The Free Burma Rangers, an American missionary group, is changing the way that aid reaches some of Myanmar's 75,000 displaced people. As Daniel Lovering writes in a recent article for FP, the Rangers have grown from just four people to an organized group of 300 involved in many of the war-torn country's conflict areas. These missionaries are bringing more than just Sunday school to the jungle: Skills taught by the Rangers include learning "how to use a GPS in the jungle; swim across a river with an improvised flotation device; shoot video and write reports; rappel from a bridge; treat villagers for wounds, malaria, and dysentery; and gingerly locate and remove land mines from the soil." In fact, although God is a central focus in their work, the Rangers don't describe themselves as a religious organization, focusing instead on their humanitarian outreach. Here's an inside look at the Rangers and the dangerous jungle where they work.
This picture, taken on May 29, 2012 shows ethnic Kachin children posing at the N-Hkawng Pa Internally Displaced People's (IDP) camp outside Mai Ja Yang, in a Kachin Independence Army (KIA)-controlled territory of Myanmar's northern Kachin state on the border with China.
Ethnic rebels from the KIA have battled the Myanmar army for a year in a conflict that has displaced more than 75,000 civilians and cast a shadow over government reforms.
Patrick BODENHAM/AFP/GettyImages
