Myanmar

U of T student, author and activist reflects on his incredible journey as a Rohingya refugee

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 20:18:58 +0000

U of T student, author and activist reflects on his incredible journey as a Rohingya refugee

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 06/15/2023 - 16:18

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U of T student Jaivet Ealom, a member of the persecuted Rohingya minority, recounts his harrowing escape to Canada at an alumni event June 15 (photo by Luis Mora)

Mariam Matti

Topic

Global Lens

Alumni

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Myanmar

Political Science

Refugees

Rotman School of Management

On his first day in class at the University of Toronto, Jaivet Ealom felt completely overwhelmed by his environment.

He sat at the back of the room and tried to absorb all the noise, technology and people. Nobody had any inkling of the harrowing journey he’d taken to get there.

A member of the persecuted Rohingya minority, Ealom had fled Myanmar in 2013. Before arriving at U of T, he had travelled through six countries and three continents seeking asylum – surviving a near-drowning and multiple detentions along the way.

“I essentially gave up everything overnight – all the support I had,” he says. “I was a lone stranger in this vast land without any safety net to fall back on.”

In those early years in Canada, Ealom – who is speaking at an alumni event on June 15 – was trying to fly under the radar. He was worried about being deported to Myanmar or sent back to a detention centre.

(Photo by Luis Mora)

Stephen Watt, who works at U of T’s Rotman School of Management and volunteers his time doing refugee advocacy, met Ealom about six months after he arrived in Toronto. Watt remembers how reserved Ealom was in the beginning.

“He’s not somebody who enjoys attention,” Watt says.

But the pair became good friends and now work together to support refugees and asylum seekers. Ealom, who plans to graduate from U of T in the fall with a double major in economics and politics, co-founded the Rohingya Centre of Canada as well as a non-profit called Northern Lights Canada with Watt. He is a member of the Refugee Advisory Network of Canada and recently attended an annual forum for the UN Refugee Agency on resettlement.

He also wrote his first book: Escape from Manus Prison: One Man’s Daring Quest for Freedom. Published by Penguin Random House Canada, it details his unimaginable story of trying to become a refugee in another country.

Ealom was first hesitant to revisit painful memories and share his story publicly. But he felt assured when he received his permanent residence status and wanted to be a voice for his friends who were still suffering in the detention centre

“He [shared his story] because he knew it’ll have a bigger impact beyond himself,” Watt says.

Even so, the process of writing the book was difficult, Ealom says.

“I woke up every single night – sweating – from a nightmare of being in a different prison. The more I thought [about my journey], the more memories resurfaced. It was retraumatizing.”

Growing up in a town northwest of Myanmar, Ealom says he developed an understanding about his life early on. “If you wanted to live, then you needed to leave,” he says. He fled first to Jakarta, Indonesia, but encountered an asylum process he describes as “barely functioning, chaotic” so he arranged to travel by boat to Australia.

“The crew was supposed to sail us to Darwin, Australia, where, according to a rumour that everyone had heard at one time or another, Australians opened their hearts and their country to people like us – those on the run for torture, persecution and death,” he writes in his book.

But the trip was perilous. On the third day, the rickety boat started to sink. For Ealom, who could not swim, death seemed imminent – until the refugees were saved thanks to a fisherman who spotted the boat.

After returning to Jakarta, Ealom set his sights next on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean. This time, “I bought a truck tire and a pump in my backpack – a makeshift floatation device,” he says.

Ealom was mid-voyage when Australia, announced a change in the law: Asylum seekers arriving by boat without a visa would no longer be resettled in the country. Upon being intercepted by Australian authorities, he was handed a paper that stated he was an unlawful citizen.

“I thought, I didn’t do anything wrong, there must be some miscommunication.”

Ealom spent three and a half years on Manus Island, which he described as a “living hell” (photo courtesy of Jaivet Ealom)

He spent 148 days in a detention centre on Christmas Island before being transferred to Manus Island, where he would spend the next three and a half years in a “living hell” that he says felt like a psychological experiment complete with rotten food filled with maggots or bits of gravel.

After studying every detail of the prison’s operation and securing the help of those around him, Ealom managed to escape. Posing as an interpreter, he travelled to Solomon Islands, where he altered his appearance and took on a new identity.

He ultimately arrived at Toronto Pearson Airport on a cold and snowy night on Christmas Eve in 2017.

