Dear Best Friend Members and Supporters,

We have several upcoming events in Chiang Mai to let you know about, but first we'd like to share details about a very important campaign...

As many of you know, the staff and volunteers of The Best Friend Library in Chiang Mai have worked incredibly hard over the past four years to sustain our programs with small donations and the slight profits received from selling our fundraising items. We are now ready to launch our first-ever, large-scale fundraising campaign, and we need your help to make it a success!



We firmly believe The Best Friend continues to play essential role in working for continued positive change in Burma. Not only does the large migrant and refugee population remaining in Thailand continue to depend on and benefit from our education and social welfare projects, but our libraries continue to be important centers for an increasing number of members of the international community. In addition, we are extremely excited about the potential of our new Green Training Program and library in Shan State, Burma.

The aim of our ambitious fundraising campaign is to secure the future of our programs, keep our classes, workshops, and awareness-raising events free-of-charge for all, expand our 'Compassionate Care' projects for migrants and refugees experiencing extraordinary difficulties, and build our Green Training Program. We are attempting to raise a total of $20,000 U.S. (600,000 baht). The campaign will run through the end of June 2013, and has several components, including a great new video about our projects, a gala fundraising evening in Chiang Mai, a fundraiser in Mae Sot, and an online Indiegogo campaign.
Here's how you can help...

• visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/burma-library to learn more and make a donation. Check out all of the perks that we are offering for supporters!
• purchase a ticket for our big 'Burma in the Spotlight' gala evening in Chiang Mai on 1 June
• contribute online: just visit www.paypal.com and send a donation to donate@thebestfriend.org  with a note indicating your contribution is for our Chiang Mai/Shan State campaign
• contribute in person: stop by our library in Chiang Mai any time to donate, or bring a donation to one of our upcoming events
• SPREAD THE WORD -- share the links to our Indiegogo campaign page and our new video with all of your friends and colleagues! Send an email to all of your contacts with a note about how important you believe our projects are! Start an office pool to help The Best Friend Library. Follow our Facebook page to stay up-to-date with Burma news and project updates!

In the early days of this campaign, something incredibly important that you can help us with is building momentum and raising awareness. This absolutely does not require a large financial contribution on your part -- even a small donation on our Indiegogo page shows others that we have lots of supporters who believe in our work. Sharing the links and asking your friends to learn more about The Best Friend and consider supporting us may take a few minutes of your time, but no money at all!

Every single donation, no matter the amount, will do much to encourage us and further our cause. All proceeds raised from this campaign will go directly towards helping with The Best Friend's modest operating expenses, staff salaries (all Westerners working with the library are volunteers; three staff members from Burma receive remuneration), and various 'extra' costs, such as new, high-quality learning resources for our students, new materials for our libraries' collections, and coordinating timely and informative community events.

This campaign continues for the next 44 days, and and we will be sending periodic updates about how everything is going. As of today, we have raised 2.5% of our total goal from four donors; let's work together to have that number increase to 25% from dozens of supporters in the next week! Please help!

'Surviving: Living on a Rubbish Dump', Thursday 23 May, 2–4 p.m. @ Chiang Mai University (free)

In Mae Sot, six hours south of Chiang Mai, hundreds of migrants from Burma have been surviving for years on a large rubbish dump. They have fled decades of turmoil in their own country, and now struggle in a makeshift community of their own creation with access to few services.

Fred Stockwell, founder of the small non-profit organization Eyes to Burma, will join us at Chiang Mai University to discuss what is driving these people to the dump, what is happening, and what can be done. Eyes to Burma is one of the very few organizations working directly on the dump, and has done much to gain the trust of the people living there in the past five years, including opening a community center and clinic. Come to learn more about Eyes to Burma's powerful work.

This presentation and discussion will start at 2 p.m. on Thursday 23 May at Chiang Mai University's Faculty of Social Sciences Building 4 in the First Floor Meeting Room 4107. This presentation is free and open to the public.

'Life Amidst the Rubbish: Hour-by-Hour with a Burmese Migrant Community' photography exhibition, 21 May–12 June, Pongnoi Community Art Space, Chiang Mai (free)

'Life Amidst the Rubbish' is a chronological, hour-by-hour window into the daily life of Burmese refugees living on a rubbish dump located on the outskirts of Mae Sot, Thailand, a stone's throw from the Burmese border.

There are at times more than 30 families residing there. Seemingly abandoned by the larger society, they ironically have few alternatives to living off of the material waste created by a consumer culture. Living conditions there are bleak, to say the least. Minimal access to basic needs such as healthy food and medical facilities – as well as the constant breathing of toxic fumes – is resulting in widespread illnesses, sometimes death.

The fundamental purpose of this exhibition is to cultivate awareness, of course. It is also about demonstrating the beauty, dignity, honor and diligent strength of human beings who have been rendered sociologically marginalized – existing downstream from an ever-growing, worldwide culture of capitalist consumerism.

Join photojournalist Jeffrey Warner at the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday 21 May starting at 6:45 p.m. at Pongnoi Community Art Space off Suthep Road in Chiang Mai. The exhibit will run through 12 June and is free and open to the public.

'Burma in the Spotlight: Gala Charity Dinner and Dance', Saturday 1 June, 5:30–11 p.m. @ Imperial Mae Ping Hotel, Chiang Mai

We have already shared the details about this very special gala evening in support of The Best Friend Library, which will include an expansive Burmese buffet dinner, live music, cultural performances from Burma, great door prizes, and so much more. We have been so fortunate to receive tremendous support and backing from many in the community, and we are thrilled that tickets are now 65% sold!!

If you will be in Chiang Mai on Saturday 1 June, you definitely won't want to miss this great evening! To avoid disappointment, you can purchase your tickets (850 baht each; discounts for tables of 10 for current library members) now at the following outlets:

• The Best Friend Burmese Library, 302/2 Nimmanhaemin Road, Chiang Mai
• Rimping Supermarkets in Chiang Mai (all branches, at customer service desks)
• The Imperial Mae Ping Hotel, Chiang Mai – reception desk
• Hillside Condo 4, Huay Kaew Road, Chiang Mai – reception desk

More details here, and join the Facebook Event here.
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We sincerely hope that you do not mind our asking for your assistance at this time. The simple truth is, we need your help at this time to be able to continue supporting migrants and refugees from Burma and to serve non-Burmese who are interested in learning more at our libraries and public events.

Stay tuned to www.thebestfriend.org and facebook.com/burmalibrary for all the information, and please visit our libraries often. Hope to see you soon!

Don't forget to check out www.indiegogo.com/projects/burma-library also!

Sincerely,
all of us at The Best Friend Library

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The Best Friend Library – Chiang Mai
www.thebestfriend.org • www.facebook.com/BurmaLibrary