Mike Carnegie and his wife have donated $30,000 and
helped raise more for local charity Partners
By George Johnson, CalgaryHerald February 7, 2013
Calgary Roughnecks player Mike
Carnegie has been supporting the charity Partners for awhile. The locally-based
group aims to raise money to help victims of Burma’s oppressive regime.
Photograph by: Calgary
Herald/Files , Calgary Herald
Mike Carnegie’s brother-in-law
Jacob was the hook.
“He was travelling around
Thailand and he ended up helping Partners,” explained the Calgary Roughnecks’
defender and assistant captain on Friday. “You can’t actually do your work in
Burma, it’s illegal. So he had to work inside the Thailand border.
“When I signed with the Calgary
Roughnecks, in ’08, he talked to me about it. He said ‘You’ve got to check out
this charity. It’s called Partners and their head office is in Calgary.’ ”
Since then, after some initial
research and an ever-growing awareness of the need to act, the connection, the
commitment, has only deepened. The result: Tonight launches the third annual
Mike Carnegie Burma Campaign to assist the wonderful work done by Partners
Relief and Development, a Christian international relief and development agency
founded in 2001.
Carnegie’s wife, Hayley, has
taken an equally hands-on approach and now works on the Partners’ board. And in
three years, Carnegie himself has donated $30,000 from his professional
lacrosse salary to the agency, working to improve the lives of all those,
especially children, affected by the ongoing conflict and tyranny in Burma.
Other Partners headquarters are
located in Thailand, the U.S., Norway, New Zealand, Australia and the U.K.
Their Canadian website is www.partnersworld.ca.
So for a while, anyway, talk of
Saturday’s impending National Lacrosse League rematch against the Edmonton Rush
at Scotiabank Saddledome, as well as the ‘Necks’ current three-game win streak,
were put aside to address a more immediate, more fundamental, more important
topic than any mere sporting event: The daily injustices being forced on 60
million Burmese by one of the most oppressive military regimes on the planet.
The country has been under
military control since a coup d’état in 1962. Civil strife has been rampant
since 1948. The United Nations has decried the use of countless human rights
violations, among them genocide, slavery, human trafficking and a lack of
freedom of speech.
“For the last 60 years they’ve
had an internal war,” Carnegie said, at the Roughnecks’ weekly pre-game media
availability, “and the government kills its own people, for resources, for
land, different things, their own initiatives.
“I’ve just helped with Partners
in assisting them with some money to do refugee work, to build schools, to set
up medical clinics, to assist with training, with animals and crops, all kinds
of sustainable stuff. I’ve kicked in a portion of my salary the last couple of
years to help them, to bring awareness of what’s going on in that country.
“They’re in the media more and
more. (Former U.S. First Lady and Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton just went
over there, did some touring. A lot more people are going there and seen what’s
going on, but you’re still not hearing a lot of the dark side of that country.
It’s getting better, but it’s not getting better.
“Burma has more child soldiers
than any other country in the world. We’re talking 80,000 children in their
army, kids 12 and under. The burning of villages, shelling to get to oil
reserves. It’s very rich country in terms of resources. Very rich. And they do
awful things to get people out of the way.
“Financially, I’d like to kick in
a bit more, but you do what you can.”
Carnegie’s commitment, though, is
admirable, using his web page, an up-and-running Facebook page, as well as
different media to trigger increased attention to the situation.
The Roughnecks have done their
bit in assisting him, donating a portion of the 50/50 draws at home games,
allowing Partners to run a silent auction, through a portion of select ticket
proceeds, as well granting him permission to use the club’s website to deliver
the message.
Carnegie has yet to visit Burma.
“One day,” he says, hopefully.
“My wife and I have talked about it.”
The problems there are
long-standing, with deep roots. Solutions are anything but straightforward.
“We are so fortunate in Canada,”
said Mike Carnegie. “More than anything, I want to bring awareness to the
situation going on there. In the last year, more than 200,000 men, women and
children were displaced from their homes due to ongoing conflicts and are in
desperate need of the assistance that Partners Relief and Development Canada is
providing.
“I’ve just felt the need and the
call to help them even more.”
No. 16 in your Calgary
Roughnecks’ program.
Making a difference on the floor.
And off it.
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