In October, French native Emma Bonnefous gave a week of dance lessons to the children. Additionally, she made a lovely video of this occasion.
In the same month, Dutch nurse Tjitske Bakker checked the medicines and bandages available in our orphanages and supplemented them where necessary. Moreover, she provided the staff with information about possible resuscitation and what to do if a child chokes. For future reference, Tjitske created a useful document containing these instructions.
She also created a document explaining what medicines to give to the children. She decided to do this because staff are often eager to administer antibiotics for all sorts of (minor) ailments. Furthermore, she also explained how to bandage a sprained ankle/wrist.
In the few days that Tjitske visited the site, she has done some extraordinarily useful work. Given the lack of medical knowledge, I will try to find (in consultation with Tjitske) a nurse next year who is willing to work in our orphanages for a couple of weeks.
The study by Marianne Gaultier (see latest news from September 2017) demonstrated that the implementation of solar panels is currently not profitable. This is mainly because (i) the electricity price in Burma is relatively low and (ii) the guaranteed lifespan of solar panels available here is about 50% shorter compared to panels from western countries. That being said, the roof of the girls' orphanage has proven to be extremely suitable for installing solar panels in the future.
The recommendations from this study will therefore be consulted as soon as the situation with regards to solar energy in Burma changes.
Due to the rapidly growing tourism industry, in recent years a large number of hotels have been built in the Inle Lake district (Burma). As a result, the demand for hotel staff has grown considerably.
Our children who have passed for their High School diploma can now easily find a job in one of these hotels. Moreover, they can earn a relatively high salary here. The downside of this development, however, is that the enthusiasm for further education has declined.
The father of the orphanage U Tet Tun has not yet been successful in finding a replacement for Sue. Miss Nilar, who is responsible for the boys orphanage, is currently taking over her duties until a replacement has been found. This means that Nilar is now responsible for 44 girls and 30 boys.
In August, a French volunteer named Gauffre Alexia worked for a week in the orphanages. Gauffre is a student at a medical university in France. She gave English and French lessons and also cooked a few times for the children.
In September, another French volunteer Marianne Gaultier, a newly graduated engineer, worked for ten days in our orphanages. Among other things she (i) collected technical data and visited solar panel suppliers and made preparations for the "solar panels at the orphanages" project, (ii) installed batteries in the emergency lighting and (iii) safety checked the electricity cables.
In October next, Marianne will develop a pilot project that will provide all the information and basics we need in order to make decisions about installing solar panels in due course.
Sending power back into the public network is not (yet) possible in Myanmar.
During the rainy season (April to November), the public –network power supplies are interrupted for, on average, two hours a day. Usually this happens of course in the evening. By installing batteries as well as inverters, the orphanages can now provide up to about six hours a day electricity to the classrooms and the children's bedrooms in times of power failure. The batteries are charged-up with power from the public circuit.
Of course, this investment has been delivered in consultation with U Tet Tun, and it works !. The cost of this was only about € 300,-. You can understand how happy the children and staff are with Marianne's inventive solution.
After returning to France, Marianne will write a report t on the safety of electrical cables and power outlets and will give recommendations on how we can improve this situation.
We are very grateful to Marianne for what she has been able to do for the orphanages in such a short amount of time. In particular the installing of an electricity emergency system. This has already been proven in the past weeks to be very useful to the orphanages.
In our progress report in 2016, we mentioned that through a glitch in the cooperation between board members, all members will make room for new members in 2017. This is in accordance with the advice of our consultant Maria Overmars.
Until now, however, we have not been able to find suitable candidates to complete the various vacancies. However, we can guarantee that we are closely watching over the organisation during this transition period, i.e. we will provide the staff of the orphanages with advice and ensure that the payment of salaries and other operating expenses to the orphanage father U Tet Tun continues.
Unfortunately, Sue, who was responsible for the girls orphanage since 2005, has resigned per June 1st. Sue worked for us for over 12 years and has been invaluable for the children. She was not only there for 'her' children by day and night, but also provided extra tutoring and led hundreds of tourists who visited our orphanages in recent years, along the buildings. A number of tourists were so impressed that they later worked as volunteers in orphanages.
For our orphans, this is a very big loss. We are deeply grateful to Sue for all she has done for the children. For the time being, her tasks are being carried out by a number of girls from our orphanages who obtained their High School diploma this year.
In September, Marianne Gaultier will visit the orphanages for two weeks as a volunteer. Marianne has studied Engineering in France and will, together with our orphanage father, determine whether the installation of solar panels is possible. In addition, one of her other tasks includes checking whether or not the current electricity cabling meets the safety requirements.
Simon Goede (deputy treasurer / secretary Care for Children Foundation).
It is my pleasure to introduce you to freelance photographer Dagmar Lap. In recent years, Dagmar has photographed people in various countries across Asia. This year, she is planning to release a photo book of people that live and work in Asia, including for example Myanmar.
Of each book sold, € 1,- will be donated to our organisation. A fantastic initiative, which definitely has our support. You can learn more about this unique project by clicking here .