News stories by Mon Mon Myat

Near markets, bus stops and busy areas in this city, groups of young people are busy handling out leaflets with a photograph of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and her message saying 'people have a right not to vote if they don’t want to'.

Monsoon rains might have brought welcome relief to the inhabitants of Inle Lake, but concerned Burmese groups — both government and non-governmental organisations alike — are rallying to preserve Burma’s second largest lake from drying up again, as it did from earlier this year due to prolonged drought.

They are novices at a Buddhist monastery just outside Rangoon, but they are also young boys who will always find time for a friendly game of football.

The only son in his family, Maung Maung Oo was forced to marry when he was 24 years old. By then he had been carrying on a sexual relationship with a man for four years — which he continued even after his marriage.

Kyaw Moe is just in his 30s, but he is already on his second shot at life — just like the rest of the residents of Thakan Ngu, a tiny Burmese village in this township of Bogalay.

When Aye Aye (not her real name) leaves her youngest son at home each night, she tells him that she has to work selling snacks. But what Aye actually sells is sex so that her 12-year-old son, a Grade 7 student, can finish his education.