Women With A Mission

WWM have a website!

2009-07-12T10:30:00.002+07:00

Yes, we do. We'll no longer be posting to this blog - all new blog entries, and previous ones for that matter, can now be found at www.mywwm.org. Along with a host of other information, which we hope will stimulate some discussion and need for more information. We look forward to welcoming you to our new site and thank you for your continued interest and support. :)

Bronwyn, Rosanne & Kylie

WWM take on Chonburi Handicap Project

2009-07-12T10:25:00.003+07:00

The Chonburi Handicap Project was started by Rosanne in January 2008 after the Governor of Chonburi Province in Thailand, where Rosanne lives, asked the public for assistance for the many handicapped people living in Chonburi who live in housing conditions unsuitable to their special requirements and who receive only B500 (USD15) per month to live on.

Working together with the Redemptorist Center of Pattaya (under the Father Ray Foundation) Rosanne has been able to visit the worst cases over the past year or more and help make a difference in the lives of 45 handicapped men, women and children by providing medical care, wheel chairs, hospital beds and building or repairing existing homes. Funds were raised with the help of local clubs, organisations and private citizen to make this possible.

The Chonburi Handicap Project has improved the lives of many Thai families who live in poverty and have the added responsibility of supporting a handicapped spouse, child or grandchild in our community. Women With a Mission is proud to continue the work of Rosanne and the Redemptorists and bring this project under our ‘umbrella of activities’.

Catching up on the blog, again...

2009-07-06T20:12:00.005+07:00

Wednesday was our last day to visit some of the learning centres (schools) under the BMWEC umbrella. Our task - to talk to them about expansion of the mushroom house project and a visit in September this year with a group of Friends of WWM. Our first learning centre visit was to the big centre of 700 children, Hsa Thloo Lei. We needed to organise video footage for a short film about the school for a sponsor in the UK. We watched the filming of both the junior and senior assemblies. The little ones sang us some songs and we, of course, sang for them. Note to selves - need to improve our performance! We also saw the senior students harvesting mushrooms and working in the vegetable garden.

From here we headed off to Hway Ka Loke Learning Centre and boarding house, a half hour from Mae Sot, which in our notes from from 18 months ago was noted as having 130 children and now has over 320 students. We talked with the assistant headmaster who agreed the centre and boarding house would benefit greatly from a mushroom house, talked to the children and some volunteers who are helping at this centre and visited the boarding house where the little children were in 'kindergarten'. Carrying in tins of biscuits was a sure way to disrupt the proceedings... and we were glad we did. Little children dressed in rags, with no shoes, needed something special to brighten their day. Committing to revisit this school in September to spend some time and do a few activities, we left to then visit Nam Tok Learning Centre.

While the children of Nam Tok had a day off for parent teacher meetings, which were to include discussion of swine flu, we talked to the head master about locating a mushroom house here . He had already heard that his Centre may have one, so bingo... the location was already marked out! We enjoyed his enthusiasm and assured him we'll do our best to ensure a mushroom house is built at his school. He also shared with us other 'income generating projects' set up to assist the learning center, such as a leaf used for consumption of what we think is, or at least similar to, betel-nut. The leaf will be sold to the community to generate funds to subsidise the income for the Learning Center.

Continuing on to Future Garden Learning Center, a small center set in the middle of corn fields, we found them also keen to have a mushroon house to help feed the children their lunches as well as selling them to the local market to help add protein to their existing lunches. As an aside, the day of our visit the center had been without water for 10 days due to roadworks on the highway. It had got so bad - 10 days without water for cooking or bathing - that some of the teachers and older students had started to go and assist with the roadworks so they could be finished. Last word was the water was expected to be completed the next day...

