New Life Outreach

Dear friends and sponsors,

I'm going to make a bold request.

In view of the possible up-tempo of the deportation of the Hmong refugee back to Laos this year, I'm bringing forward our PROJECT FIRSTAID! to this month.

What this entails is equipping each of the 7 refugee groups each with an advance first aid kit and 1 smaller first aid kit to every 100 people.

This is the full breakdown :
7 X Zone Leader First Aid Kits (+ 1 Demo Set for training)
80 X Section Leader First Aid Kits

I'll head down to Phitsanulok tomorrow to obtain the lowest price but estimates is as follows :

Full Zone Leader Medical Kits - SGD 150 X 8 = SGD1200
*This kit will attend to the casualties and medical emergencies

Section Leader First Aid Kits - SGD 50 X 80 = SGD4000
*This kit will attend to general injuries

Total Cost = SGD $5200

I am hoping to deliver these kits by the end of March. Please help spread the message.

This morning we managed to confirm that indeed a deportation happened.

11 people were deported after signing a "voluntary" deportation paper.

We have also received news that emotions are running high in the camp as people are fearful of the ongoing deportation. We've also heard that foreigners have all been denied access to the camp for the next couple of days so the deportation can go on smoothly.


What is happening in Laos ?
This month 22 Hmongs were slaughtered in the forest of Laos in attacks by the Laos Military and another 49 died of starvation.

I have lots of people emailing me asking me if I can bring them to help out in the refugee camp in June etc etc.

The challenge is that I cannot give a straight answer in view of all the uncertainties. The furthest we can look towards is prolly one month ahead.

The announcement mentioned that in 2008 the refugees will be deported.
But please do not be mistaken. "In 2008" does not necessarily mean end of 2008.

In fact the signs are disturbing with the rumored deportation yesterday.

Today, we received the most disturbing news to date.

We heard that a group of refugees have been just deported back to Laos.

Now we are in the process of verifying the facts and getting more data. Please pray with us.

With all the ups and downs doing this work, its just not easy.... But one of the source of my encouragement is from a lady named Lee Wah.

In our initial phases of our work, people knew little about us as such credibility was an issue. It was difficult for us to do anything but this lady was one of the very first few from Jubilee that came forward and believed in us. Many times as I looked back at our work, I cannot help but think how would we have gone this far without the help of the people like Lee Wah.

More then just giving, this lady gave of her savings. She does not draw a huge pay packet, but from what little she had, she gave so freely to the people who had greater need.

In fact when I spoke to her, her simple and genuine words just warmed my heart. She shared that from her pay most of it goes into supporting people and meaningful works.

I do not know about you, but people like that inspires me(so much that I broken a policy to launch a FRT despite the lack of numbers *grinz*) but I think its only right for her to see the people she has blessed.

She's the lady 2nd from the right with her husband next to her

For the first time in our 5 months of working in the refugee camp, the Thai military has revoked our entry permits.

This is in view of the security breach by one of our thai contract drivers who unknowingly strayed to the fenceline and snapped a couple of pictures of the refugee camp interior. In response, we have terminated his contract.

We have made a couple of calls to the camp, but the military has reverted that they are still waiting for the "revoked" permits to be re-approved and they should be receiving the news sometime next week.

This week, I would probably need to make personal a visit to the base commander again to discuss this issue. ... till then.. our weekly MILK! mission is on a hold.

This week has been a terribly busy week for us, lots of meetings and presentations to bring awareness to our work at the refugee camp.

Tomorrow, I'll be flying back to Thailand and will be there for the next 3 months to ensure all the paperwork for the offices are done.

In the mean time, if you are unable to reach me, please contact ben at ben@radion-international.org

Once our field office is set up, i'll be able to blog again !