WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

You, your friends, family, trade union group, community and/or school organisation can participate in, or initiate public awareness programmes – not just focusing on Aung San Suu Kyi’s imprisonment – but also the wider issues of lack of democracy and lack of educational opportunities for generations of Burmese.

Email the UN by logging on to: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/un.html enter your name and a valid email address, then press submit and your message will be sent to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the five permanent security council members.

Organise awareness raising or fundraising events about Burma?  Use the links for resources including DVDs in which students, former political prisoners and Aung San Suu Kyi herself explains the political situation in Burma and what you can do.

Raise the £4,000 needed to provide the fees, living costs and expenses for one student to go to university for a year in Asia or help us support the Burmese Teacher Training Programme in Chiang Mai.

To find out more contact: burmatrust@fastmail.fm

BEST: Burma Education Scholarship Trust Scotland - Supplementary Scholarship Programme

BEST, the Burma Educational Scholarship Trust, Scotland was set up as a charity registered in Scotland in 2003, to address primarily - but not exclusively - the needs of Burmese refugee students whose hopes and dreams of higher education have been disrupted due to ongoing political instability inside Burma.

The main purpose of this programme is to support, working with likeminded organisations, disadvantaged students from the diverse communities living inside and outside Burma, to achieve their academic goals, equipping them with skills required for a peaceful reconciliation and transformation of Burma.

Grants are awarded on the basis of academic record; applicant’s long-term goals; and financial need. Specifically, grants are given to students who meet the programme criteria, and who have demonstrated a willingness and commitment to use their academic knowledge to work on an ongoing basis for the democratic, social and economic rebirth of Burma, by whatever means they can.

Most other major scholarship organisations want applicants to their programmes to have at least an element of ‘matched funding’ which can be anything 'from10% up to 50%'. This can often put off potential students applying anywhere at all if they have no access to other funds.

This is where BEST can help, with a supplementary grant of $600 towards your total costs:

For example, your course/living expenses come to a total of $6000 dollars and you have a confirmed place at University for the year 2007/8.

You should have also applied directly to Prospect Burma/Open Society Institute or any other similar funders for a grant, and you must tell them that you have also applied to BEST.

If you meet our criteria and if you are approved by another funder for the total requested, BEST can contribute $600 of this total. It is important that you inform BEST and other funders that you have applied to BEST as we can then liaise directly with them, when they consider your application.

The BEST programme has been designed to provide a source of additional supplementary funds, to students who are enrolled in academic programmes at accredited colleges, universities, and community colleges leading to a degree (BA, MA, PhD, etc). Unless you have applied to other donors and are successful in securing or have access to other funds, BEST will be unable to offer any supplementary support. This current programme provides $600 supplementary funding for up to one year of study.  Students who receive funding for the 2006/2007 academic year must reapply for subsequent years.