Emergency Funding for ChuChu Tragedy

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR KINDNESS and GENEROSITY! We shall pause the fundraiser for now while waiting for the opportunity to move forward on rebuilding. Hope exists when we boldly walk across demographic and regional bridges to help each other. On behalf of Wendy and the ChuChu team, thank you for taking those meaningful, impactful steps.

This GoFundMe is to help ChuChu founder Wendy Neampui and the ChuChu team to get back on their feet after a devastating fire destroyed their workshop and Wendy's home. Funding will pay for the community and fire department fees as well as the restoration cleanup of the ChuChu land. Wendy and her extended family of five are staying with cofounder Sen Sen and her large family, but this is only a temporary solution. A nearby empty house is available, and with GoFundMe support, it can be fixed and upgraded into a liveable home for Wendy's clan.

Hi, my name is Hanna Karin, and from 2018-2020 I worked in Myanmar as a Cuso International Design Advisor for ChuChu. I was treated like family and mentored in the fascinating art of creating treasure from trash. This incredible experience became the catalyst for developing my current multi-venue exhibition, Art For Change.

ChuChu is a small social enterprise that educates the public about upcycling and recycling and provides training in creating colorful bins, bags and more from trash. Wendy is the manager. She designs and sews ChuChu products, and trains marginalized women in material preparation and production. Those who are successful in their studies work from home, developing their own teams that source and prepare discarded materials for sewing and weaving. ChuChu then sells the finished products.

Like the products, the ChuChu workshop was made from discarded materials: tires, boat wood, glass and plastic bottles. By 2019 the ChuChu workshop was a popular tourist destination, gaining international exposure and generating income for the ChuChu teams and the surrounding impoverished community of Dala. In 2021, the military coup turned the cascade of tourists into barely a trickle, but Wendy never gave up.

In fact, on August 26, she was busy sewing in the ChuChu workshop when a fire started in her adjoining home. No one was in the home, and Wendy escaped unscathed, but despite community efforts, the fire destroyed both buildings.

It is too soon and traumatic for 70-year-old Wendy to contemplate rebuilding the ChuChu building, particularly amid the ongoing civil war, which has resulted in a life-threatening environment, a collapsed economy, a virtually nonexistent healthcare system, and rampant food shortages and inflation. But she is adamant the vital work of ChuChu will continue. Wendy and her cofounders, Sen Sen and Freidor Jeske continue to evolve their successful green initiative, waiting for the right time to rebuild the ChuChu workshop building.

As is customary, when a building fire happens in Myanmar, a family member is arrested: in this case, it was Wendy's son, Lamh Thang. He is awaiting trial, where it will be determined how much money the family will pay. The cleanup and possible rebuilding can only begin once funds have been paid to the judicial system.

ChuChu has had a lasting impact on so many individuals and organizations that a group of us has put together enough funds (we hope) to secure Lamh Thang's freedom. (Lamh Thang is not only a devoted son but a new father and one of ChuChu's best plastic fusion laminators.)

I hope you will find it in your hearts to reach out and support Wendy Neampui and the remarkable ChuChu organization.