Social Work and Politics
Kyaw Thu has used his prominence to help the country's poor. He is founder and vice president (now President) of the Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS), which provides free funeral services to the poor. As of June 2008, the society had paid for over 50,000 funerals. Since 2003, his society has also helped pay medical costs in poor neighborhoods of Yangon, and since 2007, started a free clinic for the poor. Through his funeral services society, Kyaw Thu was active in rescue and support efforts in the aftermath of May 2008 Cyclone Nargis which completely devastated Burma's Irrawaddy delta and cost over 130,000 lives. As of June 2008, the society had helped to raise K500 million (~US$400,000) for the victims of the disaster.
Kyaw Thu and his wife were arrested for publicly supporting the protesting monks in September 2007. He was awarded by the Myanmar community in London with the prize of "the artist who stands for the fellow people" for the year 2009.
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