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Glen Stephens The Biggest Stamp Dealer in the Southern Hemisphere

 
 Stamp collectors rally to assist Burma Cyclone survivors


 By Glen Stephens
 
 

Please circulate this page to your friends and associates -  www.glenstephens.com/burma -  the more people that see the plight of these poor folks, the more will donate something to ease the immediate disaster they face.

This was Nyi’s update after his first foray into the devastated Irrawaddy Delta region with our donations, boating in masses of practical aid as he outlines:

https://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?t=6174&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=50

 

Stamp collectors are a remarkably friendly and generous bunch of people,  and they showed it tangibly this month.

Cyclone Nargis unleashed itself on lower Burma in May, and the Military junta offered no warning to citizens of its approach.

Loss of life and homes was thus enormous, and the UN estimates that up to a million people might have been left homeless because of it and countless numbers died.

"Stamp News" readers will have read of the extraordinary stance of the Military Junta, to refuse to allow most foreign medical and Emergency aid workers in.  Insisting on distributing any donated aid themselves.

Reports have made clear a good deal of this was then purloined by the military, and sold on the black market to starving citizens.

Aid agencies reported that despite a willingness to assist, visas were being denied for key staffers, and getting in Emergency aid and foodstuffs was a nightmare project.

I have a very soft spot for Burma and the gentle Burmese people.  I’ve travelled around it twice – mostly recently this January, and spent New Year’s Eve there.  

First time I visited was in 2006, and I toured the country with a superb local guide called Nyi.  He speaks absolutely perfect English, and even has all the vernacular and phrases down perfectly.

I engaged him for my recent trip, and again he toured the country with us from north to south.  A lovely quiet, caring guy, who has entered the Buddhist priesthood several time in his life, as is often the case with devout Burmese.

I kept in touch with him by email, and have referred many others tourists to use his services.

When the cyclone hit I got word he was safe, but his home was badly damaged, and his village was also a mess .. as indeed was most of the surrounding area.


Some of the 1000's of candles we brought in.

Most folks in the west are willing to help in such sad emergencies, but for this one WHO to donate to was the big issue, as urgent help was needed NOW, not in a month.

And donating $25 to some large agencies might mean only $5 or $10 actually arrives - the balance being swallowed up in fees, logistics, and often their vast bureaucracy.

 

 The Grand Idea
 

We had an idea on stampboards.com to raise a few $100 and get it across to Nyi to assist his family and his neighbours.  Every last cent of it.

The members of stampboards.com rallied to the cause, and very soon an array of donated stamps were being auctioned off there.  Members were being good natured, and paying strong prices for them, knowing 100% of the proceeds were going to the BURMA FUND.


Our first 14 sacks of rice                                            Feeding some of the 1500 people       

Very soon we had our few $100, and within a day or so $US1,000 in my account which I transferred to Nyi.  Then another $US1,000 was transferred, and by May 20 we were up to $US5,000 and still going strong.

This overwhelming support made me very proud to be a member of that small but very generous stamp Community.

Stamp collectors were succeeding where many large governments could not.  We had donated from SIX continents by mid May.

We had our team on the ground there distributing desperately needed food and lighting via 1000s of purchased candles, as all power was off there.

On May 18 Nyi organised a mass food serving using some of our monies, and fed 1,500 people with rice and curry.  May not sound too appetising to us, but that is a normal meal choice there even in good times.

He and friends organised huge vats and cauldrons to cook it all in ... photos nearby.


 

The torrential rain has continued since the Cyclone, and a week after the first, it was feared a second cyclone was headed their way.

This emergency aid is not a one week wonder. The Junta seems to care little about its population, nor in restoring food supply and power or essential services.  It appears to be moving at snail’s pace on all those fronts.

Stampboards.com continues the fund raising, and we hope to reach $10,000 - so as to support the 150 people in Nyi’s immediate area for the near future.  The board is updated regularly on his work, with photos and input.  We had raised $5,000 in a week.

