Mar 23, 2021 | Non categorizzato
Despite the violent clashes in Myanmar, through the work of the “Drop after Drop” (Goccia dopo Goccia) association, the Focolare community continues to bear witness to universal fraternity during a time of pandemic and revolution. Here is the account of the journey undertaken by the focolarini in that area at the beginning of March. (All activities were carried out in accordance with the Covid regulations in the country) Myanmar is still living through a revolution that began last February on the 22nd of the month: it is called ‘22222’. This country, made up of different ethnic groups and rich in natural beauty and raw materials, experienced the longest civil war in human history from 1947 to 2010. Among the various revolutions that have occured in the past, there was the one that took place on 8 August 1988 called ‘8888’, resulting in thousands of deaths and another in 2007, known as the ‘saffron-coloured’ revolution because of the large number of Buddhist monks who began the protest and lost their lives. During the clashes in 1988, thousands of people began to migrate towards the border with Thailand, to the province of Tak, to the town of Mae Sot, then in Mae Hong Song, and even further south, towards Kanchanaburi. Today, 32 years later, nine refugee camps are still active: millions of Burmese people who are working in Thailand are living in them. 
The focolarini who have been in the area since 1988 have begun to help many young people who they first met a few years ago in Rangoon and Bassein. “Our contact with them,” says Luigi Butori, a focolarino who lives in Ho Chi Min in Vietnam and who has been travelling in those areas for years, “went on until Father Justine Lewin, a priest linked to the Focolare Movement, arrived in Mae Sot. He helped these people who lived not only in the refugee camps, like the most famous one in Mae La with 50,000 people, but also scattered across the countryside, often close to the factories where they worked, or in the cornfields close to the town of Mae Sot. About twenty years ago we started small projects in the Mae La camp and gradually in the town of Mae Sot. The goal was to feed and clothe the people.” Beginning in 2011, a bridge of solidarity has gradually been built between Italy and Mae Sot. The Focolare community in Latina in central Italy and some students taught by Maria Grazia Fabietti, began to help the children and adults living on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Luigi explains, “One of our Italian friends, Paolo Magli was celebrating his 50th birthday and rather than receive lots of presents, he asked for money to help these Karen ethnic groups (a population that fled Burma during the conflicts and has been forced to live as refugees on the border between Myanmar and Thailand for years, some in the Mae La refugee camp and even more in the area outside it.) This was the beginning of “Drop after Drop”. Today, this project helps more than 3300 people in three countries in South East Asia and also collaborates with the Charis association in Singapore to bring help to those affected by poverty, loneliness, disease and even the pandemic. Areas of Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar give us the ‘possibility to love concretely’: there are people there who know the spirit of universal fraternity and today do everything to help those who are excluded, marginalized, rejected, sick and alone.” “Drop after Drop” helps everyone, people from many different ethnic groups – Karen, Bama, Kachin, Thai Yai, and Xtieng and Hmong people in Vietnam. The project also assists Muslims in need who are in contact with the focolare in Bangkok. At the beginning of March, the focolarini went to Mae Sot with a van loaded with food, clothes, toys and much more, as shown in the video you can see below. (The intiative was carried out in accordance with the covid rules in the country). Donations came from Muslims, Buddhists, Christians and many people in contact with the Focolare Movement. Luigi said, “Everyone is our brother or sister. We want to live out in our own situation one of the most beautiful reflections written many years ago by Chiara Lubich, the founder of the Focolare: ‘Lord, give me everyone who is lonely: I have felt in my heart the passion for all of the forsakeness in which the whole world is drifting.’* The latest project born helps six abandoned mothers and their fifteen children in Mae Sot. We have sent two sewing machines and 15 kg of cotton fabric which can be cut and sewn to make shirts, skirts and trousers for whoever needs them. It is a joy and a celebration to see how people help each other. Universal fraternity is a reality that takes hold, day after day, and “Drop after Drop” represents just that.”
