Look To The Stars News: US Campaign for Burma

Students Launch Fundraising For Burma

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 11:30:00 -0000

The US Campaign for Burma is excited to announce the launch of their first-ever Student Fundraising Challenge.

This fall, on campuses across the United States and around the world, students will participate in an effort to raise $32,000 to increase awareness of 3,200 villages that have been destroyed in Eastern Burma during the military regime’s ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing.

In an open letter, a group of university students from across the U.S. has called on their fellow students to participate in the Challenge and to “stand in solidarity with students inside Burma and show that we too can have a positive impact on Burma’s future.”

Prizes will be awarded to the five groups who fundraise the most money, including For the Lady CDs autographed by Michael Stipe of REM and USCB T-shirts. The group that raises the most money will win the photograph of Burmese dictator Than Shwe that Ellen Page drew on during her Burma: It Can’t Wait video spot, plus weeklong recognition on the US Campaign for Burma homepage.

The full letter written by the university students can be found here, and more information about the fundraising initiative can be found at the US Campaign for Burma website.

Aung San Suu Kyi - Birthday Wishes That Can't Be Heard

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 11:38:00 -0000

Written by Tim Saunders

On June 19, Burma’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 63rd birthday as a political prisoner in Burma (Myanmar). And to mark the occasion, the US Campaign for Burma have organized over 200 events to help Americans learn more about her and the struggle for human rights and democracy in her military-led country.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a brave and courageous woman whose face is now more well-known than her name. But it is a face etched with sincerity, a face that has retained its youthful vigor despite the hardships it has endured, despite the years spent watching her fellow people suffer, and the lines that now run over it only add a look of wisdom and determination to her dogged drive and dedication.

Hers’ is an incredible and powerful story in a country that is struggling – a story of an academic based at Oxford University in England who returned to her native Burma to oppose the brutal military regime in her homeland, risking her life and leaving her husband and children behind. She led the National League for Democracy to a staggering win – with 80% of the votes – at the 1990 elections, only to have her post as Prime Minister nullified, and she has been imprisoned almost ever since. She even had to wait under house arrest when her husband was diagnosed with cancer. She was prevented from seeing him before he died, not allowed to comfort him at his bedside or help her children through their pain.

Aung San Suu Kyi is a remarkable woman – immortalized in the U2 song “Walk On” and the only Nobel Peace Prize winner kept imprisoned anywhere in the world – her crime was her desire to see her people free. And tomorrow yet another birthday will creep by, its shadow filling the cracks that run through her extraordinary life. But it will not go unobserved, and the US Campaign for Burma – an organization dedicated to empowering grassroots activists around the world to bring about an end to the military dictatorship in Burma – is urging people to join them in marking the occasion.

As part of the organization’s efforts, thousands of their members have pressed the U.S. Congress to award Aung San Suu Kyi the highest U.S. honor – the Congressional Gold Medal; they have organized over 60 former Presidents and Prime Ministers from every single continent to issue a united call for Suu Kyi’s release; they have pressed the United Nations Security Council to issue its first-ever acknowledgement of Aung San Suu Kyi as a democracy leader of Burma in a presidential statement; and they have rallied 30 celebrities to record short videos about Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for human rights in Burma.

To find events the campaign has organized, or to donate to their cause, visit the US Campaign for Burma website.

Celebrities Raising Voices For Burma

Wed, 07 May 2008 10:46:12 -0000

Written by Myrlia Purcell

Will Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston have joined the US Campaign for Burma, and are asking others to do the same for the Burma: It Can’t Wait Campaign. Stars are on a mission to raise one million voices in 30 days against the human rights atrocities occurring in the Southeast Asian country.

The people of Burma are being attacked by their own government, and, just as the world stood together to demand the freedom of Nelson Mandela, the campaign is asking people to speak up for the leader of Burma’s democratic party, Aung San Suu Kyi. The world’s only imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Suu Kyi has been deprived of her freedom for 12 of the last 18 years. She has appealed to people around the world, saying, “Please, use your liberty to promote ours.”

To make matters even worse, southwestern Burma was hit by a cyclone on Friday, May 2, leaving up to 60,000 dead, with tens of thousands missing and hundreds of thousands displaced or homeless. It is being called the worst natural disaster in Asia since the 2004 tsunami. Despite knowing about the approaching cyclone days in advance, the government did not warn its citizens. The U.S. Campaign For Burma is accepting donations to help with relief efforts in the medium-term, as the Burmese government is currently blocking international aid agencies from offering their support.

Join Woody Harrelson, Sarah Silverman, Julie Benz, Eddie Izzard and the others who are speaking out for the brave young people fighting for democracy and struggling through the wake of Cyclone Nargis. For more information visit the U.S. Campaign For Burma, and to view the celebrity videos, go to BurmaItCantWait.org.

Look To The Stars News: US Campaign for Burma

Students Launch Fundraising For Burma

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