Education
Tufts University; Columbia University.
Tufts University; Columbia University.
After her husband"s death in 1965, widowed Louisa led the Fifth Brigade, but fell out with the Karen National Union leadership following a power struggle with Bo Mya. After emigrating, Louisa Benson Craig obtained a master"s degree in international affairs at Columbia University and worked to advocate for Burmese democracy and resettlement efforts for Burmese refugees in the United States. In 2004, she was named a plaintiff in a landmark human rights case against Unocal, which was operating in Burma, for profiting from the Burmese military"s alleged human rights abuses by operating the Yadana gas field
Louisa"s father, Saw Benson (also known as Moses Ben-Zion Koder), was an entrepreneur descended from the Koder family, a prominent Cochin Jewish business clan in South India"s Cochin (now Kochi) on his paternal side, and the Leynado family, a Sephardic Jewish family on his maternal side.
Louisa bore three children to Glenn Craig, who became an entrepreneur helping found an international school publications enterprise out of California. Karen relatives of Louisa also emigrated to California.
Louisa"s legacy and memory live on not only as a heroine among the Karen people but also in continued awareness-raising by others moved by Karen courage and tenacity to hold onto ancient independence, history, culture, and identity.