Program areas at Free Burma Rangers
Burma Ministries - In 2023, Free the Oppressed teams supported Free Burma Rangers teams that are made up of many ethnicities in Burma. We had the opportunity to visit many communities under threat of attack as well as those displaced and living in hiding sites away from their villages in both Karen and Karenni States of Burma. The Burma Army attacks clinics, hospitals, and schools causing them to relocate to obscure places without infrastructure to function normally. We supported and visited many medics working out of caves, under make-shift tents, and in wooded ravines still providing life-saving care while taking painstaking precautions to be camouflaged from aircraft and drone visibility. We supported and visited many schools displaced from their buildings and compounds, using blackboards propped against rocks as students studied in the safety of a wooded creek bed. Other school compounds have newly dug trenches surrounding the classrooms for immediate refuge when attack jets drop bombs on them. Continued on note in Additional Information section....
Thailand Ministries: In Thailand, Free the Oppressed has supported numerous individuals and villages throughout the year 2023. FTO sponsored two students for university programs in nursing and food sciences. Eighty students, lodging in three different hostels in Thailand, have been provided with education, food, and housing and have heard the Gospel message through various FTO programs. Thai Karen Baptist Church hostel houses forty-one students. The Wa Hostel houses eighteen students. The Karen Sunshine home houses twenty-one students. Another outreach in Thailand for FTO is patient care. Fiscal year 2023 saw thirty-nine patients brought to Thailand for care, with an average stay of three months and the longest being ten years for one patient. One of the younger patients is enrolled in a Thai school while receiving long-term medical care. Patient care pays for all medical, food, lodging, transportation, and other miscellaneous costs the patients might incur. Continued on note in Additional Information section....
Middle East Ministries - We are pleased to share our collective achievements from this past year. Each of these projects has had a meaningful impact on the lives of families, children, and communities who have suffered greatly. Here is a breakdown of our efforts, underscored by our commitment to humanitarian and spiritual support in these regions. Iraq & Kurdistan Efforts: Medical Assistance for Peshmerga Families: We provided medical support to 15 Peshmerga families, standing by those who have sacrificed for the security of Kurdistan. This care was vital for the health and resilience of families who rely on these defenders. Continued on note in Additional Information section....
Advocacy