Dead Set on Helping

Burma’s poverty means that even providing funerals for loved ones can be difficult if not impossible. But a new social welfare association is lending a helping hand...

Accompanied by some poor people, a famous Burmese movie star carries a coffin in Rangoon. In the coffin is the corpse of a poor man who is unrelated to the actor. This is not a scene for a film; it’s real. And to many people it’s amazing, because it’s so unheard of. The movie star, Kyaw Thu, has participated in many funerals as a sort of gravedigger, and he is vice president of a social welfare association known as the Free Funeral Services Society (FFSS)...