“I didn’t know a single soul and I didn’t know the weather could get this cold,” he says. “I learned everything the hard way. But not in my wildest dream did I think I would live here.”

Fast forward to today and Ealom now calls Toronto his second home – even if it took him awhile to adjust.

For one thing, he says studying at U of T has been vastly different than any schooling he had done in Myanmar. “I wasn’t accustomed to challenging a professor,” he says. “I was taught that questioning anyone with slightly more authority than you is rude.

(Photo courtesy of Jaivet Ealom)

“There was no element of critical thinking. You can study philosophy [in Myanmar], but it’s watered down by the government. The textbooks are written by the military.”

His time in university has also helped him make sense of things that happened throughout his life. He learned that policy decisions that have enormous impact on people’s lives sometimes originate in academic research. “Without going to school, I wouldn’t be able to put a lot of things that I saw in a structured framework,” he says. “It helped me see the bigger picture. I was able to see some of the strategies driving the actions of the ruling regime in Myanmar.”

In his spare time, Ealom regularly volunteers with refugee organizations – and helped launch a couple himself. The Rohingya Centre of Canada, co-founded by Ealom and a friend, is a cause very close to his heart since it helps Rohingya newcomers connect with services and provide supports as they settle in a new home.

“When you come from an oppressed country, it’s easy to mistrust authorities,” he says. “That’s where we come in – we act as a bridge between the authority and the community.”

After graduation, Ealom is considering attending law school. He ultimately wants to return to Myanmar and make meaningful systematic changes – as long as his actions don’t put his parents in danger.

“I feel this moral obligation to help.”

Read University of Toronto Magazine’s in-depth profile of Jaivet Ealom

U of T's Myanmar digital library shares rare manuscripts with scholars around the world

Christopher.Sorensen — Thu, 21 May 2020 15:48:07 +0000

U of T's Myanmar digital library shares rare manuscripts with scholars around the world

Christopher.Sorensen Thu, 05/21/2020 - 11:48

Cutline

Early 20th century cabinets housing the Pali palm-leaf manuscripts, which are considered sacred objects by the textual community at Saddhammajotikārāma Monastery, Thaton, Mon State (photo by U Aung Moe)

Sarah MacFarlane

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

“Which colour longyi makes the best background when photographing Pali palm-leaf manuscripts?” writes Tony Scott, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, referencing the long piece of cloth widely worn as a garment in Myanmar. “As it turns out, light green.”

It’s the opening line from an article Scott recently published on the Oxford Tea Circle blog that highlights the importance of a new U of T resource: the Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library.

The open-access digital archive features manuscripts and rare print editions of texts from libraries across Myanmar. It is the result of an ongoing digitizing project led by an international team of scholars and volunteers who have spent more than five years cleaning, cataloguing and curating texts that cover a range of topics connected to the Southeast Asian country, from Buddhist literature and doctrine to medicine and astrology.

Manuscripts wrapped in protective, ceremonial coverings known as cā-thup-pa-vā (photo by U Aung Moe)

The project aims to preserve Myanmar’s heritage of texts while providing free access to these texts for scholars around the world – a goal that has become even more important amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

“The current pandemic has significantly altered the teaching and learning landscape of post-secondary institutions,” says Scott, who is with the department for the study of religion in the Faculty of Arts & Science and is the outreach and project liaison for the archive. “The Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library is now a crucial tool for both online academic research and global collaboration. Without the need for international travel, researchers can access the database and build projects together, regardless of their location or financial resources.

“This is especially important because students and researchers have disparate access to materials based on the financial support they receive from governments and their respective institutions. Academics in Myanmar are especially limited in their means, and the COVID-19 pandemic will only exacerbate this disparity. Since it is free of charge and strives to make streamlined, manageable downloads for those where the internet capacity is limited, the library represents a chance to remove barriers for anyone interested in accessing these texts.”

Lay devotees of the Saddhammajotikārāma Monastery applying lemongrass oil mixed with powdered carbon to preserve the fragile leaf surface and highlight the incised letters of the manuscript (photo by U Aung Moe)

Scott has been working on this project alongside a number of scholars from U of T’s department for the study of religion, including Associate Professor Christoph Emmrich, who managed the launch of the digital archive; Andrew Dade, a PhD student who will manage new content as digitization efforts continue; and Rachelle Saruya, a PhD candidate and the academic website curator who is currently working on a Burmese translation of the website.

