Greetings from Chiang Mai! 

Trainings were still our primary task for the past month. We have an ongoing mentorship project with researchers from Myanmar, helping them with research and report writing. In August, we also held a five-day training for staff of community-based organizations in Mae Sot on writing skills, including writing case studies and strategies for persuasive writing. Apart from that, we will be teaching a report writing course to Humanity & Inclusion staff based in Thailand in early September. All of these trainings are remote, and we loved having the opportunity to engage with and support a diverse group of participants based around the region despite working from home!

We also conducted our second research skills webinar on the topic of research ethics! If you haven’t watched it, please follow the link here. 

Coming up next, we will be producing a research course for the Virtual Federal University, an initiative envisioned by Myanmar students taking part in the democracy movement there, and aiming to provide alternative learning to Myanmar youth during the current crisis. We are really excited to be developing this curriculum and recording audio files for Burmese students. We are also lucky to have some Karen colleagues join us to translate the contents so we can reach wider audience.    

Last but not least, we would like to officially welcome our new Research and Training Assistant staff, Ei Phyu! Ei Phyu enjoys working for community development projects, especially in the rural development sector. She believes education is the only key to bringing a better future for the people, reducing poverty and inequality, she is eager to be involved in educational development. She enjoys providing trainings the most because she loves sharing knowledge. She will be working with us for our research and training projects.  

Research questions are the questions that are set by the researchers to guide the research. It's the question that researchers want to answer with their research. Creating research questions is very important for all researchers. This article, "How to.......write a good research question", published by The Clinical Teacher journal, demonstrates how to write a good research question and discusses how it is important and worthwhile to give the time for creating good research questions.

The Burmese Studies Group of Association for Asian Studies picked the Northern Illinois University in 1986 as Burmese Studies' National Center. The conferences are held regularly, and this upcoming conference will be 14th International Burma Studies Conference. The conferences used to be held in different countries but due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak, the upcoming conference will be a virtual conference. Named "Burmavision 2021", it is free for all to attend and will be held from September 16-19. The information and program can be found here.

An update on human rights violations, both in urban and rural areas, by the military regime is captured in a briefing paper released by the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand (KWAT). Displacement has been taking place pervasively due to attacks on innocent civilians. KWAT also calls for support from outside of Myanmar to assist in humanitarian aid. 
 

The Center for People and Forests produced a synthesis report on “Contributions of community forestry to COVID-19 response and recovery in seven Asian countries”. After several conversations with local communities, the results show that community forestry can cope with the pandemic and be resilient under certain enabling conditions. Examples of forestry community provided in the report could be useful for countries that would like to prepare and recover for the pandemic.  

The Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights produced this video featuring voices of Cambodian Land Communities who are experiencing indebtedness because of microfinance and microloan debt, based on their research on the impact of microfinance and microloans. They are calling out for the right to relief because this issue is also associated with human rights violations, coerced land sales, child labor, migration, etc.  
 

Myanmar is still under the military regime where the Tatmadaw has been committing crimes against humanity. Burma Human Rights Network published a report entitled "Before our Very Eyes" analyzing the crimes of the military committed against Burmese civilians such as enforced disappearance, torture, and murder, as well as the failure of the international community to act. The report concludes with recommendations addressing different entities, including national and international actors.