A crisis in the Southeast Asian country of Myanmar has been building for many years. We, the eighth-graders of Cortez Middle School, believe that we need to take action now to help the victims of what has clearly become a genocide.

Last month, our classes did a “mock trial” on different current and past events to determine whether they should be called genocides. One event we studied was the Myanmar crisis. When we began studying genocide in January of this year, about 400,000 refugees had fled the violence in Myanmar. By March, that number had increased to around 700,000.

These refugees are members of a minority group of Muslims within the country called the Rohingya. These refugees have terrible stories to tell of loved ones being killed and homes being burned. Refugees even stated that they saw mass graves where soldiers were burning away the faces and fingerprints of the dead using acid.

Our country needs to take action as soon as possible. Many Rohingya are currently living in refugee camps in Bangladesh where they struggle to have food, clean water and medicine. They live in cramped spaces and tents that have no walls, only a roof.

As eighth-graders, we are doing our best to help these victims of genocide. We are holding a bake sale and established an online fundraising account, as well as sending letters of love and support to refugees.

Please help us raise money for our cause!

Visit our fundraising site, gofundme.com/help-the-myanmar-refugees.

Kaliya Madison, Kristina Livingston

Cortez