Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Two hundred Londoners were dancing for Burma around historic Trafalgar Square on Sunday, launching the ‘Free to Dance’ campaign to raise funds and awareness for a new charity.

School children, teachers, students and members of dance groups donned headphones and danced to their music on their way from the London Eye landmark to Trafalgar Square to launch a new charity, ‘LearnBurma’.

LearnBurma is a project developed by teacher Ben Hammond, 33, who spent a year teaching in a refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border.

LearnBurma, which he hopes to promote with other fund raising events this year and to launch in schools in 2012, aims to educate people about the situation in Burma and build awareness and skills among young people to help promote change and freedom in Burma.

He said he hoped Free to Dance will raise £1 million to launch LearnBurma next year.

In a press release, Hammond said, ‘We really had no idea how many people would come. It was something of an experiment for us. Now we know that people really are Free to Dance, we’re looking forward to expanding on this and really building momentum’.