The Mon Women’s Organization (MWO) was established
in 1984 as a women’s unit, working with young women on the Thai-Burma border.
Then MWO’s main aim was to provide for the needs of women in refugee camps. Four
years later, during the 8888 Uprising in August 1988, what were initially
Yangon’s residents, took to the city-streets in an outcry against Myanmar’s
military regime and its downward spiraling economic situation. The government’s
attempt to bring the Uprising to and end was violent, and political tumult as a
direct result of this led to large groups to flee to the Thai-Burma border.