“The team recognizes that language is a barrier for access,” says Scott. “Scholars in Myanmar who do not speak English should still be able to benefit from this resource. Given the linguistic expertise of the University of Toronto, other languages might also be possible in the future.”

The database will continue to grow considerably over the next few years thanks to a partnership with the National Library of Myanmar, which has one of the largest collections of Pali palm-leaf manuscripts in Southeast Asia. These manuscripts were collected from monasteries and libraries throughout the country, and the team behind the Myanmar Manuscript Digital Library expects to upload 10,000 of these texts to the archive.

Scott says a key goal for the project is to pay homage to generations of scholars and community members in Myanmar who worked tirelessly to preserve these texts.

“The archive recognizes the value of local manuscript cultures, traditions of curation and research questions. Part of this recognition has to do with gratitude – that is, being grateful for the generations of curation and scholarship that maintained these texts into the present.

“Without the work of monks, nuns and lay devotees over the previous centuries, the textual traditions that these manuscripts represent would not have survived.”

U of T grads conduct women-focused, on-the-ground research in world’s largest refugee settlement

Christopher.Sorensen — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 18:43:49 +0000

U of T grads conduct women-focused, on-the-ground research in world’s largest refugee settlement

Christopher.Sorensen Tue, 06/04/2019 - 14:43

Cutline

The market in the Balukhali camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh on March 7, 2019 (photo by Kazi Salahuddin Razu/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Jovana Jankovic

Topic

Global Lens

Convocation 2019

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Human Biology

Faculty of Arts & Science

Undergraduate Students

University College

On the southeast tip of Bangladesh, around a fishing port called Cox's Bazar, 1.2 million Rohingya people live in a set of interconnected camps that make up the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Having fled neighbouring Myanmar after decades of violent oppression, the stateless Rohingya people are now described by the United Nations as “the most persecuted minority in the world.” In 2018, Canada recognized the crimes committed against the Rohingya as genocide, and a recent UN fact-finding mission determined that Myanmar is guilty of “a planned attack to cleanse the state of this population.”

In the midst of this crisis, two undergraduate students at the University of Toronto conducted unprecedented, on-the-ground research into how international aid efforts in the refugee settlement could be improved.

Sakshi Shetty and Kassandra Neranjan – who are both graduating this year – focused on what they call the “dehumanization, statelessness and gender-based security” of Rohingya women and girls, who are among the most vulnerable in Cox’s Bazar.

“We conducted primary research in person so we could witness the crisis response first-hand,” says Shetty, a University College student majoring in health and disease within the Faculty of Arts & Science’s Human Biology Program, as well as immunology.

“We not only got crucial insights on logistical, strategic, field-level issues and NGO collaboration efforts, but we also had the opportunity to network and make contacts for potential interviews. Being in Bangladesh gave us a holistic perspective of the issue — from the field level to the policy level.”

Neranjan, a Trinity College student double majoring in peace, conflict and justice studies and international relations with a minor in French literature, adds that the pair “found there to be a huge gap between program design and program implementation, especially in its gendered considerations.”

From left to right: Kassandra Neranjan, Sakshi Shetty and post-doctoral fellow and student supervisor Emily Hertzman (photo by Diana Tyszko)

Shetty and Neranjan met as first-year students while volunteering in U of T UNICEF’s Youth Engagement Program. After discovering their mutual interests in gender justice, they embarked on research under the mentorship of Emily Hertzman — a post-doctoral fellow in the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy — with the support of the Richard Charles Lee Insights Through Asia Challenge (ITAC), an interdisciplinary experiential learning program at the Asian Institute open to students from all disciplines across all three U of T campuses.

In Cox’s Bazar, Shetty and Neranjan worked with 11 aid organizations and conducted 18 interviews during a three-week period while also attending working group meetings with aid officials in the refugee camp.

Their resulting report offers evidence-based practical policy recommendations to aid workers and organizations supporting Rohingya refugees.

In the report, Shetty and Neranjan describe the challenges faced by Rohingya women and girls at the intersection of their ethnicity, religion, gender, statelessness and politics. They are denied access to education and work outside their homes while being disproportionately targeted with sexual, gender-based and domestic violence. Their insecurity is heightened by precarious conditions in the refugee camp. For example, climate threats in the region such as monsoons, mudslides, torrential rain and cyclones endanger women and girls if they are isolated without shelter during a weather event. Some girls are abducted, assaulted or trafficked when they simply leave their homes to collect firewood or water.

