United Lahu Youth Organization

Burma is home to people of more than one hundred ethnicities; each has a distinct language and culture. Before the British occupied Upper Burma in 1886, Burma was a feudal country and many ethnic people had sovereign power within their own territories. The mountainous border areas inhabited by various ethnic nationalities were largely left under the rule of their traditional chiefs. Burma has not had real peace since gaining its independence from Britain in 1948. The military coup of 1962 in Burma has led to civil war and economic crisis, which has forced thousands of civilian people to be internally displaced and made people leave for neighboring countries. Civil war began a few months after Burma gained independence and from 1962 to the present day the country has been ruled by a military dictatorship.
The rural villages’ economies are very poor, with the majority of villagers surviving on subsistence farming. The discrimination, decades of civil war and development policies based on extraction of natural resources in ethnic areas have created a major gap between urban and rural areas. Burma spends the lowest percent of GDP on education and health, with most of their budget spent on funding the military. While the military is well funded, the youth of Burma lack basic educational opportunities such as school and qualified teachers due to rising school fees in urban areas.
The Lahu are an Indigenous of Burma. The Lahu people are descended from the Yi (Lo Lo) branch of the Tibetan-Burmese and originated in South Western Yunnan, China. The majority of the Lahu people currently live in the mountains of Eastern Shan State. The Lahu live by hillside cultivation, gardening and farming.
The Lahu live under the control and suppression of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the military government of Burma. The SPDC frequently enter Lahu villages and persecute the people by killing innocent villagers, taking their property, kidnapping villagers to perform forced labour for army camps, committing sexual violence on the women and forcing migration. Widespread human rights abuses by the military, including extortion, forced labour, kidnappings, extra-judicial killing, torture, the use of child soldiers, rape, arbitrary detention, intimidation, forced relocation, land confiscations, burning villages, arbitrary taxation, exploitation and destruction of property have been documented in all ethnic areas.
For these reasons, many young Lahu people have left Burma for Thailand and the Lahu Youth Development Organization (LYDO) was set up at the Thai-Burma border on 10th October 1997. The Lahu Youth Organization (LYO) was also established by the youths in Mae Sot and at the Thai-Burma border, Mae Sot on 31st July 2004 in order to obtain safety and lost rights and with the purpose of helping others in Burma. At a meeting held on 1st May 2007, the leaders of the two organizations (LYDO and LYO) consulted and assented to transform into one organization, creating the United Lahu Youth Organization (ULYO) for more effective implementation of our programs.
Today, ULYO is a member of Adolescent Reproductive Health Networking (ARHN), Nationalities Youth Forum (NYF) and Drug and Alcohol Recovery and Education Team (DARE) as well as collaborate with other ethnic Organizations.

Labels: Historical Background

To collaborate with other Ethnic Organizations in the process of re-establishing and re-building our country until the main Federal Democratic System comes into existence and to free our Lahu communities from oppression caused by the Burmese military government, and for all-round development of Lahu people.

Labels: Aims

To empower our young people to actively contribute by way of their current and future livelihoods in order to achieve the target of development.
To make our society more economically and politically accessible, and socially just.
To improve and promote living standards, health, education, social and human rights for Lahu people.
To preserve and improve the Lahu culture, literature and customs.
To build solidarity among all Lahu people.
To implement social and relief programs to meet the needs of the Lahu people.
To achieve equality of rights and self-determination for the Lahu, and, likewise, for other ethnic nationalities.
To systematically collect and document human rights violations in Lahu areas.

Labels: Objectives

Health
The health situation of the Lahu people is poor. There are no clinics, not enough health workers and/or health services in Lahu areas. The villagers have little awareness of health prevention. Some of the villagers use opium as medicine, to help them recover in times of severe illness and pain. As a result of using opium, a number of addicts can be found in the villages.
For this reason, ULYO works with Back Pack Health Worker Team to provide health care and education training to resolve those problems. In addition to visiting the village schools and providing vitamin A, de-worming, they also teach the students about personal hygiene and the importance of cutting their fingernails etc.

Labels: Health

Labels: Education

Labels: Documentation

Labels: Social and Relief rogram

Labels: Culture and Literature

ULYO is conducting Leadership, Management Training and consultation for the community leaders and youths. We help young people who cannot continue their studies inside Burma and send them to high schools, vocational schools, post-ten programs in Mae Sot and the refugee camps.

We call and educate those who will spread their knowledge and skills back to Burma for its future development. We send some as interns to partner organizations to increase their skills and experience, after which they return to Lahu areas to work for their communities. In addition, we send people to be trained as health workers and teachers.

Labels: Capacity Building Program

ULYO communicates and collaborates with other Community Based Organizations (CBOs), NGOs, and Youth and Women’s organizations associated with our program. We are trying to find new appropriate organizations and associations that match our objectives.
We are organizing and recruiting youths inside Burma and International Lahu youths to increase ULYO's membership and the participation and involvement of Lahu communities themselves in the process of our programs. All ULYO's members remain in touch and talk with young Lahu people about our aims and activities wherever we are. Information is given not only to our Lahu people but also to other ethnic nationalities, International NGOs, Youth and Women’s organizations and scholars.

Labels: Organizing and Networking

The repressive military dictatorship in Burma, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), the Thai government, and the Energy Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) are pushing ahead quickly and secretively with plans for a series of giant dams on the Nu/ Salween/ Than Lwin River. Salween runs along the Thai- Burmese Border at least Thirteen ethnic groups, including the Shan, Karen, Karenni, Mon, Wa, Pa-o, Lahu, Padaung, Akha, Lisu and Palaung, live in traditional communities along its banks. The communities who will be forced to bear all of the negative impacts from dam construction will not receive any benefits. It has been well documented that dams in Burma are built using forced labor. Chinese purchase natural forest resources from the SPDC. Therefore, the precious natural forest resources, which used to be found abundantly in Lahu areas, are almost all gone. Moreover, wood and bamboo are cut down with no discipline; the Lahu people are forced to cut down the trees and make charcoal to increase the SPDC military’s funds. As a result, the natural forest resources are being depleted at an alarming rate. As the climate changes for the worse, herds of wild animals are being wiped out, and the lack of water for cultivation due to the construction of the Tasang dam is causing huge food problems for those living in Lahu areas. For these reasons, ULYO provides education on conservation and preservation of natural resources to the communities as much as we can. In addition, we organize the training on systematic cultivation instead of growing opium for their living.

Labels: Environment Preservation

Labels: Income Generation

· Human resources (Office staff, translators, teachers, healthcare professionals, etc.)
· Technical support (Computing, Administration, etc)
· Equipment (Medical supplies, stationary and educational materials, office equipment such as computers and computer peripherals, etc)
· Staff security (e.g. all our members are undocumented and living illegally)
· Financial support.

Labels: Requisites

Labels: Future Plans