Kindly note that in order to protect our Burmese people faces and names have been changed. The stories are however all true.
Northwestern Burma Boys’ and Girls’ Homes
Back in 2009 we started two new homes in northwestern Burma. At present there are ten kids in each home. One home is for girls and the other for boys. Gradually we will increase the number of young people in each home to about fifteen to twenty.
Burmese child soldier
A Brief Case Study: “Jim” is 15 years old and studies in grade 9. He has seven siblings none of whom can go to school because Jim’s parents are too poor to be able to afford the uniforms, books and government school fees. Now through Empower Asia’s support of Jim, some of his family will have a shot at getting out of poverty in this generation.
The children in these homes are those whose parents have either been, or are at risk to being tricked by the government. Recently government officers have told these impoverished parents that if they allow their kids to go with government authorities then their kids would be well cared for receiving food, shelter, education and health care. Instead it is widely reported that these kids are instead sent off to live in remote monasteries where they have been mistreated and made to feel very unhappy. Naturally many of these kids want to run away. If they are caught escaping then they are very at-risk to being press ganged into enlistment into the Burmese army as child soldiers.
At least five of our kids have already been to these monasteries and managed to get away. Others were awaiting their turn to be sent. Obviously we cannot show you any photos.
Thet has both a Mum and Dad. Unfortunately his Dad is in a military prison whilst Mum works on the roads smashing rocks with a hammer so that they are small enough to be used as aggregate to place into the tar that is laid on the surface of newly formed roads. Very hot and very, very hard work for almost no reward. Thet immediately embraced the Christian faith. One day he asked our house dad, “Tell me about your God?” That was it, he became a follower from that day forth.
Mai is 13 years old. Her dad is dead. He was a drunkard. Mum cannot support her family. She labours for US$15/month. To buy rice alone for the three of them costs more than her wage. How can they survive? If there is a pre-existing culture of sending daughters into prostitution, then it would be no surprise if Mai had ended up this way if we had not got her first.
REPORT Burma’s Political Situation:
Civil servants received a huge shock in November 2005 when hundreds were forced to relocate to a newly created administrative capital that the military was secretly building near the central Myanmar town of Pyinmana. Government workers were given only one day to pack and make the move 320 kilometres north of Yangon. A pay hike was seen as being a good incentive for workers to make the move. On March 25, 2006 the military rulers announced that they had awarded a 10-fold salary increase to civil servants and an increase to the military affecting about 1 million workers.
How were they to pay for such a salary increase you wonder? The two most likely methods are from the huge government accumulated cash reserves and secondly, from printing more money. This has been a common past tactic which has helped to fuel a 25% inflation rate.
Our Empower Asia Treasurer reported that, “not only the price of rice but basic daily commodities have all gone up. Most citizens are suffering from severe or extreme poverty. Most are living hand- to-mouth. Last year, one sack of rice was 9200 kyats. Now it is 23000 kyats for bad quality rice … I am living in a funny country.”
Since reporting on this price rise no doubt rice has increased in price yet again, further economically crippling the people. The government does not care.
Have a look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8×9Po919038 to give you an insight into the life of the army generals and the opulence in which they exist while others around them suffer. If you cannot access this 3-4 minute video from the address above then go to www.youtube.com and then type in “Opulent state wedding draws gasps in poor Myanmar”
Photo below: Basic it may be, but it’s our home. Yong Chee Oo, Yangon
We at Empower Asia have four homes in Burma that mentor and develop our young people into future leadership; Ray Of Light boys’ home, Ruth’s Family and Ebenezer House (which has two homes).
RAY OF LIGHT BOYS’ HOME
In 1998 Yaung Chee Oo (Ray of Light) home was set up on the site of a Bible College. Originally we accepted just five boys into the home. The oldest was 13 years old.
We specifically target boys from the Burman Buddhist background because they are from the dominant and most influential ethnic group both in terms of population and government/army control.
A decade on we now have 16 boys aged from around 9 – 22 years. In addition there are a few other guys who have left the home and are either studying or serving their community.
There are eight kids in high school, two in primary school, two in middle school and two each in Bible school and Technical school. Their average age is about 16 years.
Eight of the sixteen boys are orphaned. We would have increased the number of kids in the home well past these levels were these homes not in such a repressive military state.
Maung is the second of four children. His Father died when he was 9 years old. As a result Maung went to work in a car battery shop in a city in central Burma. When we discovered him he was receiving only food and a place to sleep, no wages. Four years later … he graduated from Yaung Chee Oo and has studied theology and has been serving those within his community.
Our boys are becoming Yaung Chee Oo. It has been hard work requiring determination from our house parents. Now we are not only seeing young men with changed lives, but they are venturing forth and being influencers in the lives of others.
RUTH’S FAMILY, Shan State, Burma
The Shan State has an unfortunate reputation for selling its daughters into both the Thai and Chinese sex industries. In response, we have been operating a girls’ preventative prostitution work within the heart of the problem. Opium fields and a raging civil war are not far away.
Come and meet some of our girls.
Jay’s dad is dead. The opium got him. Mum is a farm worker who cannot earn enough to buy her family two daily meals.
Tin’s dad is an opium addict who wastes all of the family’s money. Mum is not able to support the whole family so as a result most of Tin’s siblings must work instead of going to school. If Tin did not come to live with us, by now she would probably be a roadside labourer breaking rocks with a hammer. That would have been be her lot in life. God wants her to have more.
Now both of these girls have the opportunity to go to university. The support that you provide is cutting edge in that there are probably no discipleship orientated homes for youth in the whole of the state.
REPORT Background to Social Problems in the Shan State:
The Shan State has a population of 5.5 million people of which 99.9% are Buddhist. Shan people are staunchly Buddhist and fiercely independent. I wish that our Shan work was bigger and I wish that we could take in more kids but we have to build up slowly and stay under the government radar. As an organisation Empower Asia has no desire to be or appear to be subversive. Recently on world TV news we have seen street protests in Burma’s capital Yangon but the problems away from the prying camera’s eyes are much worse. Our Ruth’s Family House dad wrote the following to our Treasurer before the current crackdown:
“Every house in xxxx (where our house is located) has been checked once a week by the local authorities. The people here are very tired because of the rallies that the government authorities force the public to take part in. If the people do not go to the rally then the soldiers beat them bitterly.
When they are at the rally, the anti-government (rebels) will burn whole villages down in retaliation for their attendance. Our people here are very pitiful and confused. As you know most of my church members are soldiers. They cannot come to church at present for they are in the battle fields. They have warned me not to go out of xxxx because of the tensions. Because of this it is difficult to visit other places even though I have found intelligent suitable girls in the provinces to come and live at the home. The provinces are not safe at all … One problem is that the girls that we have found who are born in remote areas do not have birth certicficates so it is impossible for them to enroll in school. I just have a great hope that we would have peace very soon. The Lord is in control. My heart is burdened for I have found many girls who are hopeless and helpless… More than most of them live in fear.
Both of us pray for you and your family. With my wife, we earnestly pray together that we will be able to bring the girls to live at our home on time … I will contact you via phone with our own dialect – that will be much safer.”
Click on the link below to see how Mathida was led into child prostitution http://www.burmalibrary.org/reg.burma/archives/199706/msg00223.html