 

HOW to donate
 

Donate any way you wish.  Buy valuable donated philatelic material being offered by folks on stampboards here –  www.aghese.notlong.com

  - or donate some yourself as Mr Boggler did from his Melbourne stamp store, with a box of junk that raised $1,000 …. 5 members shared it!  -  www.royuox.notlong.com

Paypal me a donation in any currency to “BURMA FUND” at  glen@glenstephens.com or mail me a cheque in my name, or do a bank transfer to Westpac Northbridge – NSW, in name Glen Stephens  -  BSB is 032199 -  Account - 824096  or I can debit your credit card.  No fees are deducted – it all goes to Nyi in Burma.  Ideally $25 minimum if you can please.

Pledge a donation on this long multi page thread - www.viebe.notlong.com or choose to be anonymous – your choice entirely. 

“Stamp News” have been most generous donors by forwarding monies from all new 1 year subscriptions taken via the stampboards offer.  And also donating this space to greatly widen the appeal.  Kevin Morgan donated 100 kilograms of kiloware, and all buyers of that have had their purchase price donated 100% to the Fund.

My thanks on behalf of my Burmese friends to all those who have generously contributed.  Ongoing help is needed and readers of this hopefully can add to the tally, and get us to that magic $10,000 mark very soon!

Glen Stephens

  
 

 

 

My thanks on behalf of my Burmese friends to all those who have generously contributed.  Ongoing help is needed and readers of this hopefully can add to the tally, and get us to that magic $10,000 mark very soon!

Glen Stephens

  

 

Heart wrenching photos below from Rangoon
May 20th are below

 

 

  

 

 

  The rice shown above is what the government is distributing to the starving survivors as “Food Aid” - Spot the weevils.  

 

 

 

 

 

Living in schools and queing for food.

  

 

 

The rice shown above is what the government is distributing to the starving survivors as “Food Aid” today.  Farmers would not feed their pigs or cattle such mouldy, congealed, maggot ridden smelly muck - but thankfully our livestock do not live in Burma.  The aid our friend Nyi and his helpers buys with our donations is top quality clean white rice as per the photos of the sacks above he bought.  

Please circulate this page to your friends and associates -  www.glenstephens.com/burma -  the more people that see the plight of these poor folks, the more will donate something to ease the immediate disaster they face.

 

 

  Dear Friends,

Here is some more photos from my previous trip to Delta Region ( 24-27 May 08)
Pictures were taken by my friends.
(1) Nyi gave slippers to kids
(2) Nyi and Kyu were giving Plastic Sheet to a villager
(3) Rice and other things were given

 		  


 

 


  And this is his early June update re his June 4 Aid Expedition:  
  From: Nyi
Sent: Friday, 30 May 2008 11:23 PM

Subject: My 2nd trip to delta

Dear Friends,

I am preparing for my 2nd trip to remote delta villages .Very few
relief workers reached there so they badly need help from donors and
NGOs. I have to go by car ( 5 hr) to Bogalay then take a 1 1/2 hr boat
trip to cross the river (branch of Irrawaddy) to get to Maw Kyun.
In the next day, I have to go by boat along the river towards the sea.
It takes approximately 3 to 4 hours. This time I bring rice,
beans,salt,cooking oil, temporary roofing materials , soaps,hand saws
, hammers, radios ,dried meat ( tin foods) ,torch,medicine. etc.
Obviously ,I buy another camera so I can send you better photos than last
time.

I plan to go there on Wednesday (4th June.08 ).I'll be staying there
for 2 nights & back to Yangon on 6th. Now I am busy with arranging
for this trip.
I keep in touch.

Regards,
Nyi

 		  


 

 

And this was Nyi’s June 2 update – accounting for expenses so far -  he has spent near all we have raised, so your ongoing support is needed please.

