the beginning

In October 2009 Raoul & I travelled throughout Myanmar. One day while exploring we came upon this little compound full of children. They beckoned us in with sign language and we were brought to meet the Head-Monk. After a long wait, an english speaker was found and we could communicate. We discovered that the Abbott had started this primary school and home for orphans after Hurricane Nargis hit the Delta region of Myanmar in 2008. It was very apparent that they were hard-up financially as they explained that they survived with daily food donations and not much else. We decided that we wanted to help them and so we held a 'Special Burmese fundraising dinner' at Hibernia in April 2010 to launch our project. We also put a notice in our Art Gallery explaining our project so any 'Friends of Hibernia' could participate with a donation if they wished

the beginning

our return

In September 2010 we returned to Myanmar with the money we had raised. Our first task was to change the donated money into Burmese Kyats. There is no regular banking system in Myanmar, so at Yangon's central market we searched out a moneychanger. Since the largest currency note at the time had a value of approximately 1$, we ended up with a large sack of money! By that evening we were on the bus traveling south.

With no telephone at the orphanage, our un-anounced arrival was a surprise and it was heart-wrenching to see how excited every-one was to see us return. Once again we found ourselves in the Abbott's room.

We tried to explain about the donation/sack of money we had for them but the language barrier made communicating impossible. So we made our exit, decided to make friends with our motorbike taxi man who could speak Basic English and returned with him as our interpreter.

During our time in Moulmein, we went daily to the orphanage for them to get to know us better and for us to acquaint ourselves with their customs, lifestyle & schooling. We saw the rudimentary conditions and knew that we did not need to ask for an explanation of how they would spend the donated money. There were too many ways to choose from.

our return

The Children

During the Anguilla tourist season 2010/11, we continued to receive donations and in June we returned for the second time. It was so satisfying to see that they were making progress, the children looked healthier.