Our final Learning Center visit was to Thoo Mwey Khee Boarding House and Learning Center, which has over 300 students - half of which are living at the boarding house. This Center, close to the border has leased land with the assistance of Global Neighbors Canada Inc to develop a farm to help support their food and running costs. Several different NGO's are working together to set up a sustainable Centre for educating and boarding migrant children whose parents are in extremely difficult circumstances. It is an amazing place, and the headmaster, Pway Doh, inspires us with his enthusiasm. A definate place for a mushroom house. Or two...

A travelling day...

2009-07-02T22:26:00.005+07:00

The post for our last day in Mae Sot is delayed. We have travelled today back to Bangkok... and sitting down to write the post, an excellent documentary on Burma is on TV5Monde. We hope some of you may have seen it... We will finish the blog on Monday.

Down to Umphang to Du Pla Ya Boarding House

2009-07-02T00:01:00.000+07:00

This adventure started Monday with a phone call from our friend who lives in Mae Sot, who was coming with us to Umphium Refugee Camp. She phoned to say the transport was organised but not ideal. Immediate alert! OK to go, but we would have to take the local bus to come back. This is a one and half hour of narrow winding roads through a spectacular mountain range. So we sprang to action, hired a 4WD vehicle and called back to say situation sorted! Tuesday started at 7am to leave for the market to buy fruit, milk and noodles for the children we arrived at the appointed destination to meet with the rest of the gang going to the camp to find no-one there - OK, time to have breakfast afterall.

The scenery down to Umphium is breathtaking, although travel sick tabs are required if you suffer from travel sickness. We arrived at the camp, signed in and were waved through. As always seeing so many people living in such cramped conditions has a large impact, but the rainy season amplifies the effect. Built as temporary accommodation 20 years ago the camp is continually undergoing repair and renovation. Recently the rules have changed to allow these temporary bamboo shelters to have concrete floors and footings. We were pleasantly surprised to find the funds we had sent earlier in the year to repair the canteen roof had stretched to cover the cost of a concrete floor for the dining room and kitchen at Du Pla Ya.

We met with the boarding house leader - a wonderfully compassionate woman who also cares for 20 children in her own home within the camp. We were also joined by Room to Grow Foundation who also partially fund this boarding house and we discussed future plans for working together to provide full support for Du Pla Ya.

Mushroom houses...

2009-07-01T18:00:00.000+07:00

For those of you who may not know what an Oyster mushroom (Pleurotus Ostreatus) house in Thailand looks like, here's a photo of the inside of one. This particular mushroom hut has 1,000 spore bags and the mushrooms grown help to feed nearly 300 children and teachers at Hsa Thoo Lei Boarding House in Mae Sot. Thai Children's Trust have sponsored this house with great results. Twelve students from grade 9 to 11 and a teacher are involved in the cultivation and today's conversations with them confirm for us that they are very happy to have a change from their regular diet! They're able to harvest enough mushrooms for one meal every two days. Once the project has been established a little longer the idea is to sell the extra produce in the local market with proceeds being used to purchase more spore bags (the bags generally produce for between 4 and 6 months), make repairs to the mushroom house when needed and buy other food, for example, meat, fish paste and rice. The cost of a mushroom house this size is B40,000 or AUD1,500 (approx) or USD1,200 (approx). We've been looking at other migrant schools today - looking for motivated school directors and interested teachers that will be happy to take on a mushroom house. And we think we found a few. :)

Catching up on our blog...

2009-07-01T07:05:00.006+07:00

On Sunday we had a catch up day and a visit to the border market on the Moei River which forms the border between Thailand and Burma, where many young Burmese children live in the area and survive the best they know how with little support. On our way back from the market we visited a Wat where Burmese migrants are living. After hearing their tragic stories, we gave a small donation and handed out balloons to the children - which meant we rode off (yes, we're on bicycles!) to the sounds of 'squeaking' balloons and giant smiles. :)

