The difference individuals can make
by Svetlana Guineva
The Metropolitan
Cathy and Curt Bradner pedaled hard. Hunched over in some calm persistence, their gaze groped the unknown ahead, while one longtime nurtured idea was paving the road to their self-discovery.
The scenery changed like kaleidoscope pieces-Madrid, Portugal, Italy, Greece, India and Turkey, then Kenya, through cities and villages, plains and mountains, they kept moving -through overwhelming contrasts of wealth and poverty that almost discouraged them to even try to make a difference. It would have felt like a lonely drop in the ocean of human need and despair, they thought.
A charcoal painting by Nay Thit, a Burmese refugee, was one of many pieces of artwork on display at a silent auction in Downtown Denver, Nov. 13, to raise money for the Burmese Youth Project.
The destination was uncertain, but the will to do something extraordinary with their lives was there. The Bradners reached Thailand.
Back in 1998 the couple made a life-altering decision. They sold everything they owned: their house with all of their belongings and their business for building bicycle machinery, fiber optics and offering help to people in developing different products. They kept a tent, two sleeping bags and their bicycles.
"Cathy and I wanted to do something else," Bradner said with a playful smile, a prelude to the unique story he was about to tell. "Somehow we didn't feel fulfilled."
The journey started with two plane tickets to Madrid, where they rode their bicycles, determined to find another lifestyle down the road--something more substantial, he said.
Thailand offered such a possibility. While exploring the country, the Bradners met a woman simply called Dr. Cynthia. She founded a clinic on the Thai-Burmese border and devoted her time and energy to taking care of 40 Burmese orphans from 8 to 18 years of age.
Burma is an ex-British colony that gained its independence in 1948. Today, it is one of the poorest countries in the world with destroyed educational and health care systems, and an epidemic AIDS situation partly-because of the fact that Burma has become one of the world's largest heroin producers.
The country is home to over one hundred ethnic groups, each with its own culture, language and religion. The Burmese account for about 60 percent of the population. In the unbreakable pattern of post-colonial development seen in all former colonies, Burma has been through major political and economic turmoil that resulted in a military coup in March 1962. The human rights abuses are widespread and are normally directed toward the ethnic minorities. Poverty, repression, and forced relocation based on economic strategy are among the main reasons for mass exodus of refugees to the neighboring countries. There are about 1.5 million displaced Burmese; about 9 percent live in refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border primarily from the Karen, Karenni and the Mon ethnic groups. Practically speaking, the Burmese military has no problem crossing the Thai border, due to uncontrollable corruption, and continue to harass the refugees who are originally recognized as such and offered asylum by the Royal Thai Government (RTG).
After spending one month in Dr. Cynthia's clinic in 1999, the Bradners decided to start a program called The Burmese Youth Project in the Umpium Mai refugee camp located several miles away. The camp sheltered 25,000 Burmese, most of them from the Karen ethnic group. It was a vocational program meant to offer not simply aid, but an opportunity.
"After spending time in Thailand I became less political, less judgmental," Curt Bradner said. "I realized that individual people are worth supporting and encouraging because among the refugees there are people with great potential."
Using donations from friends, along with their own savings, the couple bought from Thailand a number of bicycles, $12 each and opened a shop in the camp to teach the refugees how to repair them. "It was a huge success," Bradner said and smiled.
Backed by the Boulder-based Asian Transpacific Foundation, which raised money for orphaned and disadvantaged children in Asia, the Bradners launched the Youth Development Center (YDC) project in 2001 and the Vocational Incentive Program (VIP) in 2003. The YDC began offering classes in art, sewing, pottery and photography. The most important part: the teacher were refugees themselves and were better educated and experienced, so they can share their knowledge with the rest.
Curt Bradner teaches Burmese refugees how to repair bicycles at the Umpium Mai camp. Bradner and his wife founded the Burmese Youth Project to provide opportunities for a better life and self-sufficiency.
"It proved to be a great idea," Bradner said. "It gave the refugees self-confidence and self-esteem. It helped building their community pride."
For most of the artists, this is all the education they are going to get, and it is all up to their practicing habits to master the craft. Nevertheless, some of the pieces produced in the art studio can rival the work of many who have received university training. The Bradners used the refugees' paintings for fund-raising purposes, so far with great profits for the community.
The VIP's sole purpose was to teach the refugee youth how to build a ceramic water filter facility-starting from erecting the building, to learning how to build molds, presses, kilns, and finally, learning to make a ceramic water filter. The filters were of crucial importance to the settlement, which had extremely poor sanitation in addition to the "unconventional" cleaning methods of the population.
Because of the increasing production (50 a day), water filters are "exported" to different communities across the border. Each costs $10.50 and provides clean drinking water to a family of six and it can last up to three years.
Curt Bradner kept talking with rapid gesticulation and with a constant smile on his face. With the same warmth he managed quickly to navigate through the memories of their hardships and the endless challenges of their good doing on the other side of the globe. No harsh feelings.
The night before, on Nov. 13, Sisto's Salon on Larimer Square in Downtown Denver hosted a special fund-raising event to support the Burmese Youth Project. A silent auction of refugee art and photography went on supported by friends and strangers.
While chewing the tasty Thai appetizers the guests stared at the exhibited paintings with awe-filled eyes. It made them wonder how such a raw talent was brought up to blossom with breathtaking sophistication and charisma-how the time-still life in the camp provoked such inspiration that disturbed with its cry for humanity. The foreigners, comfortably sipping wine and beer, thousands of miles away, understood-goodness planted in the human nature can do miracles.
The Bradners felt that their mission on the Thai-Burmese border was completed. They were ready to embark on a new one, to some other part of the world in need of rescue.
Some $11,000 was raised that night. Enough to buy a large number of water filters, food and clothing. Curt Bradner shook his head happily: "The feeling of satisfaction is indescribable. And again, it goes back to our motto, if you think you're too small to be effective you've never spent a night in bed with a mosquito," he continues laughing.
"Everyone is capable of what we did. All they need is courage and strength to carry on."
Images courtesy of http://www.burmeseyouthproject.homestead.com/burma.html |
