Burma

EMPOWER ASIA BURMA has four homes in Burma that disciple and mentor our young people into future leadership

Homes

Ray of Light
Number of Kids - 19 boys
Commenced - 1988
Average Age - 15 years
Monthly Operation Cost - $730

Ruth’s Family
Number of Kids - 8 girls
Commenced - 2005
Average Age - 14 years
Monthly Operation Cost - $545

Ebenezer Girls
Number of Kids - 8 girls
Commenced - 2008
Average Age - 14 years
Monthly Operation Cost - $250

Ebenezer Boys
Number of Kids - 8 boys
Commenced - 2008
Average Age - 14 years
Monthly Operation Cost - $250


Burma:
Population of 55 million.
Religious makeup: 89% Buddhist, 4% Christian, 4% Muslim
(Note that in order to protect our Burmese people faces and names have been changed. The stories are however all true).

  • Thet still has both parents however his dad is wasting away in military prison whilst his mum works on the roads smashing rocks with a hammer so that they can be used as aggregate to place into hot tar that is laid on the surface of newly formed roads. This is 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. Thet has fitted in very well to the home and has a good level of responsibility. He talks about wanting to serve God.


  • Mai is 13 years old. Her dad was a drunkard who has since died. Mum cannot support her own family. She labors for $15/month. To buy rice alone for the three of them costs more than her wage. How can they survive? Where Mai comes from there is a pre-existing culture of sending daughters into prostitution so it would have been no surprise if Mai had ended up this way if EMPOWER ASIA had not got her first. Now she is safe and studying at school and hopes to become a schoolteacher.


    • RAY OF LIGHT BOYS’ HOME

    RayOfLight

    Ray of Light Home (pictured above) specifically targets 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. There are sixteen boys in school and two boys each in Bible College and Technical School. Additionally there are others who have left the home and are serving God within rural Burma. Half of our boys are orphaned.

    The unwillingness of the Burmese government to care for their poor beggar’s belief. This of course was so amply illustrated to the world during Hurricane Nargis in 2008 when hundreds of thousands were left homeless, orphaned and abandoned having to fend for themselves.

    For the children that we care for, they would have no chance of completing high school and would never attain good jobs that would provide sufficient wages to care for a family. Poverty in Burma is beyond comprehension. The government has been steadily increasing the price of rice, Burma’s staple crop, adding more burdens to the poor so that they eat only one or two good meals a day. We could increase the number of kids in these four home well past these levels were these homes not in such a repressive military state (a military dictatorship since 1962). As a result we must necessarily operate somewhat underground.

    Have a look at this video 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 YouTube and then type in “Opulent state wedding draws gasps in poor Myanmar”

  • Maung is one of our boys and is now back serving at our boys home having first graduated with a theological degree. Life was not always good for Maung. He 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 but no wages. Now he is 22 years old and works full time ministering at our home caring for the younger ones. Hence Maung has gone full circle from being one who receives to being one who gives.


    • EBENEZER HOMES:
    In one particular area of Burma there are many children from very poor Christian families who cannot afford to continue on in their studies. So the military government takes these children from their parents with the promise to provide free education and nutritious food.

    Later on however, the parents came to realize that they had been cheated by the military government because in fact their children were sent to remote Buddhist monasteries where they were forced to become Buddhists.

    Many of the kids in fact ran away. Many of the boys that were captured were then press ganged into training as child soldiers.

    For this reason, we formed two homes, one for boys and one for girls. The Ebenezer Homes protect our kids from very grave exploitation and offer the opportunity to receive an education so that in time these young people can return back to their own people and offer community development in one form or another. Naturally the Burmese military are not happy that we do this.
    Unfortunately it would not be safe to show you any pictures of the home or the children.


    RUTH’S FAMILY
    Shan State, Burma

    RuthsFamily
    Our House. Mum and one of the girls.

    The Shan State has a population of 5.5 million people of which 99.9% are Buddhist. Not only are Shan people staunchly Buddhist but also fiercely independent. 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. For the reasons above we love to work in the Shan State; we like going to hard places.

  • 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 laborer breaking rocks with a hammer.

    • With your help both of these girls and others have the opportunity to attend university. The support that you provide is cutting edge in that there are probably no other discipleship orientated homes for youth in the whole of the Shan State.

    Click on the link below to see how Mathida was led into child prostitution
    Here

    To learn more about our four homes in Burma and the precarious situation that our indigenous staff and kids find themselves in then kindly click Here

    We have insufficient funds to run all of these works as they presently stand and certainly we do not have enough support to take on more new at-risk youth. Would you like to give? It would be fantastic if you could.

    Donations from the USA and Canada can be sent to Global Tribe but must be specifically designated for Empower Asia.

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