On Monday we rode our bikes to Hsa Thoo Lei Learning Centre, dodging rainstorms and pot holes, disposable raincoats flapping. The route, which normally takes 15 minutes to drive took 3/4 hour, so slightly damp, and very windswept we arrived. Hsa Thoo Lei is one of the migrant learning centres in Mae Sot, educating over 700 children, nearly 300 of these living in the boarding house attached to the centre. Our focus was to meet with some of the administrative staff to talk about the projects WWM are currently running, and possible new ones, and to be updated on the current situation. All discussions here now are focused on how the fighting inside Burma is causing hundreds of children to flee across the border, accompanied only by their teachers. While it has been reported in the newspapers here that thousands are fleeing into Thailand, the plight of the children is not mentioned. Everyone who works with children here are scrambling to find money for food, blankets, water, clothing and medicines. Small school boarding houses along the border are finding their numbers are rapidly increasing since the fighting along the border has increased in intensitity. We've made plans to visit some of these schools on Wednesday. We finished our meeting having established a plan to increase Hsa Thoo Lei's library with English language books, visited the new mushroom house, and discussed the possibility of the girls crocheting christmas stars, and making bracelets which will be used to fund raise by EMPOWA back in Australia.

Our blogging irregularities....

2009-07-01T06:48:00.004+07:00

We've been experiencing great difficulties in accessing the internet for three days now and want to let the few readers we have know that we're thinking of you and have been writing our blog but just not being able to post. So anyhow, now that it appears to be up and running we'll give it another go. :)

Grace Boarding House & Orphanage

2009-06-28T23:03:00.005+07:00

OK, so the hard way to find out for sure what time the border opens to foreigners is to wake up at 5:30am, scoff breakfast and race to the border to be there at 6:30am (previously believed opening time) only to find out it's not open until 8:00am! Hmmm... After skulking around the streets for an hour or so, making friends with the locals and a word or two with the motorcycle taxi guys, Immigration opened and we were the first across the border. The early bird catches the worm. :)

We were a bit worried that we'd not be able to see the children before they left for school now that we were later than planned, but waiting to meet us on the other side was the boarding house mother for Grace Boarding School & Orphanage who had arranged to hold the kids back for as long as she could until we arrived. Avoiding the touts whilst appearing to be the regular type of tourist, we piled into the back of a songteaw (pick-up) and made a dash to the boarding house before the kids left. Arriving in time, we met all the 57 children before the first group left for school and shared some time with the rest of them until they went off to school. They sang for us some Christian songs in English and we treated them to our renditions of Baa Baa Black Sheep and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Both of which we struggled with the words. Bron finished off with a moving performance of All Things Bright and Beautiful.

We took some quick group photos and more of the kids crammed into a songteaw heading to school. They're in need of a lot of things at Grace Boarding House & Orphanage - food, (their main meal of the day is at lunch time, the other two meals are rice and fish sauce - seriously), salaries for carers, (currently they earn B1,500 per month - approximately USD34), toys, library books, (they have a book case but no books) and they'd love a truck so that they can transport the kids to school and no longer pay the B8,000 per month that would be better off spent on food for the children.

Grace Boarding House & Orphanage do currently receive some sponsorship from Singapore and parents contribute a bag of rice whenever they can (no rice during June to October, it's planting time), however it's impossible to feed, house, clothe, educate and provide medical treatment to 57 kids with funds received for 30. What Grace Boarding House & Orphanage needs immediately is funds. For just over B18,000 a year per child, all these needs can be met. That's the equivalent of approximately AUD60 per month, or USD45.

If you'd like to help let us know. We are happy to work with you to ensure your interests are met and your contribution is a best fit.

Quick Update...

2009-06-27T18:27:00.007+07:00

After two very big days and 10 hours on the road, we arrived in Mae Sot late this afternoon. We're weary so will keep this post short. We have a free day tomorrow where we'll aim to update you all with news from the past two days. In the meantime, here's a picture we took while waiting for the border to open for foreigners. Before this, we'd had lengthy discussions between ourselves about sitting directly on the pavement, bought disposable raincoats to sit on and then promptly sat in the gutter with our friends without a second thought.

