Life in Myanmar : Trying To Do My Part

Some of the children at Nano Monastery.
Look! No slippers!

Mingalabar!

Myanmar is getting busier and busier! And now that the much anticipated, hyped and talked-about FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) law has finally come to pass, the rapid development of this beautiful country will continue (I think rapid might be understating the growth rate in this country!). I also realized that articles I had written in the past about “Life in Myanmar” may be a little obsolete now. More foreigners are entering the country and I’m no longer so odd-looking to the locals anymore.  With the sanctions being lifted and the newly re-elected President Obama planning a visit end November, things are looking up for this country. As most locals would tell me : “Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam have had their days. Now it’s our turn.” Indeed!

But while the country continues growing and developing, I hope people who have come into Myanmar looking for the path paved with gold do not forget that there are those who are not living as privileged a life as we do. I’ve been passionate about helping the underprivileged while I was doing time in Cambodia (LOL!). MOH and I were volunteering back then at an orphanage for HIV+ children. We did that for 4 years before we uprooted and came over to the Golden Land. I was adamant to continue doing that in Myanmar and my hunt got me introduced to Friends of the Children of Myanmar (FCM) and onwards to a few orphanages based in the outskirts of Yangon.

When I first took a look at one of the orphanages, I was shocked, actually. I had thought the conditions in Cambodia were poor, but when I saw the orphanages here, it was beyond poor. It was… the dumps, for a lack of a better word. I’ve been volunteering for the past 5 months at the Life Garden Home and will soon start at the Nano Monastery as well – one of the poorest monasteries I have seen (and there could be more which are in even worse dire straits!).

Since I am not a qualified teacher, what I do is spend time with the children and do recreational activities with them like cooking, music, teaching them the Sudoku, dictionary word hunt, sand art, etc. For me, these sessions are actually real fun. But what is most rewarding is the fact that the children want to learn, are eager to learn. Sometimes, my session is disrupted by visitors or power-cuts and even with only 15-20mins left, they would still say “Sister, there is still 20 minutes left, teach us please.”

Initially, I was questioning why I did what I did all these while. I wasn’t so sure I was making a difference by volunteering weekends or by the occasional donation of dry ration and snacks. But later on, I realized that I am a connection for these children to an outside world that they are not familiar with. They know a circle that revolves only around school and the home. Nothing else. Their circle of friends is the same day in, day out. And then I realized that my constant and consistent presence in their lives have given them hope and have made them realized that someone actually cares. So for the children, whether in Cambodia or Myanmar, they wait eagerly for MOH and I every weekend. When we first started in Cambodia, we didn’t realize the importance of our presence and therefore when we missed a weekend, we didn’t think much about it. It was not till later that we were told the children get disappointed and asked for us. So now, I always give advanced warning if I had to miss my sessions with the kids. One learns everyday, huh? Unless I was out of the country, I made sure I was there come rain, flood, storm or even when I’m coughing my lungs out (though this can’t be very smart, eh? In case I infect the children!)

Anyway, when I saw the heart-breaking conditions of some of the orphanages here in Myanmar, I was overwhelmed by the poverty that the children live in. Not enough food, not enough mattresses, not enough beds, not enough clothes, no slippers, … the list goes on. Due to sanctions in the past, aid hardly reached any of the poor. I realized : “Holy Sxxx! How can I help them all by myself??” I mean, whilst half of what I earn goes back to helping the poor children, I can hardly see my dollars stretching to help over 200 kids! As such, I sent out an SOS to all my friends. (You can read my note here at the link below)

My SOS Note

The response to my little note was way beyond what I imagined. As they say, charity always begins at home and so, Mama & Papa came over with cash including that from my brother. My bro’s in-laws immediately worked on gathering stuff and a full box of clothes and all had arrived Yangon last month (though for some frustrating reasons, there was a customs“penalty fee” for what, I don’t know). Then my business partners and friends raised funds and they flew over personally to visit the kids and hand out the goodies. With some other friends, we pooled our dollars together and we managed to save one of the orphanages from eviction. I’ve even got friends all the way in Australia raising funds for this as well. And what’s more? I’ve still got friends lined up now for a visit to Yangon, to the orphanages – all the way till February 2013! I’m very excited that they are visiting and even more excited that they share my cause.

I am very thankful for their big-hearts. On behalf of the children, I wish to say Thank You to them all. I’m trying to save the world one kid at a time. But with these big-hearted and kind-hearted people whom I am honoured to call friends, I hope we can now all save maybe ten kids at a time :)

I was only disappointed that not many in Yangon responded to my SOS call. And they live so near. Only a group of my colleagues with hearts of gold made the rounds to personally deliver goodies too. But who knows? Maybe with more foreigners flocking in now, there’ll be more kindness in this country. With sanctions being lifted, hopefully aid will soon arrive. But I do hope that the government AND the NGOs alike will be responsible enough to think about sustainability. We do not need Myanmar to become another Cambodia (for 30 years, the NGO had basically ruined Cambodia!).  Even though this may be a hardship posting for many, once Myanmar overcomes the accommodation problems, I hope NGO workers will no longer be required to live in USD3,000/month apartments. With USD3,000/month, I can feed many, many, many children.

Less we forget sometimes (myself guilty too!) – we all have the luxury of complaining about the internet, complaining about eating leftovers, complaining about the leak in the damn roof, complaining about the maid not doing a good job, complaining about the chicken served at that restaurant being too dry…. do just remember that there are others out there who don’t have that luxury.

That’s something to think about till the next time round, folks!

This article is also available on Vanity Shack :)

Teaching the children how to cook pasta using firewood. Aiyaya!
Grandma will be so proud of me!!

MOH teaching the children with Flash Cards :)