 

Glen and Margaret,

Thanks again to your stamps friends for sending money. I spent the money as follow:

Date Purpose Detail Place
Amount (US$)

12.5.08 Supply locals Rice/Candles/ Yangon $550

17.5.08 Feed locals Rice/Curry Yangon
$1000

24.5.08 Supply victims Rice/Oil/Candles Delta $3000
Roofing/Medicine/
Slippers/Onions
Salts/Coffee Mix

1.6.08 Buy a new camera as per your kind offer
$200

4.6.08 Supply Victims Rice/Bean/Oil/Salt Delta
$3500 Appx
Roofing/Torch/
Cooking Pots/Hummer/
Hand Saw/Medicine etc

Regards,

Nyi
 

 

  

 

 


Dear All,

I and my wife just arrived this evening back from our adventurous trip
from Delta Villages. What I see and what I feel are as follow;

VERY SAD

Entire 21 miles long road from Phyarpon to Bogalay, refugees were
line up from both sides of the road - hoping to received anything from
the well wisher who might want to drop thing for them from their motor
vehicles.

Even it was 22 days after the storm, ALL RIVERS IN DELTA ARE STILL
SMELLING . Dead rotten bodies of cattle were still floating on the
water in some area . Human bodies were taken into the sea but some
bodies can still be seen along the river side. No one tried to buried
them.

Survivors at the remote villages received no effective help from
anybody or any organization. Hard to believe it but it is true. Their
life are just like people in Stone Age. They lived by eating some rice
discovered under water .

Some rice sacks appeared when water flowed
down from the ground. They received some rice from some private
donors. But amount they received were very few. They were waiting for
help from Government ,INGO ,NGO and Private Individual Donor.

VERY DELIGHTED

I have been to some very remote villages near Maw Gyun .

Village names are Gantgaw, Ngwe Thazin, Hlaing Bone

I was able to supplied them for about 7 days rations for 1000 village
people. The goods I brought with me were ;

(1) 52 sacks of rice
(2) 2 sacks of onion
(3) 1 tank of cooking oil
(4) 200 package of candles ( 1200 sticks)
(5) 400 pieces of soap
(6) Fish paste
(7) 500 meter of rain proof sheets for temporary roof .
(8 ) 2 sacks of salt
(9) 200 lighters
(10) cereal and ready made coffee mix
(11) 200 plastic plates
(12) 200 pieces of spoon
(13) 200 pair of slipper for kids
(14) sweets and balloon for children
(15) Vitamin ,Dehydrate Salt , Antibiotic and some other medicine

My friend also bought and gave me 2 big package of used clothing to
give poor villagers.

I sent all of the items by ship 1 days in advance to my friend in
delta town ( I have many good friends domestic and worldwide ).

A well organized volunteer team helped me to go deliver these thing
direct in to the hand of cyclone survivors.

Villagers were extremely glad to receive the foods and other things .

I WAS VERY DELIGHTED TO SEE THEM HAPPY.

I CAN NOT DO THIS WITHOUT SUPPORT FROM ALL OF YOU.

This is all for now. I will send you some photos.

Regards,
Nyi and Kyu

 

 

From: Nyi
Sent: Friday, 20 June 2008 1:49 PM
Glen Stephens

Subject: Nyi 's Photos

Dear Friends,

I am back from a delta village again. This time I have delivered the
following supply to the victims ;

- 75 cooking pots
- 80 piece of plastic sheets
-100 ready made fish phase boxes
-85 package of bean
- 75 pieces of toys , 90 balloons , 60 pieces of bread , 4 package of
candies ( for kids)
-100 gas matches
- 100 package of candles
- 80 package of salts
-15 sacks of Rice
- 85 bottles of cooking oil

Not many donors ( privates or government ) have reached their village
.Very few did .

They are very happy when we arrived there with supplies. ( see photos )

Your donation fund is now completely running out.