Mae Sai

2009-06-25T23:00:00.001+07:00

After flying from Bangkok to Chiang Rai, two friends from World Education collected us from the airport and drove us to the northern border town of Mae Sai, just a short hour away. A bowl of delicious noodle soup from the mobile soup stall outside the hotel was all we needed before falling into bed. The choice of meat for the soup included chicken feet, beaks and all other parts of a chicken. Fortunately the maker of the soup decided we were thigh meat ladies and left out the entrails, beaks and feet! Tomorrow we're up at 5:30am for the border crossing.

Another trip in planning...

2009-06-18T12:54:00.000+07:00

Preparations are underway for a trip to Mae Sot to visit 'our kids' at Du Pla Ya Boarding House, though we'll travel first to Mae Sai, a border town in northern Thailand, to meet 50 or so children aged between 6 and 16 at an orphanage that is without funding this year. We were first told about them by World Education, Thailand, who help where they can with educational materials (and trying to find a new sponsor) but just don't have all the funds necessary to feed, house and clothe these kids - so we're going to see what we can do. We hear the children are mostly Wa children who come from areas where there are no schools, meaning they live away from their families; if they have them. At the very least, it should prove to be an interesting journey...

2009-02-03T14:10:00.001+07:00

We started the day at the border market on what we thought would be the quietest day of trip! Whilst we did enjoy the market very much, we'd heard about the children living under the bridge but seeing them brought home the harsh reality of their lives. We're happy to know they receive some support and care from another group operating out of Mae Sot.

Back in town we had lunch at Bai Fern, which was delicious, though we should have allowed a bit more time. It's worth mentioning that two of the best handicraft shops that we've come across, WEAVE and Borderline are closed on Sundays. Or at least they were today! :)

The afternoon was spent visiting an orphanage for toddlers and babies and a home for women and children living with HIV. There's always a great need for volunteers in these places (so much so that one of us was 'carried away' within minutes of arriving by a group of 3 year olds heading to the nearest open parkland to blow bubbles!), that if you're interested in knowing how you can volunteer and/or help otherwise, just let us know.

We shared dinner tonight with 48 teachers and 200 students aged between 4-18 at a boarding house and learning center for refugees and immigrants. Two groups of students performed an hour of traditional Karen dancing, which they had been practicing for the past two months. Their obvious pride in their culture brought tears to our eyes and we felt very priviledged to witness their passion and energy.

Back to Mae Sot

2009-02-02T13:46:00.002+07:00

Yesterday we travelled with Thai Children's Trust to Mae Sot from Bangkok, which was somewhat of a long and bumpy 6hrs by minivan! A delicious Burmese curry at Casa Mia and a good night's sleep at Phannu Guesthouse, saw us ready for another day.

Photocopier Arrives!

2008-11-21T12:26:00.001+07:00

Thank you!

With the overwhelming generosity of our supporters throughout the year and the goodwill of Canon Marketing (Thailand) Company Ltd, Women With a Mission has been able to purchase a digital copier at a substantially reduced price to assist children at risk living on the Thai/Burma border gain access to educational materials.

The digital copier, Canon IR3035, is being used to print text books in several languages (Burmese, Thai and English), as developed by World Education for distribution to 54 mostly make-shift community schools struggling to meet the educational needs of 8,000 children.

Women With a Mission is a non-affiliated, not for profit, private group committed to providing children of all ages, social and cultural backgrounds the necessary tools to receive a proper education and access to daily nutritional needs.

We have a long-term commitment to this project and assisting these children reach their full potential. We are always grateful for your support.

