2- Day Burma Raise Awareness Event: Free Burma Alliance Benefit for Burma Children Medical Fund at the Friar's Club- October 16, 2010

Zack Michaelson and Jeremy Taylor

On Saturday, October 16th, 2010, The Free Burma Alliance held its semi-annual benefit gala at the venerable Friar’s Club on Manhattan’s Upper East Side co-organized with Network 355. The four-hour event offered many memorable moments and a unique crowd that included Burmese former political prisoners and a multinational community of activists, artists and humanitarian supporters. In attendance were Ms. Mac Maclelland, author of For Us Surrender Is Out of the Question, who was a panelist at the following day’s conference.

The evening started out with Italian hors d'oeuvre, followed by a sumptuous dinner buffet of traditional Burmese dishes. DJChkalov provided a mixture of world and contemporary music, interspersed with a live performance by violin diva Sarina, and two dance pieces created and performed by the Japanese contemporary dance trio Tonton-Byoshi. A fun raffle rounded out the evening.

In between the food and the fun, hosts Jeremy Taylor, founder of the Free Burma Alliance, and Elena Tchainikova, head of the socially conscious women's organization Network355, screened a video outlining what the fundraiser hoped to accomplish. One of their primary goals was to raise enough money for heart surgeries for four Burmese refugee children, including the critically ill 12-year-old monk, Shi Aw Ba Tha, whose congenital heart disease has impaired his growth and rendered him virtually too weak to move. The fundraiser’s goal was to raise $5,000 for each of the four medical procedures.

After watching several well-crafted short videos documenting the lives of these kids at Burma’s Mae Tao Clinic, Amnesty International's Zack Michaelson made a passionate plea for each person in the room to help one refugee child. Other speakers included Monica Min, wife of His Royal Highness Sekkya Deva Pekan Min of Burma, and the Heroes for Humanity’ US rep Tom Van Dyke, who reported on the crimes being committed by Burma's ruling military junta against the Karen people in Eastern Burma.

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