There are two orphanages in the town of Taunggyi, about an hour by car from the famous Lake. One is Christian and one Buddhist, at this time they each have about 130 kids ranging in age from 3-17 years. The Christian one is led by an elderly retired teacher and supported by the local Christian association. The Buddhist one is led by a Buddhist priest. The children come to the orphanages either because their parents are dead and have no living relatives of their relatives can not feed another hungry mouth. The Christian orphanage will also take disabled children that their parents have rejected. They all attend school for which the orphanage has to pay school fees to the government. Until we met them they had an intermittent supply of water and they cooked all their food in big old oil drums on open fire. We bought materials to build a water tank that has since been built.The walls of their orphanage are flimsy, some made from reeds with no glass in the windows. The kids sleep 2-3 to a wooden platform bed, sharing blankets for warmth in winter. They generally eat rice and vegetables for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They only have a few toilets in the back yard, shared by chickens and a pig. They live in very cramped conditions with very little room to play outside. They have a school room with dirt floor and an old blackboard for supplemental lessons. They are quite happy though and with lots of curiosity and eagerness to meet new people and learn.
In the fall of 2007 good friends of ours and their daughter visited the Christian orphanage. We fund raised money together and they managed to buy 4 tons of rice for them and pay the school tuition fees for the children.
At Christmas 2007another family with two children visited the Buddhist orphanage. Together we fund raised $2000. They brought 140 bags of toilletries and school supplies and gave each child a sweater, hat and gloves for the cold winter. They bought medicine to treat each child for ring worm. They also bought vitamins, rice and cooking oil and left 1 million kyat with Mong Pay, our travel agent to build a septic tank and toilets.
Click here if you would like to read a letter from the Christian orphanage director about how the orphanage came into existence.
