In late October 2016, along with my two northern Thailand Rotary colleagues, Carol and George, I visited the Sisters of Providence for the first time. Located in the northern town of Chiang Saen, these Sisters have done some remarkable work during their five short years in the country. Led by the energetic Sr. Janda Garcia da Costa (from Brazil) and

I had an extensive visit with Life & Hope Association yesterday. L&HA has two main programs. PAGE: Program for Advancing Girls Education and Sewing. PAGE: Under this program the Monks, headed by the Venerable Lorm Loeurm, support a high school education for 28 carefully selected, marginalized girls from remote villages. Their plan to expand to 35 girls next year and

CEDF – OpCam is a Cambodian charity registered with the Ministry of the Interior in agreement with the Social Affairs Department. Opportunity Cambodia, an Australian NGO*, partners with CEDF – OpCam and provides its funding and overall guidance. About 2007 Opportunity Cambodia opened an Education Centre in rural Anlong Samnar Commune. Today, general manager Youchheng Uch (Chheng), and founder, Carolyn

We are seeking for several sponsors for 25 school girls available at the Good Shepherd Sisters in Nongkhai. Here’s some information about the program, in the words of the Sponsorship Programme itself. Programme Participants We wish to share with you the following statistics which show the numbers assisted by our programme over the past three years. Sponsorship funds are provided

Last week we once again visited Palel Myintta. You may remember this as the small child-care facility for about 20 HIV positive kids either orphaned by the disease or abandoned by their caretakers. This is where I first met May Mi, a four-year-old girl whose grandmother had been seeking a lethal injection so she wouldn’t have to care for an

I’m delighted to share with you the story of one of the finest Monks I’ve ever met. This man is named Ashin War Thithta. He is the Head Monk, called the Sayardaw, for the Kabahlone Monastery in Hpa-an, Myanmar. That is my good Myanmar friend and our Myanmar Country Director, Treasure, in the background. I first visited Kabahlone in 2013.

Along with my colleague, Peter Scontrino, I’ve just finished four full days coaching the future leaders of Myanmar on leadership and management skills. How, you ask, did that come about? Well – it all happened because our wonderful colleague in Myanmar, Treasure Shine, working with a local head-monk, along with the Hpa-an Education Foundation, pulled together this highly select group

My good friend and fellow Rotarian, Carol Acosta, asked me to help with a meeting so that the people in a local Hmong village called Rak Phan Din could explore the possibilities of organic gardening. Sure. Why not? We had no clear idea about their real agenda, but we sorted that out during the first meeting when 35 villagers showed

Today we visited Lahu village of San Leung, about 40 miles south of Lashio, Myanmar. There we met with the Village Leader (a nice fellow called U-Tone-See) his village committee, and many of the villagers. San Leung has 31 households with 15 kids in the 3 to 5 age range. They have a pre-school for them but only for two

This evening we met with the Hpa-an Education Foundation, including the current Chairman, a dedicated man called U Khin Shein. This is a group of 300 local citizens dedicated to filling the gap between what the government provides in the way of education and what is really needed. Each of the members contributes monthly to the Foundation. And, the leadership