Voice of Arakan (VOA) is based in Rakhine State. It was established in November 2013 in order to promote peace among the people in Rakhine State and improve their knowledge of the developments occurring in Myanmar and inform them on the issues faced by the people of Rakhine State.
Our journal is printed twice a month and distributed in Rakhine State, Yangon, Kachin State, and Thai-Burma border. VOA is a printed media publishing in Burmese language, but it also has a 1-page summary of the newspaper contents in Arakanese language. Publishing in Burmese is a good strategy to improve the literacy level of the people living in Arakan state, while having an extra page in Arakanese language intends to promote the use of Arakanese language and to allow the readers who know only Arakanese to access some data contained in the publication.
In 2013, we were distributing 2000 copies of each bi-monthly publication but since the newspaper was sold-out in a short time, we raised the number of copies to 2500, then 3000, then 3500, then 4000 and then 10000 copies.
We are working on a voluntary basis, and the entire fund we receive from our sales are directly reinvested into the running costs of our organization.
Now we are standing as Online Media.
Covering Topics
- • Political issues
- • Social issues
- • Economic issues
- • Environmental issues
- • Agricultural issues
- • Health issues
- • Poverty
- • Human rights abuses
- • Forced labor
- • Sexual Exploit
- • Education
Our goals
- Promote peaceful cohabitation among different communities living in Arakan State
- Develop general knowledge and ensure peace is sustained in Arakan State
- Develop reading skills of people
- Develop democratic processes
- Promote the participation of people in political, social, educational, peace process and community developmental process
- Reduce conflicts and human rights abused
- Develop critical thinking and analysis on issues
- Develop democratic system and build peace community in Rakhine state and Myanmar
- Increase the participation in political process and protect their rights
- Reduce youth migration
- Improve women participation in political and development processes
- Include local people in political and development processes
- Develop press freedom