Unicef

Ðây là thỉnh nguyện thư viết bằng tiếng Anh của IOC-Champa gởi cho UNICEF và UNESCO cũng như một số cơ quan phi chính phủ hoạt động dưới lá cờ của Liên Hiệp Quốc nhằm kêu gọi sự hỗ trợ cho chương trình giáo dục dành cho con em dân tộc bản địa Champa tại Campuchia và Việt Nam. Ba chương trình mà IOC-Champa yêu cầu, đó là:

1). Xây dựng cơ sở giáo dục và cung cấp vật liệu văn phòng phẩm dành cho con em bản địa Champa

2). Trợ giúp tài chánh qua chương trình học bổng dành cho các em Champa có khả năng để được tiếp tục tiến thân trong các trường cao đẳng và đại học

3). Phát triển chương trình xóa đói giảm nghèo để nâng cao đời sống của dân tộc bản địa Champa.

LETTER OF APPEAL TO SAVE

THE LIFE OF THE CHILDREN OF THE INDIGENOUS CHAMPA

IN VIETNAM & CAMBODIA

History records the existence of Champa, a once glorious Kingdom that appeared during the late second century and went on to attain a high level of civilization. At the height of its cultural flowering, its territory stretched over the coastal plains and central highlands of present-day Vietnam. For more than 175 years the Kingdom of Champa has disappeared from the world map. Despite this, Its ancient towns still remain at large. In 1999 UNESCO has recognized it as part of the world’s oldest heritage.

After several centuries of glory, Champa began to face military and other pressures from its northern neighbor Dai-Viet (present-day Vietnam). Champa was forced to surrender its legacy to the Vietnamese and was completely erased from the world map in 1832.

Today, all that remains of this ancient Kingdom are various archaeological sites and two population groups: The approximately 700,000 Highlanders of central Vietnam and the approximately 130,000 Cham living in several regions in Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan provinces (central Vietnam); Chau Doc, Ho Chi Minh city, and Tay Ninh provinces (southern Vietnam), this does not include the estimated 500,000 Cham who migrated to Cambodia to avoid the ongoing Vietnamization programs directed against them since their incorporation into Dai-Viet, and being massacred since the 15th century after Vijaya (former state of Champa) was concurred by Dai-Viet in 1471. Those Champa people who survived were classified as aliens unprotected by any law and with no rights of ownership or to practice their traditional religion and culture.

After the fall of the Indochina peninsula to the communists in 1975, the Champa people were again caught up in the destabilizing whirlwinds of destruction. A large population of the Cham living in Cambodia were also persecuted and massacred by the Khmer Rouge before 1975 while about 800,000 indigenous Champa living on their traditional lands in Vietnam became proletarians reduced to a precarious existence due to the official policy of land confiscation and non-respect for private possessions. Given their traditional source of income, farming and forestry, the loss of their land reduce them to such a level of poverty that it is almost impossible for them to buy sufficient food and pay for their medical bills.

Caught up in the resulting cycle of poverty, many Champa parents cannot afford to send their children to school. As a result, many of them are growing up illiterate, uneducated, and unable to make any useful contribution to their communities and the larger society. Many of those who do manage to complete elementary and high school find themselves forced to return to the village to work the land. The circumstances of Ninh Thuan’s children illustrate this harsh reality. According to the local education center, out of every 800 children registered for school, only 50 of their families can afford to send them to school. Research shows that literacy skills have the power to transform individual lives and communities. People lacking access to education are often the most disadvantaged and marginalized populations.

After 1975, everyone acknowledged that UNESCO, UNICEF and some other NGOs are sending aid to the Vietnamese and Cambodia government to help save unfortunate children and to provide them with a chance to go to school and help educate them on today’s high technology through the program “Blot Out the Hunger and Reduce Poverty” in Cambodia and Vietnam. Unfortunately, this aid nor the program never reached the indigenous Champa community, a community that obviously needed it the most.

In fact, the clear differences in the quality of the life and education between the majority Vietnamese community and the minority indigenous Champa community often led to violence. This tension was revealed in 1955 when the minority peoples in the central highlands rose up and such tension still exist.

Given their current reality, the people of Champa have been unable to find a solution to their ongoing poverty, lack of access to modern education and slow destruction of their culture heritage. In response, several Champa living in the Diaspora met in 1988 to establish the International Office of Champa (IOC-Campa) and pledge to join hands for over 20 years to do their best to preserve their traditional, history, civilization, and heritage by organizing seminars, publishing books and magazines, and establishing a website (WWW.champaka.org) to keep people informed. Due to financial problems, however, our efforts have not progressed as we had envisioned. Therefore, we would like to explore the possibility of working with a United Nations-affiliated organization to obtain the necessary financial and other aid needed to resolve the following problems facing our community:

1. Installing basic education from elementary and up, through the help of buying school supplies for the needy indigenous Champa.
2. Establishing scholarships programs to allow the indigenous Champa the opportunity to pursue higher-level education.
3. Prevent hunger and improve poverty lines so that the unfortunate indigenous Champa can have a better way of life.

IOC-Champa seeks to preserve the Champa people’s traditional culture while educating them so that they can make meaningful contributions to the mainstream society in whichever country they happen to live. We are asking you to help us in this task and will provide your office with whatever information you may need to make an informed decision. Please contact us at:

IOC-Campa

Po Box # 60577

Irvine, California 92602. USA

ATTN: Mr. Musa Porome

President, IOC-Campa

Thank you for your time, and may GOD grant peace be upon you.

Musa Porome

President, IOC-Campa