I wish you all a very happy and healthy day! My name is Dum Hpya Ja Raw. I am a ninth-grader at Alen Bum School for Internally Displaced Persons. When I was doing this painting, I was overwhelmed with emotion. The brutal Bamar soldiers came to our Kachin people’s inhabitants and decimated us with military weapons, forcing elderly people, children, pregnant women, and villagers to flee in great anguish. They are starving. They are shivering as they sleep along the road and streams. As a result of the brutal Bamar soldiers oppressing them, they are suffering from a variety of issues. Please, Kachin people and others throughout the world, support my arts, as I created these paintings with enormous feelings and painful anguish. I aspire to be a singer who encourages inner strength and joy. Thank you all so much. God bless you all.

Dum Hpya Ja Raw

Through the Eyes of Agony Art Program