An interview with a founding member of Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar social welfare group.
September 6th, 2022
One year after the military coup, ‘Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar’ was established, a social welfare group working for IDPs, logistics, health and education in Karenni (Kayah) State. One of the founding members of the group was interviewed to learn more about their recent activities.
Q: How was Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar established?
A: Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar was founded in August last year, 2021. It was August 27th when we gave the group its name. Before that, we were just a group of founding members, each of us playing the role we could in the revolution against the military dictatorship. We did what we could. We first called the group Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar when we got in touch with each other. We started the group with six founding members.
Q: What did you do for the first anniversary? What’re you planning to do next?
A: It’s been a little over a year since we joined the revolution against the military council. In this period of more than a year, we’ve been able to accomplish a lot. Our group has also received quite a bit of publicity during this time. Therefore, our group now has about 30 members. There are almost 30 members who live and eat together. Actually, we didn’t do anything special for this year’s anniversary. This is mainly because of the current political situation. We’ll continue the work we’re doing now. We’ll continue with the revolution and carry the burden we can until the military dictatorship is removed.
Q: What’re the work activities of Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar?
A: We’re doing everything we can to help in five areas – IDPs, health, education, logistics and revolution fund – until the Spring Revolution is successful.
Q: What’s the main goal of Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar in this revolution?
A: We want to participate in this revolution with a clear conscience. We’ve not joined the revolution for financial or other benefits. Our main goal is to succeed in this revolution. That’s the only thing we’ve in mind. That’s the purpose of our group. We’ve to put our lives on the line to get rid of this dictatorship and make the revolution succeed. We’ve sacrificed our time to achieve this goal.
Q: Have the group’s activities ever been attacked?
A: We believe that the military council considers us an enemy since we joined this revolution. Therefore, we’ve to be careful. We’ve to make our moves carefully. We run the group in more of an underground fashion. Some of the revolution groups have attacked each other. And some attacked us for forming Nway Oo Guru Lay Myar, but I don’t want to be specific on that.
Sent by Maw Mi Myar (Kantarawaddy Times)