The Free Funeral Service Society (Yangon) ( my, နာရေးကူညီမှုအသင်း, abbreviated FFSS), a
civil society
Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.[Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...]
,
Myanmar
Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...
, founded by Burmese film director
Thukha
Thukha ( my, သုခ, ; 14 January 1910 – 7 December 2005) was a six-time Burmese Academy Award winning film director, writer, song writer, script writer, film actor and film producer. His film production company, Thukha Films Company, w ...
, provides free funeral services to people from any religion, race and socioeconomic status at no cost in
Yangon Region
Yangon Region(, ; formerly Rangoon Division and Yangon Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar. Located in the heart of Lower Myanmar, the division is bordered by Bago Region to the north and east, the Gulf of Martaban to the south, a ...
. It was founded on 1 January 2001 by film director
Thukha
Thukha ( my, သုခ, ; 14 January 1910 – 7 December 2005) was a six-time Burmese Academy Award winning film director, writer, song writer, script writer, film actor and film producer. His film production company, Thukha Films Company, w ...
and is headed by many prominent persons in the entertainment industry, including actor
Kyaw Thu
Kyaw Thu ( my, ကျော်သူ, ; born 2 November 1959) is a two-time Myanmar Academy Award winning film actor and film director. One of the top leading men of Burmese cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, Kyaw Thu has starred in over 200 film ...
.
FFSS has helped fund around 200,000 funerals since it first started.
In 2006, FFSS opened a free health care clinic called Thukha Clinic. In 2009, its free clinic was ordered by a local court to be closed, after being forcibly relocated from
Thingangyun Township to
North Dagon Township in
Yangon
Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...
's outlying suburbs. In September 2010, FFSS opened Thukha Ahara (), a low cost restaurant in Yangon's
North Dagon Township. In 2011, it opened another clinic in
Bago Region
Bago Region ( my, ပဲခူးတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; formerly Pegu Division and Bago Division) is an administrative region of Myanmar, located in the southern central part of the country. It is bordered by Magway Region a ...
's
Pyay Township
Pyay Township or Prome Township is a township in Pyay District in the Bago Region of Burma. .
It applied for government registration in 2008 but has yet to be approved, as of November 2012.
FFSS has expanded its humanitarian services by operating free Ambulance and Fire Brigade services, providing humanitarian assistance to victims of war and natural disasters, opening Thukha Alin Charity Education centre which runs free vocational classes, computer, sports, arts, English and more classes.
On 8 January 2017, FFSS marked its 16th anniversary by opening a low-cost dialysis centre. Because of the cost of dialysis, FFSS will not be able to extend the services for free, but they will offer them at a much-reduced cost. "Thanks to our donors, we were able to buy new equipment and medicine for dialysis. But the course of treatment is very expensive, so we cannot offer services free of charge. A private clinic would charge K80,000, and we will offer the treatment for K25,000," said U Kyaw Thu.
As part of the response to the 1 February military coup,emergency response teams from the FFSS helped treat injured protesters in attacks by police and military. On the night of 3 March 2021, soldiers and police raided the office of the Free FFSS in Yangon's North Okkalapa Township on Wednesday night. They seized computers, phones, computers and documents from the office and destroyed the rest of the property on the premises. Staff were beaten and injured by the soldiers and police.
U Kyaw Thu was not in the offices at the time and has gone into hiding.
See also
*
Brahmaso Humanitarian Aid Organisation
Brahmaso Humanitarian Aid Organisation ( my, ဗြဟ္မစိုရ် လူမူ့ကူညီရေးအသင်း; abbreviated BHAO) is a humanitarian aid organisation based on Mandalay, Myanmar. The organisation is Myanmar's oldes ...
References
{{reflist
External links
Official Website
Non-profit organisations based in Myanmar
Organizations established in 2001
2001 establishments in Myanmar