Lorenzo Russo
https://youtu.be/xv5W3hxZInc * Reflection: “Lord give me everyone who is lonely” by Chiara Lubich – September 1949
Jul 31, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
Ever since I began my experience in the focolare in Thailand in 1984 I’ve been in ongoing contact with the poor. In 1985, when we took our first trip to Burma – now Myanmar – I was able to touch the extreme poverty with my own hands; up until then I would never have had the opportunity to see it in person. Then, because the civil war in 1988, refugees began arriving from Thailand, especially in the border regions. Their condition? Illness, lonliness, desperation, exploitation and a great longing for a real life. For us focolarini, they represented a face of Jesus crucified and forsaken who we tried to lift up and love. Over these 32 years our help has surely been insufficient, as one can see from the recent humanitariann distaster that isn’t receiving a lot of reporting. No one is ever prepared for the pain of seeing people die. We’ve taken over a projejct begun by Father Justine, Burmese, who died after a long illness. He provided care for the children of migrants who were being left alone at home all day, and so we gave the last monies we had to be able to provide them hospitality. Now the school is called “Drop By Drop, the Latina Bridge Mae Sot.” It’s a collaborative effort between our children in Mae Sot that are originally Birmian and Karen and her friends from a school in Latina, Italy where several Focolare members work. It’s a bridge of solidarity which connects the two cities that are 10,000 km apart, and it has now involved some hundred poeple from many other places. A multi-national transport company helps us to take the containers of collected goods, paying all the customs and clearance fees (€ 1000) to their destination in Mae Sot on the mountains of Thailand. 
Currently, through Father Joachim from Myanmar, we are helping 200 people who are outside official refugee camps, undocumented and often without food. As Pope Francis puts it, we are experiencing what it means to “touch the flesh of Christ,” one of the many faces of Jesus Forsaken. Besides food, there is great need of love, warmth and affectioin… Chiara Lubich and our spirituality urge us to ‘make ourselves one’ with everyone. One of them said to us: ‘Thank you for everything you get for us,, but especially for making us feel loved. This gives us hope to live.’ There’s an association made up of some friends from Poschiavo in Switzerland, which has been recognized by the government and finances projects that are underway in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Six years later it seems like a real miracle! The projects in Vietnam are located in the southern zone, towards the Mekong Delta, in a parish. We build and repair small houses, wells with potable water; and we build bridges that are very useful for communication among the small islands.The so-called monkey bridges, constructed with bamboo stems are substituted with bridges made for humans with iron and cement. Now we’ve begun to work in the mountains too, in central Vietnam, in the zone of Gia Lai, which was known for the battles during the war. The Church is very involved in that zone and the poverty level has really reached levels of high concern in the mountain villages, especially among ethnic populations. In Laos we provide assistance for children through priests who have spent time at the priest school in Taygayta, Philippines. The help is sustained by genuine friendship, much creativity and a willingness to work. Love is like a bridge that joins everyone in a common dream: to live universal brotherhood concretely. Our budget? Free donations from many ordinary and also poor people. We feel that if God wants this project to carry on, he’ll provide for it. Luigi Butori Website: www.gocciadopogoccia.ch Facebook page
Jan 13, 2017 | Focolare Worldwide
One of my acquaintances, years ago said: “wherever there are the poor, money also abounds.” I was young then and didn’t believe in those words: after 26 years in Asia, I realised to my dismay, that this is true also in Mae Sot. Notwithstanding any type of sustainable development or minimum respect for man and nature, paths are paved, and projects are springing up to bring the big industries, relocating them from where they find difficulty in being productive or are kicked out because it is illicit and dangerous for people’s health. All this is because there is a “work force” at low cost, very low, if not at zero cost; and on the other hand, there are the very wealthy people, ready to exploit the situation. The poor cross the border from Myanmar to Thailand, to escape from hunger and the discomforts of a country that is still struggling to reach social equality and protect the less fortunate classes or those of other religions. People are continuously expelled at the checkpoint and there are shooting incidents, with the children bearing the brunt of it all. There is a growing number of orphans, disabled and abandoned children, or those left alone at home while their parents are at work in the plantations. It is really sad to see children suffering! And Mae Sot is full of them. This is why we are trying to do something for them through our project. Every time we go to that area, we find our “special spots”: the orphanages, isolated homes in the countryside, and our little school Goccia dopo Goccia (Drop by Drop) with about 60 students: the places where you see so many of those kids with big black eyes that mark your soul indelibly. Our project is now in its 6th year (even if we have been helping the Karen people for decades) and reaches about 250 people in three countries (Thailand, Laos and Vietnam). All are direct and concrete micro projects for families often living below the minimum subsistence threshold. Their needs? Certainly food, clothes, but above all, love which means care, a smile, a bit of attention, in short: someone who says “how are you?” That means meeting people who know how to share the sufferings of a migrant population that is worth very little in the eyes of the rich, and is thus exploited. This is what we are trying to do: helping them, staying by their side, and giving relief, hope and warmth. Through our local contact person our aid reaches them monthly. Every three months we do the rounds of our projects, visiting them to make them feel that they have not been abandoned. They often say, “The fact that you travel so far to come and visit, gives us the strength and determination to go on living.” Those black eyes and unsmiling faces say more than a thousand words. They remind us of the works of Chiara Lubich who inspired our project: “Bring to me all the lonely people.” And we feel that these lonely people are all “ours” because they are images of the face of Jesus who continues to cry out on the Cross asking for all the love we can give. This is the sense of our project, but even more, it is our intimate joy. By: Luigi Butori For those who wish to join in the project: Banca Cantonale dei Grigioni, 7002 Coira IBAN-Nr: CH19 0077 4010 2957 6490 0 Goccia dopo Goccia Residenza Ragazzi 196a CH 7742 Poschiavo, Svizzera e mail: gica.ceccarelli@bluewin.ch oppure gocciadopogoccia.ms@gmail.com Association recognised by the tax administration of the Grigione district. Donations can be detracted from taxes..