Evening at Jomtien Boathouse

2008-10-03T15:41:00.000+07:00

On Thursday 25^th September, a special dinner and evening of entertainment with Elvis was held at the Jomtien Boathouse Restaurant, Jomtien Beach Road. A wonderful dinner was served by the Boathouse Restaurant staff and organized by Khun Kannika. A slide show of the projects in Mae Sot was presented along with a presentation by Bronwyn, Kylie and Rosanne. On this evening 150,000 Baht was raised for the WWM education programs in the Thai / Burma Border Camps. All proceeds from the evening will go to support the welfare and educational needs of refuge Myanmar children living in camps on the Thailand border.

A special thank you goes to our Sponsors for the evening DHL and a special friend Chitra for her generous donation. Also sincere thanks for the wonderful auction and raffle items donated by Ursula Antiques, Kalae, Arlette Cykman, Nancy Srikumpol, Patricia Foulstone, Indian by Nature Restaurant, La Luna Restaurant, Café New Orleans, Boathouse Restaurant, Residence Inn Restaurant.

Women with a Mission (WWM) is a private group of women who work to organise help for people who need it most. We are currently working to help provide educational supplies (such as a photocopier which will enable to copying of text books for distribution to 54 community schools) to benefit some of the thousands of Burmese children living in the camps along the Thailand/Myanmar border (previously Burma). We are also trying to raise money to supply the children with food, clothing and medical supplies. These children have been displaced by both political uncertainty and more recently a natural disaster, namely the devastating Cyclone Nagis, which left thousands of children orphaned.

If you were unable to attend this charity event for Women With A Mission and would like to learn more. Contact us by email at wwm.burma@gmail.com.

An Evening of Dinner and Entertainment!

2008-08-15T17:47:00.001+07:00

We're preparing for our second fundraising event - it's so exciting! Bron and I (Kylie) will both be back in Thailand with Rosanne in September and it's the perfect time for us to host a dinner together.

We're planning an evening of dinner and entertainment (by ELVIS of all people!) at Jomtien Boathouse on Thursday 25 September 2008 at 7:00pm and we'd love to see you there.

If you're not able to join us but would like to contribute towards our effort to raise funds needed to help meet nutritional needs, provide safe living conditions and educational needs for Burmese children living in Thailand, our bank account details are;

Women With A Mission

Kasikornbank

Branch - Lotus Pattaya (sub-branch)

Account No. - 533 2 056427

SWIFT CODE - KASITHBK

For more information, email wwm.burma@gmail.com.

Article in Pattaya Newspapers - July 08

2008-07-28T22:10:00.000+07:00

This past week WWM has been able to send food, clothing, medical supplies and funds into Burma and the Mae Sot area to help feed, clothe and educate the children of Burmese migrant workers and survivors of Cyclone Nagis.

The management of Regent Park, Naklua, provided a house to use as a collection point for all of the food and clothing items over a period of one month and DHL Logistics provided a truck and staff to load and deliver the items to Mae Sot.

Arriving into Mae Sot around 7:30am on Sunday 13 July the truck was greeted by the children and director of Hsa Thoo Lei Orphanage and Learning Centre, home to 210 orphaned Burmese/Karen children and children of Internally Displaced People (IDP). Within three hours the two truck drivers and children had unloaded the large truck and separated the items for ease of distribution. Within an hour of the truck being unloaded, a local volunteer organisation was able to take the boxes of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing for distribution to survivors of Cyclone Nagis.

The remainder of the food and clothing items were distributed between Hsa Thoo Lei and two orphanages inside Burma, who through their various channels help the survivors of Cyclone Nagis. Due to the difficulties in transporting relief items into Burma, the orphanage house mother and her driver will make three trips in a small van over the next few weeks so as not to draw unnecessary attention to their activities. WWM left additional funds to be used for transportation.

It has proven difficult to give assistance to the people in need inside Burma. Many obstacles stand in the way of sending in large quantities of relief items and the high cost of fuel has prevented even small shipments going in, along with unrest at the border. We have been able to direct funds collected (over half a million baht so far) to an organisation operating inside Burma. They are utilising the funds to provide food and medical supplies, re-build homes and repair boats so the fishermen are able to start earning a living again. Your donations of money, food and clothing have had, and continue to have, a positive effect on their recovery.

