Welcome to K'Cho Catholic Community

The community named K'Cho Catholic Community ( CCC ) is offically formed by K'Cho Ex-seminarians & K'Cho Catholic families in Malaysia on 23rd December 2007.We are from Church of Sacred Heart of Juses, Mindat Parish under Hakha Diocese, Myanmar. The CCC works to protect and help K'Cho Asylum-seekers and Refugees from Myanmar. We are a not-for-profit, non-government organisation committed to supporting Asylum-Seekers & Refugees within in our capacity.

Triple C is not only the name of the community but it stands for the holy trinity that is One God.

As-

C= Creator of God - Father

C=Christ the Savior - Son

C= Commander in Chief - Holy Spirit

"OUR MOTTO"

"Blessed the one who has regard for the poor, the lord delivers him in time of trouble. Psalm 41:2"

OUR DETERMINATION

Faith : We faith in God for our determination.

Unity : Our grace of Baptism makes us one community, one Church, one Nation and we are one in Christ.

Charity : The Charity is our moral victory.

Honesty : Honesty is the first and our moral conviction.

We always value our faith, our Honesty, the Unity , and the Charity.

What is the CCC for ?

The CCC is for everyone who is in need of help. It is to assist all the people from Myanmar regardless of religious and social status . The committee is trying to give religious service and social service with the help of catholic communities.

For religious service,

The priority of the community is to assist Catholic K'cho people only because it is difficult for us to know who is catholic. However,if the person has some documents regarding you are a catholic , the committee will perform any assistance.

For social service,

The committee assists all the people from Myanmar who are really in need of help for our best. The community is working for Health Care, Children's Vaccination, Children's Education, Safety, Food aids and their daily problems.

Our Vision and Mission

To help the needs of K'Cho Catholics and Non-Catholic K'Chos in Malaysia in terms of their religious and social affairs.

Aims and Objectives

1. To help Cho Chin Catholics keep in touch with church for their sacramental life.

2. To be able to access the sacraments of Baptism, Matrimony, anointing of the sick to Cho Chin Catholics.

3. To help Cho Chin people learn Catholicism.

4. To create and cultivate a sense of friendship among Cho Chins.

5. To build up unity and team work among Cho Chins.

6. To be able to help each other with a sense of society in a positive way.

7.To be able to let Cho Chins share their experiences and the knowledge

of religion and society.

8. To cooperate with Catholic Church for refugee status of Cho Chins in UNHCR office.

9. To be able to communicate with International Catholic Communities, Intenational NGOs and International Refugee Organizations for the needs of Cho Chins in Malaysia.

10. To respect and conserve our Cho Chin Culture and Literature.

11. To build up a friendly relationship between Cho Chin Catholics and Malaysian Catholics.

12. To be able to work for K'Cho Human Rights and all-round Development for K'Cho people.

How becomes the K'Cho Catholic Community?

There are around 2000 K'Cho people out of over 40,000 Chins in Malaysia. From this number of K'Chos, we catholics are small in number and the rests are Buddhists, other denominations and traditional-nuts worshipers. These Catholics stay and work in different places and they are scattered all over Malaysia that it is difficult for them to meet one another. The worst is that they do not have any proper documents to travel around and do not have proper place to get together. Some do go to Church for prayers and worships but they do not introduce and make known themselves to the parish priest because of the language difficulty so that when they go for help , they confront with difficulties.

Some of our K'Cho Catholic believers stay with their baptist friends in one flat and occasionally, they go to Baptist Church and do their prayers in baptist way. On the other hand, some of our K'Cho Catholics do not go to Church because they do not understand either Malay or English and the chief reason is afraid of police. Most of our Catholic brothers and sisters do not know the value of the Catholic church and of being a Catholic because they have very little knowledge of Catholicism. They do not understand what the sacraments are all about so they do not value their sacramental life. Therefore, in some cases they tend to misuse especially the sacrament of marriage. Some catholics held their marriage in a baptist way because they do not know how to get help from their friends or from the Church. In addition, some people want to learn catholicism but we could not provide any assistance to them. As we are ex-seminarians, we feel that it is our duty to feel secure the faith of our Catholic brothers and sisters and go hand in hand with them, and provide assistance to those who want to observe catholicism. As K'Cho people are a small ethnic group in Malaysia, they are not well-known as K'Cho among Chin people. Most of K'Cho people are not educated and they are artless people. Only a few of them are graduates. Needless to say, they need leaders who will help them take the right way for their sacramental life as well as their human rights in Malaysia.