“It’s critical that more is done to ensure the world is not only aware of and understands this crisis, but actively supports this disenfranchised community,” says Shetty, pointing to the lack of extensive international media coverage of the crisis.

“Women have been extensively marginalized within these camps while also surviving severe trauma and violence in Myanmar,” adds Neranjan. “They comprise a majority of the population in the refugee camp. So there’s a real need to address ‘gender mainstreaming’”— the idea that gender should be factored into all programming and policy decisions in all areas and levels of an aid effort.

Hertzman says Neranjan and Shetty’s work not only makes a key contribution to their field of study, but has also given them valuable experience in law, health care, international development, health equity research and public health.

“They have been honing their observation skills, asking questions, listening, recording, probing and integrating into different social worlds,” says Hertzman, highlighting the advantages of experiential learning.

An expert in international migration in Asia, Hertzman is passionate about fostering research opportunities for undergraduate students. As part of ITAC’s commitment to supporting students through the complete trajectory of their research, Hertzman conducts workshops for undergrads on everything from project planning, proposal-writing, research ethics and fieldwork techniques to participant observations, field note-taking and experimental methods.

“Ours are some of the best undergraduate students, coming from all over the world,” says Hertzman.

“They bring varied life experiences that they can draw on in their research, and they’re energetic, motivated and brave. They ask interesting questions and are looking to make an impact in the world.”

Neranjan, for her part, developed an even greater passion for gender justice activism during her first year as a Munk One student and has spoken about feminist policy-making at the Toronto Women's March and the UN. Shetty, meanwhile, has worked with U of T’s International Health Program to address health and safety issues in Toronto’s marginalized and vulnerable populations.

Both students plan to continue their research and fieldwork following graduation.

“I just started working with BlueDot Global, a company that uses human and artificial intelligence to track, contextualize and anticipate infectious disease outbreaks,” says Shetty, who eventually plans to pursue a master’s degree in health policy or global health, in keeping with her passion for the social determinants of health in marginalized populations.

Neranjan will be pursuing a law degree in the fall – “to further my dream of addressing international human rights abuses through field research,” she says.

Inset photo by Kassandra Neranjan

Bob Rae on the Rohingya crisis: 'We need to be a more significant player'

ullahnor — Fri, 18 May 2018 14:33:33 +0000

Bob Rae on the Rohingya crisis: 'We need to be a more significant player'

ullahnor Fri, 05/18/2018 - 10:33

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U of T Professor Jacques Bertrand (left) speaks with Bob Rae (right) about his report on the Rohingya crisis at the Munk School of Global Affairs (photo by Noreen Ahmed-Ullah)

Noreen Ahmed-Ullah

Topic

Global Lens

Faculty of Arts & Science

Global

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Myanmar

Political Science

Subheadline

It’s been more than a month since the release of his final report on the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, and Bob Rae says he’s still waiting to hear a response from the federal government.

Speaking at an event at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs on Thursday, the former Ontario premier and former interim leader of the federal Liberal party, repeated his call for Canada to take a lead in dealing with the humanitarian crisis that has led to more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in Myanmar for crowded refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We are living in a world without adult supervision,” he said. “We can’t assume anymore that some other country is going to take the lead and ride this thing through and get it done. That isn’t happening on its own.”

Rae, a U of T alumnus who also teaches a policy analysis class in the Faculty of Arts & Science, was appointed as special envoy to Myanmar last fall by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. While Trudeau has thanked Rae for his insights and said the government would outline measures in coming weeks, Rae said he has yet to hear back from Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland on any proposed measures.

His final report, released April 3, made 17 recommendations, including calling on Canada to step up humanitarian aid and development efforts. On Thursday, Rae talked about the humanitarian crisis looming with monsoon season expected to begin in June.

“This is a genuine humanitarian catastrophe, and it’s going to be even worse if we don’t address it,” he said.

“I keep coming back to our own government and saying, ‘We need to take the lead on this,’” he told the audience of academics and students. “I’m still hoping very much the government is going to respond in a creative and positive way. That’s one of the battles that I’m fighting right now.”

