George Soros s money knows no borders as the tycoon has nearly two hundred interests in the Far East. Intriguingly, the Open Society Foundations are mobilising significant financial resources to support the region s sexual minorities. In Part IV of its series of articles, V4NA examines the US stock market speculator s activity in Southeast Asia.

George Soros s Open Society Foundations (OSF) funded a total of 214 local organisations or programmes related to the region in 2018, according to OSF s website. The map below clearly shows that the Soros network is extremely active in Nepal and Myanmar.

Looking at the supported organisations, it is evident that the stock market speculator provided generous donations to his favoured allies.

Amnesty International Limited submitted two successful applications to receive endowments from Soros. The advocacy organisation was given 133,265 dollars to address the rights of migrant workers in Asia and the Middle East, and 2 million dollars to support transparency mechanisms at national, regional and international levels. According to the organisation s website, it has offices in Hong Kong and Bangkok.

Tides Foundation has also fared well as a preferred organisation by Soros. It managed to receive three separate grants to bolster its activities in Southeast Asia. OSF paid 650 thousand dollars to fund the human rights activities of Tides  Asian fund, and more than 954 thousand dollars for one of its branches called the Myanmar Advancement Fund. A budget of 21 thousand was granted to Tides for information collection through collaboration with organisations of their choice.

Organisations representing sexual minorities were also granted generous donations.

The Korean Beyond the Rainbow Foundation was awarded 240 thousand dollars to strengthen public support for equal treatment of LGBTQ people in South Korea.

The Taiwanese Taiwan Tongzhi Hotline Association was given 150 thousand dollars to support policy advocacy of LGBT rights.

The NGO called Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST) received 300 thousand dollars to ensure, among others, the protection of the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women.

The Taiwanese Shih Hsin University was funded with 225 thousand dollars to provide education opportunities for gender equality advocates.

George Soros is also keeping an eye on North Korea, and has donated money to several organisations linked to the country.

The Seoul-based organisation Center for Military Human Rights Korea was awarded 200 thousand dollars to conduct a survey on human rights violations in the North and South Korean armies, and to provide counselling to victims of human rights abuses.

The American Peace Action was granted 5 thousand dollars to support policy advocacy on North Korea.

The Center for a New American Security, also based in the US, could spend 30 thousand dollars on holding an expert roundtable to explore the possibility of establishing diplomatic ties between the United States and North Korea.

Besides support for the civil society organisations, one internship programme was granted a donation of 12,340 dollars. The fund s beneficiary received training in human rights issues, and an additional 27 scholarships were awarded, funded by an aggregate amount of 1.4 million dollars.

Utóbbiban részesülők többek között olyan projektekben vehettek részt, mint a „Elder abuse in Mongolia: Exploratory study” nevezetű, vagy „Liberalism in a post-liberal world: Engagement of India and China in peace processes of fragile and conflict affected states (Myanmar and Nepal)” nevűben.

Those who received scholarships had the opportunity to pursue projects such as „Elder abuse in Mongolia: Exploratory study”, or „Liberalism in a post-liberal world: Engagement of India and China in peace processes of fragile and conflict affected states (Myanmar and Nepal)”.