18 New Free Burma Ranger Teams Trained and Now Providing Relief

Dear friends,

Thanks for all of your encouragement and help. We just completed the training of 18 new Free Burma Ranger relief teams and we are now the first mission with them. The new teams are very enthusiastic and the training included men and women from the Karen, Kachin, Karenni, Shan and Chin ethnic groups. With the addition of these 18 new teams, there are now 43 FBR humanitarian relief teams in the field providing assistance to the displaced in Burma. The training was completed in three phases. The first starting in April for the new FBR medics, the second starting in September for all members of the new teams and the third starting in October for the new teams as well as 14 advanced medics. The training was completed on 7 December 2007. The courses that the new teams completed were as follows:

• Ethnic Unity

• Leadership Principles

• Medical Training and Reporting

• Delivery and simple Surgery

• Dental Training

• Human Rights Violations Recording and Reporting

• Video and Digital Photography

• Map Reading

• Compass Reading

• Land Navigation

• GPS (Global Positioning System) use

• Landmine Removal

• Swimming, Boat operations and Lifesaving

• Solar Power and Battery Management

• Operation Order Writing

• Information gathering, analysis and reporting

• General Reporting

• Counseling and Good Life Club Operations

• Media and Communications

• History of Ethnic Nationalities and Current Events

• Two Field Training Exercises

• Physical Training

• Rappelling

• Rope Bridge Building

• Radio Communications

• Early Warning System for Villagers and IDPs

• Law of War and Geneva Conventions

• Mule Packing

• Introduction to Genocide Intervention: Sudan Case Study

• Roles of CBOs, NGOs, national and international organizations

We are grateful for all the help we received, including instructors from the Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP), the Kachin National Organization (KNO), the Women’s League of Chinland and the Chin National Front (CNF), the Restoration Council of the Shan State (RCSS), the National Democratic Front.(NDF), Committee for Internally Displaced People (CIDKP), Karen Office for Relief and Development (KORD), Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), and Partners Relief and Development (PRAD). We are grateful too for all of you helped make this training and the sending of new teams possible.

May God bless you, The Free Burma Rangers Karen State, Burma