Kennedy was the chief caretaker at the Yangon campus for over 5 years. Last year, he left the Yangon campus and moved to Nay Pyi Taw, which is the capital of Myanmar, to pursue children's ministries.
On the surface Nay Pyi Taw does have some advantages over Yangon because it is a relatively new country town with very good infrastructure. However, there are still too many people in Nay Pyi Taw who live in poverty.
If truth be told, Kennedy does not live in the central business district. He is currently renting a property on the outskirts of Nay Pyi Taw, which has been affected by flooding.
In the next village, Kennedy has been busy with assisting needy people who have been affected by the flood. To be more precise, Kennedy has been using a small amount of money, which he received from M2M, to feed an Indian widow.
To see where the widow lives, please click here to watch a short video clip.
The widow has no relatives in Myanmar, and she is really struggling to survive in a country that has no social security system. However, the widow is not the only one who is going through hard times.
In the same village, Kennedy found a single mother with a baby. Apparently, her husband died three months ago. Kennedy generously gave this mother a bag of rice with a container of cooking oil.
M2M condones Kennedy's acts of selflessness because Kennedy shared his limited resources with those who are less fortunate than himself.
If you would like to support Kennedy's work, please visit our What's On page for more information.
September 2024 has not been an easy month for many people who live in central and southern Myanmar. If you've been following the news, then you would have heard about the extensive flooding in Myanmar which was caused by multiple hurricanes during this year's wet season.
Kennedy lives on the outskirts of the central capital city, which is Nay Pyi Taw. Like most of his neighbours, Kennedy and his teenagers have been adversely affected by the floods because they've lost access to safe drinking water.
After M2M sent Kennedy a small emergency payment to his electronic wallet, which was issued by his bank, he had to make a tough decision. Was he going to use the money to benefit himself and his teenagers? Or was he going to use the money to benefit the other people who live in his neighbourhood? M2M is pleased to inform you that Kennedy chose the latter option.
Kennedy noticed that one of his Buddhist neighbours has a deep well on their property. Because of this, Kennedy purchased a water pump to enable all the people in his neighbourhood to get access to clean drinking water from the well.
M2M commends Kennedy for his selfless act during very difficult times. Please see the photos below.
Having a wet season every year is considered to be quite normal for all the countries in the tropics. Myanmar is definitely not an exception to this rule. Did you know that Yangon, in urban Myanmar, usually receives 3000 milliliters of rain every year?
In past years, some wet seasons have lasted for about 3 months in Myanmar. However, some wet seasons can deliver very heavy rainfall for up to 5 months. The latter is often accompanied by catastrophic hurricanes from the Bay of Bengal.
Our recipients in Myanmar have informed the M2M Team that Myanmar is currently going through a very rainy wet season, that has been going on for over 3 months. As a matter of fact, some recipients were unable to join the Zoom Meeting scheduled on Friday, the 26th of July 2024 due to inclement weather. To watch the recording, please click here.
Too much rain can disrupt internet connections and can easily cause power cuts too. Another problem caused by too much rain in Myanmar is the quality of the drinking water.
Shortly after the Zoom Meeting was held, a tradesperson came to Mercy's house to test the quality of the water. Below is a picture of a water sample in a bottle for your perusal.
The orange-coloured sediment at the bottom of the water sample, inside the bottle, is iron. According to the tradesperson, the iron level in the drinking water was unacceptably high. Furthermore, the water was deemed to be unfit for human consumption.
Since Mercy is running a preschool in her home for 15 children, there is a possibility that the water in her house could make the children sick.
At M2M we take water purification very seriously. Therefore, M2M has sent Mercy a sum of money to enable her to buy and install two new water purification machines. Please see the photos below.
This water purification system features 3 filters designed to deliver clean and safe drinking water to all the occupants in Mercy's house.
This is the larger water purification machine which cleans the water used for washing and bathing.
The M2M Team is very grateful to our donors for making this water purification project possible.
Back in May 2024, Elijah asked M2M to send him some money to build a new toilet. Apparently, his old toilet was on the verge of falling apart, and this situation was having an adverse effect on the water sanitation in Elijah's commune.