Rae spoke at the event with Jacques Bertrand, a political science professor who specializes in Southeast Asia and is leading a collaborative project on ethnic minorities and decentralization in Myanmar. Leading up to his report, Rae travelled to the region on several occasions, including visiting refugee camps in Bangladesh.

U of T students tackle climate change in Southeast Asia

Romi Levine — Mon, 29 Aug 2016 14:33:34 +0000

U of T students tackle climate change in Southeast Asia

Romi Levine Mon, 08/29/2016 - 10:33

Cutline

Nathan Stewart in Thailand (photo courtesy of Nathan Stewart)

Romi Levine

Author legacy

Romi Levine

Topic

From rising waters to erratic weather, we’re starting to feel the wrath of climate change.

But taking the necessary precautions in order to keep people safe and prevent worsening conditions is easier said than done – especially in developing countries where high-risk areas are often the most impoverished and the most urban.

“Cities are both the cause of and the solution to environmental change,” says Nathan Stewart, a University of Toronto urban planning graduate student.

Since April, he has been conducting research in Thailand on the effects of climate change on the population of a city called Khon Kaen, located in one of the poorest regions of the country.

Stewart is part of a team of researchers participating in the Urban Climate Resilience in Southeast Asia (UCRSEA) Partnership, a collaboration between academics in Canada and four Asian countries: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

The project uses a multi-disciplinary approach to looking at the risks of climate change to vulnerable urban populations – taking into consideration social, geographical, political, planning and economic issues.

“They’re problems that need to be approached in a creative, intuitive and inclusive way because they’re so complicated and that’s the only way you can get a handle on them,” says Amrita Daniere, U of T vice principal, academic and dean at U of T Mississauga. She’s also the co-director of UCRSEA.

The project shifts focus from major urban areas to “secondary cities,” which can have large populations but are lesser-known to people living outside the country where they’re located.

“We’re looking to take on smaller cities where there are less resources and less knowledge and create a voice there for mitigating and adopting to climate change impacts among groups that up to now haven’t had the knowledge or possibility of speaking for themselves,” Daniere says.

Stewart’s research in Khon Kaen is focused on poor migrant communities who live alongside state-owned train tracks. But plans for a high-speed rail mean many of those households will be evicted.

Beyond the threat of losing their homes, these communities have Mother Nature to worry about.

“Because of the area these communities have settled in that is not serviced by the government, flooding is a major, major concern in almost every one of these,” says Stewart.

The countries where UCRSEA is conducting research have their own sets of unique issues. But Myanmar is “the hardest country to work in so far,” says Daniere.

“We’re in the first wave of researchers that is being allowed in as the country has opened up. As a consequence, sometimes we get told something and act upon it and ‘oops, there’s been a change in plans.’”

(Pictured above: One of the busiest streets in Yangon, taken by Mayur Mukati)

U of T graduate student Mayur Mukati has been watching the country change from within. He spent the summer working with the UCRSEA team in Yangon, Myanmar.

Mukati was observing the urban development of the country, taking note of the barriers getting in the way of healthy growth.

“Corruption is one of the highest in the world and human development index is very low,” says Mukati, whose Masters research is in sustainability management. “The double whammy exists due to unsustainable urbanization affecting the carbon-negative status of the country.”

While certain issues stunt development in Myanmar, Mukati says political changes have actually given public officials more freedom to talk about their views on urbanization. But there is still resistance from residents to openly share their views on the dramatic transition.

Climate resilience research is important not only for expanding an understanding of the Global South but for changing attitudes and generating change in environmental law and policy. To do so, Daniere says UCRSEA is promoting their findings to the right decision-makers.

“In some of these countries, they are going to and they do have coups, they’re going to have revolutions, they’re going to have turmoil,” says Daniere. “There’s not a clear link between people and policy but we’re doing our best under the circumstances.”

Myanmar

U of T student, author and activist reflects on his incredible journey as a Rohingya refugee

Read University of Toronto Magazine’s in-depth profile of Jaivet Ealom

U of T's Myanmar digital library shares rare manuscripts with scholars around the world

U of T grads conduct women-focused, on-the-ground research in world’s largest refugee settlement

Bob Rae on the Rohingya crisis: 'We need to be a more significant player'

Read more about his work on Myanmar

U of T students tackle climate change in Southeast Asia