While we have been looking for the church which can help us in our sacramental life and socail affairs or activities in Malaysia, the Church of the Sacred Heart invites us to join them as a community.The Church of the Sacred Heart was also the first which formerly helped our K'Cho Chin Community especially in the funeral service. We have been keeping in touch and working with the Sacred Heart Church for some time but not as a community. As it is, and as we are Catholic refugees we are confident that the Catholic Church is the right place for our spiritual and physical welfare. For these reasons, the CCC is formed by K'Cho ex-seminarians to help our K'Cho catholic brothers and sisters to feel at home with Church and deepen their faith by learning more about catholicism, and to offer facilities to those who want to become catholic in Malaysia.

The CCC is pleased to cooperate with any Catholic Communities and Social Service Communities for the needs of Myanmar people not only for religious service but for the problems they are facing in their daily Life in Malaysia.

Who are K'Cho ?

K'Cho Chins are the people of Southern Chin State who are particularly living in Mindat, Kampetlet, and Palettwa townships, Myanmar.They call themselves K'Cho or Cho. K'Cho people speak Kcho dialect. Among Chin Dialects in Myanmar, K'Cho dialect is unique. It stands uniquely and does not mixed with other Chin Languages. Commonly, one type of Chin dialects can be communicate with another type of Chin dialect ( Haka dialect can be understanded by Htantlang, Tiddim dialect can be used to communicate with Ton Zang dialect etc...). For some reason Kcho dialect is hard to learn and it is a little bit similar here and there with all other Chin dialects.

K'Cho is their native language and they speak Myanmar as a second language. The people of Mindat and Kampetlet are called K'Cho as well as their language is also called K'Cho. The K'Cho Chin group is composed of smaller linguistically diverse groups of Müün, Dai and M'Kaang. Although the K'Cho Chin group is composed of smaller linguistically diverse groups of Müün, Dai and M'Kaang , K'Cho language is used as a common language in the area of Mindat, Kampetlet and Palettwa . it means that Müün, Dai and M'Kaang can speak and understand K'Cho very well.

Geographical Description of K'Cho Land

The K'cho land is the area of Mindat, Kanpetlet, and Paletwa townships. Mindat, Kanpetlet and Paletwa townships are in southern Chin State bordering with Thilin,Kyawk-htu, and Saw township of Yaw Valley in the east. Paletwa township in the West, Matupi township in the North, and Minpya township of Rakhine State in the South.

The land of K'Cho people is mountainous as it is part of the western mountain ranges of Myanmar. Khawnu or Victoria peak, one of the tourist attractions for hiking , bird seeing, observing of various rare birds and orchid species, is the highest point in Chin State. Vast stretches of mountains are still covered with virgin forest teeming with a wide variety of native orchids and flowers, rare species of birds in the world. But forest from large areas of the region has depleted or degraded due to the practice of subsistence shifting cultivation locally called Taungya, a common farming for the daily food of local people.There are big forests left only in the area of Khawnu National park strictly restricted to cut the trees for no reason.

What does K'Cho mean ?

K'Cho means Chin and it refers to the people and their langugae. The K'Cho are a sub-group of the Chin. Both the people and the language are called K'Cho. The Chin are one of the large ethnic minority groups in Myanmar. All Chin enthic groups name themselvies in many different ways regarding their own tribes such as Lai, Mizo, K'Cho, Asho, Zo and Zomi and so on. The Chin people are Of Tibeto-Burman groups and they probably came to Myanmar, especially the Chindwin valley in the late 9-10 century A.D. Most Chin people moved westward and they probably settled in the present Chin State around A.D 1300-1400 A.D. The original meaning of "Chin" remains obscure, and though scholars have proposed various theories no widely-held consensus has been reached.