Information: Charity Projects

In Myanmar, we believe that the true nature of mankind is soft and tender. And that most people are ready to give out of compassion, to people who they feel are disadvantaged. The few charity funds and social welfare foundations in Myanmar, and the constant generosity of numerous monasteries, are good evidence of this human kindness.

Most travellers who come to Myanmar cannot help themselves, but to hand out something to the kids they encounter along the way. Out of compassion, some tourists give candy, some give pens and pencils, and some give small money. These gifts are gradually eroding our culture. And the impact becomes serious. The kids still seem as sweet as can be. But these gifts can turn an innocent kids into a greedy kid. These gifts change friendly eyes into wild expecting eyes. One can easily notice the difference between the children from the tourist destinations, and other areas.

In many areas of Myanmar conditions are harsh, and parents have to work very hard to provide for their children. Many of these parents are not always home, or do not always have the strength, to stop their children from asking for money from tourists.

In one famous tourist site, the children do not go to school, instead they go to the pier to meet the tourist boats coming from Mandalay. It is easy money - they greet tourists in a few words of their own language, sing a song, and walk along with them. Begging from tourists has become their profession. The children themselves do not realize that when they grow up, tourists will no longer find them sweet. That’s when the giving stops. Unhappiness and discontent take root, and turn beautiful young children into insolent adolescents.

This impacts severely our beautiful culture and centuries old traditions. The parents of the current generation of children in Myanmar faced their difficulties with huge smiles and generous hearts. Nothing was expected in return where hard work and respect for elders where the corner stones on society.

In order to sustain our beautiful culture we request our clients not to hand out anything directly to the children in the streets. Instead we give to their parents, or we go to the school and give to their teachers. Of course we make sure of that the children always get what we give.

In Myanmar, there are many charity funds and associations formed for different purposes. Some helps orphanages, some funds for clinic, some supports education, while some digs water wells. Among them, Zarmani mainly supports four orphanages, four schools and one charity clinic.

The Mettawadi, Mingalar, Visakha and Natmauk monastic school and orphanage are located in outskirt of Yangon. Among these four orphanages, there are altogether 835 children ranging age from 2 to 18.  Most of the children are from minority tribes from the remote mountain area. The main purpose they were sent to Yangon is getting better chance for education. Here they have enough food, warm clothes and shelter, and the basic education at free of charge. Once they are equipped with sufficient education and knowledge they go back to their village and become a primary school teacher or a junior leader.
The Kyungyi Village self support basic education pre middle school, The Nyaunggyo Village basic education primary monastic school, The Thayargone basic education primary monastic school, and Ngagyinn Village basic education primary monastic school are located in the Irrawaddy Delta region. These four schools help poor underprivileged school-aged children in the area to get the basic education at free of charge. The Kyungyi pre middle school takes care of the education of 80 middle school aged children, while both The Nyaunggyo and The Thayargone primary monastic schools take care of 180 primary school aged children's education, and The Ngagyinn primary monastic school takes care of 80 primary school aged children's education.
Shwepyihein Charity Clinic in Yangon outskirt welcomes anybody who needs medical treatment and ambulance services.

We believe that the role of tourism could play an important and very positive impact on the well being of livelihoods within our own culture. Your small contribution can make an enormous difference to our work.

With contribution from generous friends and clients of Zarmani Tour, we have built class rooms and entire schools in remote villages. Taungbalu village pre-middle school and Lanku village primary school are the beautiful result of our clients’ contribution. Both villages are located far from the main road in Magwe Division. Out of compassion, we also dig water wells. The water well in a remote village of Myingyan township in Mandalay Division saves the parents from walking 2 hours to get a bucket of water during the dry season. The water well in Natmauk Orphanage stops children having skin disease and diarrhea. And the water well in Mingalar Orphanage saves the children from carrying water far away from their compound, and the orphaned girls there also happy to have bath in the newly built bathroom for them. A new two stories school building with eight class rooms in Thayargone monastic primary school in the outskirt of Yangon was completed following a generous contribution from Dr. Hans Albrecht of Munich. Starting from 2006-2007 educational year, over 180 children from the villages nearby are having the basic education happily in this school. A new dormitory for orphaned girls has been completed in Twantee Phayagyi Village Mingalar Orphanage in September 2006 with a generous contribution from Ms. Lauren Linowitz of United States. This new dormitory is able to accommodate 60 orphaned girls.

With the great support from our friends and clients, we has been able to start an one meal a week feeding program for the children in two monastic schools since 1st November 2007. 
 
Our future plan will be including to take care of a house for HIV positive orphans. We also plan to run one more school in the remote village to help the education for local children.

It is always a pleasure to make sure the contribution goes to the most needed places. We thank all our clients very much, as all Zarmani clients are the contributors of every one of Zarmani’s charity projects.

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