M2M quickly responded to Elijah's request by sending him the necessary funds to enable Elijah to buy all the materials required to build a new toilet. Below is a series of photos to document the construction of the new toilet.
Elijah and his team worked very hard to build a new toilet. Below is the result of their hard work and effort.
Water sanitation is of great importance to every person who lives in Myanmar regardless of whether they live in urban or rural areas. At M2M, we take water sanitation very seriously.
M2M is very grateful to our donors for turning this building project into a reality.
In Yangon, one does not have to walk very far to find a group of underprivileged children that live in poverty. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Myanmar is making it harder for many people to afford staple foods such as rice and cooking oil. While the Mission2Myanmar is doing everything we can to feed and clothe our recipients; some of our recipients are using their limited resources to help other people who are struggling.
As most of you are already aware, Muang is currently our largest recipient, and he runs the Chin Refugee Centre (CRC) in Yangon. Near the CRC is a makeshift hut that is home to 9 siblings, and it is also home to a group of other children from various families. Muang and his wife clothed these children on two occasions.
Below is a series of low resolution photos, taken by Muang's previous mobile phone camera, to document the first time that Muang and his wife donated preloved clothes to the underprivileged children. These clothes were previously used by the children in Muang's care.
Below is a series of higher resolution photos, taken by Muang's new mobile phone, to document the second time that Muang and his wife purchased new clothes for the underprivileged children. These new clothes were bought with the money that Muang received from M2M.
Even though M2M could not possibly feed and clothe every single child in Myanmar, at least Muang and his wife found a way to care for the underprivileged children in their community by sharing. M2M commends Muang, and his wife, for their beautiful act of selflessness.
Dear Friends,
During November and December last year, the M2M Team was very busy with collecting tangible goods for the shipment to the Karen refugees who live in Thailand. Eventually, we stopped accepting donated goods because we needed some time for packing and sorting, and we also needed some time to prepare the paperwork for this shipment.
We were blessed with well over 10,000 items! The M2M Team is extremely grateful to all the people who contributed to this project. However, we had too many items. Some items were not going to fit inside the 15 bulk carriers (water tanks); and furthermore, due to Thailand's strict import laws, some consumables had to be offloaded. Therefore, we had an overflow of donated goods which were donated to another charity.
The 15 bulk carriers, that were filled and sent to the port, contained over 2 tonnes of merchandise - what a massive effort! The contents included clothes, bedding, camping gear and cooking apparatus.
On Thursday, the 26th of January 2023 at 7am (local time) in northern Thailand, the cargo finally arrived at the final destination. Below is a collection of photos to document this amazing achievement.
Before we focus on the outcome of this project, it might help if we gave you some background information first.
In the past, the Mission2Myanmar (M2M) sent money to David Ling, the owner of the Yangon campus, to enable David to install a rainwater tank and a water purification system at the campus. Due to these developments, the staff and students were fit and healthy because they had access to clean drinking water during the dry season.
There were some unexplained illnesses at the campus during the wet season. If truth be told, most of those illnesses were caused by water-borne infections. Finding the root cause of the water-borne infections was not easy.
Eventually David concluded that the cause of the water-borne infections was the harmful microbes from the students' toilets. During the dry season there was no need for alarm because the microbes, from human waste, stayed in the ground. However, during the wet season, the river swelled and flooded the campus. By raising the water level, the flood water lifted the microbes from the ground and then, the children became sick because they had to walk through the flood waters mixed with harmful microbes.
In early 2021 David received a generous donation from a donor in Brisbane, to enable him to start building a septic tank. This happened before M2M became a Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) for tax purposes. The ultimate reason for building a septic tank is to make sure that all the microbes that get flushed down the toilets, stays deep down in the ground. To eliminate the risk of water-borne infections, those microbes must never rise to the surface especially during the wet season.
In the middle of 2021 M2M received a corporate donation, which was directed to the septic tank project. This happened after the Australian government gave M2M the green light to become a DGR. David received this funding just before the heaviest monsoonal rainfall started.
Sometime in November 2021, the wet season ended and the flood waters receded. Then after that, David recalled the construction workers to complete the septic tank project.
The septic tank was successfully completed in early January 2022. It will be connected to a new toilet block, hopefully before the next wet season begins.
