Chin churches abroad will donate over 500 lakhs worth of Burmese kyats to support the approximately 30,000 Kachin Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) created so far in the fighting between Burmese government forces and the Kachin Independence Army.
Mr. Van Lian Thang, communicating on 17 November through Laiforum, stated that Chin churches in Norway led by Mr Thawng Kam and Mrs. Dar Nawn Tial had already transferred 1,195,6500 kyats to the Kachin Baptist Convention (KBC), based in Rangoon, the former capital of Burma.
Additionally, 74,14,000 Kyats was transferred to the Kachins by Chins from Mizoram in northeast India. Other significant amounts came from Denmark’s Chin community, the Zomi Baptist Convention, the Chin Association for Christian Communication, and from the Hakha old town Block Christian Church.
“These donations are not meant to fuel a political issue, rather we are especially focused on assisting Kachin IDPs,” said a representative of Lairam Immanuel Christian Baptist Kohran from Aizawl, Mizoram.
A further amount of 16,507 Australian dollars was given to the Kachin Association of Australia (KAA) by 12 Chin churches in that country to help the Kachin IDPs.
The total amount of donations is rising. There are more donations to come from the United States of America, Sweden, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and from Malaysian Chin communities.
These funds began coming in during the last two months. Khonumthung News
