Thank you for writing such a ‘graceful’ story about me, however, my contact details are NOT  www.snefridshus.no this is only a Norwegian website hosted by one of our Norwegian supporters who actually runs a bridal shop!!!

However, if I can possibly be of any help and assistance to anyone, I can be contacted on the following e-mail address: ibjoerk2@frisurf.no

Please allow me to also mention that the song Hsang Htueng Pi Nawng Tai (A message for Shans) is written by Sai Ta Oo and one of my friends Cecilia Overby made the original “A place to call home.” All I have done is changing the song and lyrics slightly to befit the Shans more properly.

Keep up the good work!!

Yours truly,

Nang Moey Ngun

No. 04 - 12/2005

06 December 2005

Human Rights

She makes a place to call home for Shans

One of the sensations of the Shan New Year festival in Chiangmai, 30 November - 2 December, was a 27-year old Norwegian school ma'am who thrilled the audience with her song followed by a short address in fluent Shan.

She had offered to teach Shan to those who had yet to learn to read and write it. "I felt so embarrassed I had to look away so she couldn't catch my eyes," confessed a Shan businessman from Bangkok. "It was as though she was talking to me and trying to torment me for not having learned it."

Mwe Nguen, for that is her Shan name which means "Silver snow", also sang Hsang Htueng Pi Nawng Tai (A message for Shans) and A place to call home, both written by herself.

Asked why she wrote A place to call home with its stirring lyrics:

she told S.H.A.N. this story.

Thousands of Shans, chased out of their homes and fields by the Burma Army during its infamous Four Cuts campaign against the armed resistance, were arriving at the border when Mwe Nguen first visited Thailand. "I talked to them and their children. And in their eyes and expressions, I saw once again my grandfather and father who was only ten years old when German forces stormed into Norway. World War Two was already over for more than thirty years when I was born. But both were still reliving their bitter experiences whenever they talked about it."

Determined to do what she could for Shans, she wrote the song to spearhead her campaign for funds back home. In 1999, she was backed in Thailand to set up her House of Hope project for underprivileged Shan children on the border.

"At the beginning of their stay," she recalled, "they used to wrap up the leftover from their meals and keep it in their pockets in case they had to flee the Burmese Army again. It took a little while for them to realize they were out of reach of the Army."

She now has 53 children, 23 of them girls, who are taught Shan, Thai and English by 4 teachers at her boarding school. Among them are two children of the late celebrated singer-songwriter-poet Sai Mu: Zerngmai (Luke) and Hseng Eun (Amy).

What does she think of the present Shan leaders? "Those who don't talk much but do what they say, I have respect for them. I don't wish to name names," she does not wish to dwell much on the subject longer than that. "As for each and every Shan, I'm sure they'll overcome all the adversities, if they help one another and hold each other in esteem."

What about herself? "For myself, I'll be with the Shans as long as they need me."

Mwe Nguen can be contacted at www.snefridshus.no.

The full text of A place to call home, the song that has become her trademark and flagship is attached here.