One of the aims of The Best Friend is to establish and run libraries.
Libraries are places where people can gather to expand their knowledge,
by reading books and by discussing about many different topics. The Best
Friend at one point ran around 15 libraries inside Burma. Most were
closed down by the authorities and many of its staff and members were
forced to take a low profile or even leave the country.
The Best Friend is now actively running three libraries in Thailand: its base in Mae Sot houses a big library that offers many books and courses for free. In Chiang Mai the library is also actively involved in many other projects and organises many interesting meetings, film and debate evenings.About one year ago, on 10 August 2010, another library was opened. Quite a special one: it’s the first The Best Friend library inside a refugee camp. This library is run by U Lin, a 61 year old Burmese refugee who earned his ‘stripes’ in the pro-democracy movement and was an important player in the organisation of the 2007 Saffron Revolution and other activities in Burma. More about his background and activities can be read on the Burma Voices website.
U Lin has been living in NuPho refugee camp since 2008. NuPho is a remote refugee camp, around 6 hours’ drive by car from Mae Sot. It currently houses around 10,000 Burmese refugees. Among them many ethnic Karen people and former political prisoners. U Lin managed to obtain a house and receive monthly food supplies to live on. Like most other residents, he is not officially allowed to hold a paid job.
“We have no opportunity to work for money. This means, we have a lot of time to read and learn English. Unfortunately, I do not have any money to buy books.”.
How does U Lin acquire books and other materials for his newly established library?
“Fortunately, there are three monks called U Issariya (King Zero), U Kawwida (U Kovida) and U Thawbaga (U Sopaka) who always help us and support us with our library and with other things.”
Apart from the support from these three monks, U Lin points out some foreign donors have contributed to the establishment of the library or have supported him in other ways.
“These last few months, we have received donations from people from different countries. I especially wish to mention the kind support from Chokdian from France, Mr. Garrett from the USA, Marina and Patricia from Switzerland (who donated medicine to treat sick and injured people), Ashin Pyinnya Nanda from the USA, Elke from The Netherlands, Alexandra and her friends from Germany and Daw Thedar from the USA. Thanks to their donations, medicines, new books, blankets, a water filter system, rice and other products could be purchased. These products are essential for the refugees in the camp, as they only receive very basic food rations – such as rice and cooking oil – from the authorities and organisations who run the camp.
U Lin explains more about his library:
“Our library here is called The Best Friend. It is housed in a building we built to live in, in the middle of section 16/A of our camp. We created an image of the Buddha so people can pay respect to him here and practise their religion. The Best Friend group and I save money and once a month, we offer food to over one hundred monks who reside in NuPho camp. We also use these savings to celebrate Buddhist ceremonies. We also sometimes offer clothes and blankets to new refugees who have just arrived from Burma. And we try to treat injured and sick people if we can.”
Because people who live in the camp are not allowed to work, many people struggle to find useful activities to participate in during the day. Being torn away from their homeland and their families, having often suffered abuse or torture at the hands of the military government and not being able to go back home or be accepted into Thailand or another country, many people in the camp face quite hopeless situations. Buddhism plays an important role in these refugees’ lives and offers many people guidance and support in their daily lives.
The main aim of the library is books and education of course. “We have around 500 books now. On all sorts of subjects: religious, political, general knowledge, health, education, English language and English novels. We also offer a variety of magazines for people to read. People come and exchange books every day. Among them many students. They are very interested in our library, because this is one of the only places for them to find reading materials, which are scarce in the camp. That is why we try to find many different kinds of books for our library. It makes us happy that we can give people more knowledge and power this way.”
The NuPho library already has 83 members. “These members visit us frequently, read a lot and always ask us: ‘Do you have any new books for us?’ If we have money we can go travel to Mae Sot and buy more books. If there is no money, we cannot..
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