Sponsor a child in Myanmar with Children of the Mekong

125 sponsorship programmes
3,000 sponsored children
100 local volunteers
5 local staff

Myanmar (formerly Burma) is a largely rural country composed of 135 officially recognised ethnic groups although in reality there are around 148, including the Rohingyas, Chin, Kayah, and Karen peoples… the list is a long one, and Myanmarsuffers from numerous internal conflicts, particularly since the military coup of February 2021, which plunged the country into a serious political, economic and social crisis. Children of the Mekong supports any initiative to keep young people in school in this difficult context, particularly in war zones, and to improve the education system, which already had to be completely rebuilt after 50 years of military dictatorship. The highly discriminatory system requires compulsory and paying supplementary courses to which the poorest cannot have access. Complementary projects also help to meet the vital needs of families and young people (nutrition in particular).

The communities we work with, live mostly in ethnic states such as the Chin, Kachin, Shan, Kayah, and Karen communities as well as in the central plains and the Irrawaddy delta. Some suffer the consequences of civil war or other major problems such as AIDS, drug trafficking etc.

57.5 million inhabitants, with 68% living in rural areas
Official language: Burmese
Currency: Myanmar Kyat (£1= 4171 Myanmar Kyat)
Literacy rate: 89%
Ethnic groups: 148 ethnicities (Burman (Bamar) 68%, Shan 9%, Karen 7%, Rakhine 4%, Chinese 3%, Indian 2%, Mon 2%, other 5% )
Main religion: Buddhist Theravada 87.9%

CHILDREN OF THE MEKONG’S ACTIVITY IN MYANMAR:

Our child sponsorship programmes play a major part in giving education to the most underprivileged children in Myanmar. Sponsoring a child provides:

Access to education in the most isolated areas, especially among the ethnic minorities such as the Shan, Chin, Kachin, Karen, and in the country’s refugee camps (sanctuaries where families can live when their villages are in the civil war zone).
Supporting students in elementary school, middle school, and high school, enabling them to continue their studies by paying for the additional classes required and giving them the educational help and guidance to succeed.
Guiding and supporting young people through professional training courses (English studies, the hotel industry…) to enable them to enter the workforce and help them develop as people in their own right so that they can be open to the world around them and become part of society.

Children of the Mekong also run every year one-off projects, such as the construction and renovation of foster homes, for example, allow us to improve the environment in which our sponsored young people study and live.

Sponsor a child in Myanmar

Sponsor a child charity. Best way to sponsor a child

An update on the situation in the country, April 2024

The resilience, courage and dedication of our local programme managers to the young people they look after, despite these situations, impresses us more and more every day. Despite repeated escapes, dashed hopes and political contingencies, they never stop finding solutions to bounce back and better help those to whom they have dedicated their lives.

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