When junior Chris Grotz went to Thailand last year his plan was to shoot a toothpaste commercial not create a nonprofit organization. Spending time with a group of Burmese children in a village on the border of Thailand and Burma however prompted him to start the organization AMEN Missionary a Christian nonprofit.
While spending four days at a migrant school in the village of Mae Sot “a third of the size of the HAWC made out of bamboo and dirt and leaves his heart went out to these underprivileged children. As a result, he decided to organize AMEN Missionary, which provides aid to Burmese refugees in Thailand.
Although Grotz is passionate about helping the Burmese, he explains that it is difficult to provide them with aid in their own country because the Mayamar armed forces, which took over Burma in 1988, are not allowing any international aid within their borders. The Myanmar armed forces are the ones who are exterminating all the minorities and they want to continue doing that he said.
Among the Burmese refugees, racial tensions can marginalize groups like the darker-skinned Karen” peoples. The Karen people are of Mongolian decent and they are just one of many persecuted minorities within Burma. Grotz witnessed discrimination when a small boy with a head tumor was brought to the local medical clinic in Mae Sot and the adults who accompanied him were not allowed in “just because of the color of their skin.”
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of AMEN Missionary Nathan Jirakasemnukul who runs the day-to-day operations in Thailand has been working with refugees in the area for years and continues his work as part of the AMEN Missionary team partnering with local institutions in Mae Sot.
Chris compared his job to Nathan’s. “He gets to do all the fun stuff feed the kids dress the kids take the kids to hospitals meet the families build construct plan put on soccer tournaments he said. As the CEO I get to do a lot of paperwork. I’ll be going to Thailand this summer though to help out and make sure the money is being allocated in the way that has been agreed on.”
Grotz emphasized the scope of the charity. “Our focus is broad when it comes to the distribution of our efforts [but we believe that] every person should have a right to religion if they want it. Every person should have a right to education and to healthcare and to nutrition. You can’t live without any one of those.”
Although AMEN is a Christian charity “we don’t beat people over the head with a Bible junior Sabrina Schmeck, Director of education for AMEN Missionary, said. The Christian aspect of this is really just teaching people how to treat each other in a way that is Christ-like. We’re treating these people with all the love we have in our hearts and trying to help them. It’s more about modeling.”
In relation to other areas of the world Burma is underrepresented in terms of international aid. But with the nation’s average income being $510 per year life expectancy at 57 years for men and 63 years for women and 104 out of 1000 babies dying in childbirth or shortly after their need is largely present.
Grotz discussed the future of the charity and the people they serve. “We don’t plan to be there forever he said. A huge part of our nonprofit is microfinance. We hope to build a self-sustainable community.”
Schmeck concurred. “We’re hoping to give people skills so that when they leave [Mae Sot] they have those skills for a lifetime she said. We’re not so much making a stable community we’re making stable people.”
On the last day Grotz was in Mae Sot he taught some of the kids how to say “Amen solidifying the future name of the charity.
[They were] running through the fields with their hands clasped together with these huge smiles on their faces yelling ‘Amen! Amen! Amen!’ I think of that moment the most when I’m doing nonprofit work. And whenever someone says ‘Amen’ I think of them.”
Grotz explained how people on campus can get involved with AMEN.
“Right now we’re trying to involve the Malibu and Pepperdine community he said. Just because we’re on the other side of the world doesn’t mean we’re not brothers and sisters.” A faculty versus student basketball tournament fundraiser April 22 will aim to help foster this community participation.
More information and updates are available at the missionary’s Web site www.amenmissionary.org/team.html.