The South East Volleyball Association is raising money to donate volleyballs to Myanmar via Australian charity The Mercy Syndicate.

South East Volleyball Association president Ben Clark said lots of Karenni people played for the association and were members of the local committee.

“We have always been looking for a way to show some support to them and as a way of thanking them,” Mr Clark said.

“I just saw a picture one day of the kids in the village over in Myanmar and they were just wearing basic clothes and at the back one of them was holding up a brand-new volleyball.

“And I said, ‘there’s our perfect way to help these guys’.

“What they’re going through is terrible over there, they’re constantly getting their villages burned down and having to relocate.

“If you can give a kid something to take away those memories for half an hour or something and play with a volleyball, certainly to help that.”

Mr Clark said they raised a few hundred dollars at the recent Myanmar Food Fair at the Sir Robert Helpmann Theatre and they would put all proceeds from one of their rounds towards volleyballs, along with donation tins at Monday night trainings.

“I work with a lot of refugees from Myanmar who have been over there and they have told me their stories of what it’s like in the village, some of it’s pretty bad,” he said.

“A lot of them have said they used to play volleyball all the time over there, all the elderly people would be playing and they’d teach it to the younger ones.

“We’ll see what we end up with at the end of the season, there’s no limit or minimum, whatever’s there we’ll contribute that, send it over there.

“More than likely we’ll make it an annual thing, the Karrenis are such a big part of our association, always looking to support them.”