Many eyes have turned to Myanmar, watching in amazement as its secretive, authoritarian regime opens up to the world.
That includes a group of students at the University of Hong Kong, who through their organisation, Connecting Myanmar, sent students to Myanmar to witness the campaign leading up to the April 1 elections and work on construction programmes.
'Nobody knows really what is going on [in Myanmar],' said Edward Tsoi Mang-hin, 21, the group's founder. 'I wanted to do something for the country.'
A second-year social sciences student at HKU, Tsoi got acquainted with Myanmar for the first time last summer, when he taught English to Myanmese refugees in Mae Sot, a town just across the Thai border, for 10 weeks.
The experience was such an eye-opener that when Edward came back, he decided to found Connecting Myanmar, which now has about 25 members.
About 1.5 million Myanmese refugees live on the Thai side of the border, having fled poor economic conditions, human rights violations and continuing violence between the military and ethnic groups, such as the Karen.
Jess Connett and Charlie Quaradeghini, two British students attending HKU, went with Tsoi to Yangon, the former capital, from March 1 to 13 to observe the campaign for the April 1 by-elections. Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) won 43 of the 45 seats.
