA UK chair Mr. Andrew Purkis together with AA Country Manager Mr. Shihab Uddin had a half-day meeting with some of the active youth groups and organizations at Local Resource Centre (LRC) in Yangon. Fivteen youth groups including Social Care Volunteer Group (SCVG), Web to Acquire the Value of Education (WAVE), Metta Moe Myanmar, Youth Development Initiated Network (YDIN), Civil Society Initiative (CSI), Capacity Building Initiative (CBI), Charity Oriented Myanmar (COM) and ActionAid.
Youth groups who are working on different issues ranges from education, environmental, charity, social welfare, civic education to HIV/AIDS issue in society. Participants from those different youth groups gave a short presentation on their current and furture work activities, which was followed by plenary discussion session. It was noted that although many youth groups existed and emerging, there was need for better collaboration and networking. Youth groups also expressed their desire to build a platform for better cooperation and their plan to organize funraising event in this coming February 2010 where various youth organizations can get involve. The meeting came to an end with a closing remarks given by the Mr. Richard Miller and Mr. Andrew Purkis, followed by a fellowship lunch.
Bennett, as I ran an online search for LRC and CBI, your site comes up. I was just writing on my own blog about how groups like LRC and CBI have to operate discreetly while larger, state-sanctioned NGOs like Myanmar Egress can function more freely. As if to prove a point, the internet presence of the former is virtually nil, while Egress pops up easily on an internet search.