On February 1st, 2021 tanks appeared on the streets of Burmese cities and the people of Burma are once again involved in a seemingly endless struggle for justice and democracy waged against a brutal military regime. Journeys on the Edge traces the growth of Mobile Education Partnerships, an educational charity built from scratch by teachers, which became an international award-winning organisation. It is, in fact, an adventure on many levels, physical, emotional and spiritual. MEP works with communities 'on the edge' many displaced by war, poverty and oppression inside Burma (aka Myanmar) and on the Thai/Burma border. Importantly, this is not a sentimental presentation of 'victimhood' but a very candid, sympathetic and human exploration of how an organisation was built in these challenging circumstances. Neither is it a handbook on how to build a charity. It does, however, offer a ground-level guide to anyone who wishes to go down that road.
This is a story which provides a fascinating insight into this tragic, violent and at times bizarre world drawing on the lives of those directly involved, the volunteers, the refugees, the migrants, the warlords and those of us searching for something to believe in, in a world where the truth is elusive and the central message of Shakespeare, that nothing is as it appears to be, serves as a warning to all.