Thank you and best wishes,

Nyi

     
                                                           Food packs                                        Queuing for cooking pots  
 

Two kids eating the bread they just received from Nyi with our donations.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



                                      Children waiting for food

    
      ( 1 ) villagers line up to receive supply
( 2 ) Big smile after receiving aid
( 3 ) Too old but never surrender		  
         

 

         
   
 

Dear Glen, and Friends     (Latest images above)

I arrived back to Yangon from my donation trip in delta region yesterday. ( 6th July 2008 )

My trip was successful. We have provided supplies to 1000 people ( 200
families ) in 3 villages in Mawgyun township.

The items we delivered were :

(A) 50 sacks of rice
(B) Cooking Oil 1 Drum
(C) Salt 1 sack
(D) Plastic Roofing Sheet ( 4 rolls or 400 meters )
(E) 200 cooking pots
(F) 3 Sacks of Beans
(G) Snacks and Toys for Kids
(H) 3 Portable Radios
( I ) Reading Materials ( News Papers and Journals ,Magazines etc)
( J) Candles ( 200 packages )

Here are some of the photos I took during the donation trip at their
villages.

We went there by overnight public boat and on the way back, we crossed the
river by small boat and then drive back to Yangon.

We are safe and everything is OK again.

With best wishes,

Nyi and Kyu

Yangon/ Myanmar
 

 

Sent: Thursday, 10 July 2008 9:12 PM

Subject: Nyi is away from home for 10 days

 

Dear Glen and friends,

I will be a monk for 10 days (from 11 to 21 July 08).

I originally planned to join Holy Order on my 40th birthday in May 14, but has been postpone due to amount of works to help cyclone victims .

Now I have successfully provided good amount of supplies, aid and assistance to the cyclone survivors in many remote villages at delta

region in Myanmar.  These donations are all from you.

When I come back from monkhood, I will go down to Delta or Orphanage to make one final donation.  This is funded from Glen Stephens from

Australia and his stamp friends.

Thank you for your kind support during stormy time in Myanmar.

God will bless you.

With best wishes,

Nyi

  

 

 

From: Nyi
Sent: Tuesday, 22 July 2008 8:59 PM
To: Alice Glen Stephens
Subject: Nyi is home

Dear Friends,

Being a monk for 10 days, finally I go back to normal layman's life again
today.

My days at the monastery was great and very peaceful.

I have fully recharged my mental battery.

Here are some of my photos.

With best wishes,

Nyi
 

  

 

    Feeding 600 orphans / photos  

  Nyi, My Mother , My Wife and My Son   kids having their lunch in the dining hall hungry girls with Thanakha(local make up) in their face

 

 
 

© Copyright Waiver - PERMISSION is freely granted to distribute this text above,  all or in part, to whomever you feel might like to receive it.  The wider the circulation, the stronger the result with fund-raising.  All photos linked to in it are free to be reproduced in total, or in part, by anyone who wishes to.       Glen Stephens

  

 

July 2008 "Coin and Banknote" magazine full page.

 

 

These 2 pages are exactly as they will appear in the June 2008 “Stamp News” magazine.

  They are on the premium news pages 6 and 7. My sincere thanks to them for this VERY valuable donation of space to publicise and support this cause, which will bring it to the attention of thousands of collectors and dealers worldwide.  

 

Photo of our school

Photo of our school
 

From: Ko Nyi Nyi [mailto:nyi123@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, 30 October 2008 10:34 PM
To:
Subject: Donation for school

Dear Friends,

The school in the attached picture  located near my house  where  my
sons are attending has been badly damaged by Nagis cyclone in May .

School received some money from government so most of the worst hit
school buildings have been repaired but fund is not enough .We need
one more school building to repair .Safety situation of this school
building is very bad now.

All kind of donation for that school renovation is welcome and highly
appreciated.

Thank you very much for all  donation you have made for our people
during and post cyclone period in May and June.

With best regards,
Nyi
 

  



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Also Member - Philatelic Traders' Society.  (London)  ANDA.  (Melbourne)  American Philatelic Society, etc


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