Associate Professor of Political Science, Tun Myint, co-founded Mutual Aid Myanmar (MAM), a global non-profit organization registered in the United States to raise funds and support the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) in Myanmar. After the military coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s civil servants such as nurses, doctors, teachers, professors, railway workers, and the public joined a boycott campaign against the military coup and refused to take orders to work for the coup council known as the State Administrative Council.
Global donors from over 65 countries donated to the organization. As of August 31, MAM has raised over $1 million U.S. to support CDM participants’ lost income, food, and shelter and also to help scholars at risk who fled to Thailand and neighboring countries. Several Carls who had been to Myanmar through Carleton OCS and summer research projects led by Tun Myint volunteer to help with the fundraising activities. As a part of this effort, Carleton hosted a series of Zoom seminars to share the crisis situation in Myanmar last spring and through summer.
A news report about Mutual Aid Myanmar’s fundraising efforts can be read in this report titled, “The fundraisers sustaining Myanmar’s anti-military movement.” Other Carleton faculty and clubs have participated in matching fundraising activities and donated over $2,500 to Mutual Aid Myanmar last spring term.