Help Myanmar's Storytellers - Year 2

What’s happening in Myanmar? Two and a half years after a devastating coup and brutal military assault on civilian demonstrators, the once blossoming country is now gripped by conflict and economic collapse. Many journalists, protesters and dissenting workers in the military crosshairs are jailed, in hiding or in exile.

In the last year, the Kite Tales supported seven journalists and three visual artists from across Myanmar with a 12-month fellowship to share their stories.

Please help us do it again!

This is what our last group of fellows say about the project:

"Being considered a Kite Tales Fellow, I first gained self-confidence. It made me realise I would be able to continue writing as before and this has helped steady my emotional state, which was previously running out of gas.

“I can even say it is our benefactor because the grant has helped us to make ends meet at a time of great financial crisis and I am really thankful for this."

We are delighted to say that we have received a second year of funding from one of our main donors last year, Firetree Philanthropy, which means we are already more than halfway to our goal. We have already started recruiting to replace those who are moving on – and some original fellows will be staying on.

But to reach our target of 10 fellows, we need your help.

What has the Kite Tales achieved so far?

The first year of the fellowship saw us select 10 journalists and artists from a range of backgrounds and experiences – six are women, five are from minority regions.

Each fellow receives a monthly stipend to produce either written stories or the artwork to accompany the diaries. This provides a financial safety net at a time when the media industry has been crushed by the military and reporters are often in hiding, trying to support themselves and their families in the face of unemployment and economic collapse.

But it also provides an important outlet for journalists fuelled by a desire to inform the world about the situation in their country.

In diaries from across the country, fellows detail the tactics used by the military to intimidate the general population and root out critics - including house-to-house registration checks, roadblocks and arbitrary arrest.

In one recent story, a fellow recounts the agony of a family torn apart after soldiers found a picture they did not like on a mobile phone.

Others dwell on personal issues that are often absent from traditional reporting, including the psychological toll of life in the country, which is now gripped by fear and violence.

In Yangon, our fellow describes the mental anguish of continuing to work in secret and explains why she has decided to keep reporting. In another story, she recounts her terror at hearing that a close friend had been arrested.

Fellows describe the impact on their own families and on others.

One reporter recounts trying to calm her children, telling them that the artillery booms they could hear were just the harmless crash of thunder, as the family slept in the open while on the run in war-torn Kayah state.

More than a million people are internally displaced in Myanmar as fighting has turned villages into war zones. This, coupled with the collapse of the healthcare system because of a civil disobedience movement and army backlash against healthcare workers, has had a particularly devastating impact on vulnerable women and children.

In one diary, a reporter from Chin state recalls the terrifying day when his wife gave birth in a secret clinic, fearful of the soldiers prowling outside.

Meanwhile a story from our Kayah fellow, describes the heartrending struggle of a fleeing family to save their newborn twins.

Why support the Kite Tales?

The fellowships are not meant to replace traditional news reporting from Myanmar, but to add to and complement that reporting, particularly because it is now too dangerous for journalists to report freely across much of the country.

Diaries from fellows, giving their personal reflections of their own experiences or those of people close to them, allowing us a rare glimpse into life in a country where the military has barricaded themselves in with a reluctant population and again turned its weapons on its own people.

Fellows have told us that documenting their experiences and observations for The Kite Tales has helped them maintain their journalism skills and given them a sense of purpose. Some have used the funds to support family members as the economy collapses. Others have said the money helped them to steady themselves in uncertain times and to find new opportunities.