Women With a Mission will continue to assist the Burmese families inside Burma with funds to help rebuild their lives in addition to providing children living in refuges camps along the Thai/Burma border with daily meals, educational materials, uniforms and medicines.

A big thank you goes out to so many people, but first of all Marjolijn for co-ordinating the food and clothing drive, along with her many friends. We also thank the following people, schools and organisations for their generosity.

Management of Regent Park (Bangkok Sunday Co. Ltd)

DHL Logistics

Thai Thani Management Co. Ltd

St Andrews International School

International School Eastern Seaboard (ISE)

Montessori Children’s Centre International

Neighbours of Regent’s Park

De Nederlandse Vereniging in Pattaya

AGS Four Winds

Pattaya International Ladies Club

Dana Spicer (Rayong)

There were many individuals who helped in collecting the goods, sort and label boxes, produce packing lists and others who provided medical supplies. Our thanks go out to you all for making this a successful collection.

Help is still needed by the Burmese people. Please contact WWM on how you can make a difference to the lives of those with so little. We’d also like to hear from you if you wanted some more information or updates on our activities.

Email – wwm.burma@gmail.com.

Rosanne, Bronwyn and Kylie

Arrival...

2008-07-14T15:02:00.000+07:00

Rosy and I arrived mid-morning into Mae Sot, ably driven from Pattaya by Khun Thani, soon after the DHL truck had been unloaded and departed for it's return journey to Pattaya. After a quick visit to Hsa Thoo Lei - it was Sunday after all and we wanted to give the Director some time to herself, we checked into our guesthouse (Pin Guesthouse on Highway 105), rested for an hour or so then headed out to find a fruit vendor eager to sell us fruit in bulk at a good price to take to the schools we'll be visiting tomorrow. We're told we may need a 4WD to get to one of the schools, so we'll see!

Kylie

Fab fundraising night to raise money for the children in boarding House

2008-06-20T16:21:00.000+07:00

Photo: Delivering food to the canteen at Boarding House, Thailand border.

Newly formed Melbourne group of women "EMPOWA" used their first fundraising and community awareness raising activity to empower the Burmese children at a boarding house within a refugee camp on the Thai border. The women held a dinner and silent auction at the Burmese restaurant, Burmese House, in Richmond, Melbourne. Great food, including traditional dishes from Burma, was served in between information sessions and a photo presentation of the living conditions of Burmese migrant children and refugees living in Thailand. The night was a good time for old friends to catch up, and new friends to be made. Great contributions to the cause, $3,500 AUD was raised, all of which is going to the boarding house.

So thanks to everyone who contributed, 85 children will have protein, fruit and vegetables included in their daily meals for the next year.

Special thanks to:

EMPOWA Women's Group - Vic, Kim, Kerry, Kerri, Karen, Michelle, and Bron (who is a member of WWM).
Burmese House - thanks to Mimi for fabulous cooking and the great staff support.
Orient Express for donating beautiful Burmese items for the auction.
D'Fine/Creative - for donating the art work and printing for the banners.
Kim King and her party for their great support for the night.

FOOTNOTE:

The boarding house is located within a refugee camp near Mae Sot, Thailand. It is home to between 85 - 100 children who cross the border from Burma to have the opportunity for education and to live safely, free from the threat of the army burning down their villages, and worse. They come without their parents (if they are still alive) and often do not see their families for many years. Some of the children receive rice rations from the main camp, but many are totally dependant on people such as us for food, clothing, and hygiene supplies. With the increasing price of rice since Cyclone Nargis, food is now at a critical level for these children, who receive only two meals a day, unless substantial extra funding is received.