Jan 22, 2015 | Non categorizzato
Video of the recent trip to Mae Sot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_jVpNjD1-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ye7Au–vIc&feature=youtu.be It all began with a simple snack thrown into a rubbish bin and the surprise of the children who discovered that there are people who do not even have anything to eat: “Teacher, what are poor children?” they asked. This was how, in 2013 the students of the kindergarten and first grade of the primary school “G. Giuliano” in Latina managed to gather a truckload of goods to send to their peers in the Mae Sot Orphanage, in the north of Thailand . Then in April 2014, other 30 boxes full of toys were sent. Those who built this bridge are children: the school children of Latina and those of Mae Sot. The bridge will endure and will not break! Also read: Thailand calls and Latina reaches out From Latina to Thailand, a dream comes true
Oct 13, 2015 | Focolare Worldwide
“It’s early morning, following a night of rain on the border between Thailand and Myanmar. Our breakfast consists of a hard-boiled egg and coffee. It’s the beginning of our adventure: four days in Mae Sot with a priest who works for refugees, the least of the least, the ones who don’t get into the official United Nations camps, the ones nobody cares for and who are often unpaid by those for whom they do a week’s work. They’re undocumented and don’ts have the power to protest, because nobody will defend them. Many of them have spent many years in the forests, and finally they can come out. Living amongst the walls and tunnels of factories and makeshift huts, it’s a miracle they’re still alive. Nobody talks about them, and nobody knows about their situation, but everyone knows that they’re worth their weight in gold, a low-cost work force of people ready to work for small salaries, just enough to live on. It’s why Mae-Sot will become such a special economic zone with many industries. We want to be here for at least a few of them. We’ve begun a project that helps the children in a school that didn’t exist too long ago, if not in the dreams of the children of Latina, Italy, and the refugee peers in Mae-Sot. 
Now, the school does exist and it’s named is “Drop by Drop”. It’s an unlikely pairing between Latina and the mire of Mae-Sot: injustice, illness, rape, abuse, and so on. Some do well, and some thank God that they are still alive in the morning. . . and at night! Like one of the children at the school. I ask his mother: “What is your son’s name?” “Chit Yin Htoo,” she tells me. It means: “If you love me answer me.” “Did you give him the name when he was born?” I ask. “Maybe 3 or 4 years ago, maybe 5 or 6.” At this point I stop and am unable to go on writing. I can only pray that I don’t cry in front of this mother. How can this be? This project was a “loving folly“’ that only the mind of a child could dream up. And that’s what love is, it makes the desert flower, it spurs you to do the impossible, and it makes you glad! We adults follow these children with fear and trembling and respect, I would say: “Their angels gaze upon the Father in Heaven.” When I’m with “If you love me, answer me” I find it hard to make him smile. He’s shy and reserved. Only after much time am I able to take him in my arms: 6 years old, or perhaps 5. . . nobody is really sure . . . fragile and light as a feather. What have his small eyes seen? With a faint voice he’s just able to whisper a message. We distribute food, milk and especially puppets and toys: lanterns, then clothes that make everyone happy. “We don’t have enough for everyone, but let’s ask for a miracle,” I suggest. Let’s try to love one another and take care of each other as we do of ourselves.” Their eyes brighten when they see the football and football uniforms that have been given by a Football Academy of Priverno, Italy. So much love arrives, and the children are gladdened because they feel the love. It changes their sad eyes. The school doesn’t have actual walls: slightly damaged blackboards. The teachers are volunteers who are only able to be paid a monthly salary of 50 €. Then there is the net and the toilets. . . I feel that I am inside a sanctuary of love, the kind of cathedral that Pope Francis would like. Years ago, I made a vow – that this would be my people and I would never abandon them. In front of this school, this “Drop of love” in the ocean of evil that surrounds us, I renew that vow.” Luigi Butori https://vimeo.com/140934325