Dear Family and Friends

2008-05-21T21:54:00.000+07:00

21 May 2008

Dear Family and Friends

Most of you will know that soon after the tsunami of December 2004, I joined with two of my friends to raise funds for the communities in southern Thailand. Immediately after the tsunami and for the next three years, as Helping Hands Pattaya, we achieved many great things, including self- sustaining lunch farms in seven schools; daily school lunches for children in eight schools; child sponsorships and provision of milk for babies and children to the age of five years.

Of the three of us, Rosanne is the only one still living in Thailand – Bronwyn has relocated to Melbourne, Australia and I am living in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Women with a Mission came about after we realised we needed a name that reflected our new locations, continued collaboration and our plans for the future!

We are each devoted to being citizens of the global community, without cultural or religious boundaries. As a private group, WWM is able to reach those that cannot be assisted by organisations with strict guidelines. We are able to co-ordinate with a wide variety of organisations.

We have had a commitment to the people of Burma for some time and in February of this year we visited the border town of Mae Sot in Northern Thailand. Thailand is home to an estimated two million migrants escaping 50 years of internal conflict within their country and living in dire poverty in refugee camps throughout the border regions. Many of them are orphaned children and teenagers sent by their parents from Burma in the hope they will live in safety and receive an education in the schools established by the Burmese community.

The need for aid is great in Mae Sot. Prior to Cyclone Nagis in Burma on May 2, we had committed to fundraising for a commercial photocopier, which would enable distribution of teaching materials to the schools and learning centres as part of our plan to establish a consistent curriculum.

It is still our intention to provide the photocopier – the cost is THB224,700 (approximately AUD7,400). We have chosen to purchase this machine as it can be purchased and serviced locally and will provide further financial support for the local community.

We maintain our commitment to assist the people of Burma, especially in this great time of need. We have contacts that have been able to enter Burma to distribute funds, clothing and basic food necessities, collected in the past two weeks. Should you wish to contribute towards this immediate cause, we are able to assist.

We are committed to being financially accountable and use the funds received only for the purpose requested. We do not utilise any of the funds for our expenses, in fact donating these ourselves. In places where we donate our time and resources, we respect the autonomy of local communities, encouraging people to develop their own development processes.

Your support of our efforts to assist the people of Burma is greatly appreciated and donors will receive detailed information on the use of their funds if required. I look forward to hearing from you individually – even if it’s just for more information or updates on our progress.

Kindest regards,

Kylie

for Bronwyn, Rosanne and Kylie

An open letter....

2008-05-08T13:17:00.001+07:00

May 7, 2008

Dear Friends,

A terrible cyclone has claimed many lives in the Burmese southern coastal area and has left many people homeless and orphaned.

They are in desperate need of your HELP!!

Women With a Mission (formally Helping Hands Pattaya) has been working in the Burmese refugee camps in Mae Sot since February of this year. We have contacts in that area that can get supplies directly to the people that need it.

The Mae Sot area was hit by the tail end of the storm and two of their schools were destroyed at the migrant workers’ refugee camps.

I have been gathering clothing, books and monetary funds for the last couple months with help from friends like you to send up to Mae Sot. This has been hugely successful, and we thank you for that.

Unfortunately, now there is a need much greater and URGENT!!

I am rallying some organizations from Pattaya (Rotary Clubs, Pattaya Mail, Mercy Center, Fountain of Life, Father Ray Foundation, Jesters Care for Kids and Four Winds Moving Comp.) to be more successful in our efforts to help the most needy.

Please help us be successful in these efforts by donating between 5,000 and 25,000 baht and/or much needed supplies, such as:

1) Tarps

2) Mosquito nets

3) Food supplies and water

4) Clothing

Send your financial support to the Fountain of Life (bank information below).

Thank you for your much-needed support and caring for our neighbors in Burma.

Sincerely,

Women With a Mission

Rosanne

for Bronwyn, Rosanne and Kylie