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Home    Sitemap    Help    Media Library    Find a Partner   Select a Partner 1st Framework Afrikan Quest Albion Primary School Alfred Salter PS Archbishop Michael Ramsey Arts & Media Project Associacao Imagem Comunitaria Aylwin Girls Sch Bellenden Residents' Group Bethlehem Castle Arts Charles Edward Brooke Girls School Charterhouse Community TV Trust Cooltan Arts Corsica Arts Club E.Dulwich Community Cntr English Martyrs RC School FAIR STREET Farassa Gloucester Primary Sch Goodrich Primary Sch Goose Green Primary Sch ICE - Sydney InSpire Kickstart YIP Langbourne Primary Sch Lilian Baylis Technology School Livesey Museum Mothers Against Guns NEON Peckham Voluntary Sector Forum Pioneer African Caribbean Over 50s Group Rockingham Somali Support Group se5forum for Camberwell Sierra Leone Community Forum SL & Maudsley NHS Trust Southwark College Southwark Hindu Centre SPAG Southwark Pensioners Cntr Refugee Artists Network SSEMTA Southwark YP Magazine Spirit Arts Academy Stepforward Storymakers Syndicate Time And Talents Tribute Trust Uni4U Volunteer Centre Southwark Willowbank PRU Yangon YMCA Young Parents Project Youth Animation Media YANGON YMCA SUPPORT GROUP (UK) promoting the work of Yangon YMCA, Myanmar (Burma) NEWS and OPPORTUNITIES BULLETIN No. 3 - FEBRUARY 2006 Based in Watford (UK) and in association with Watford YMCA, Yangon YMCA Support Group aims to develop links with Yangon YMCA and generate support for educational, health and welfare projects being run or planned by Yangon YMCA for local disadvantaged people. For further information, log onto www.myanmardirectory.org - overseas member 1023 and www.southwark.tv/YMCA/Ymcahome.asp PLEASE SUPPORT THE Concert in aid of Yangon YMCA projects Ionian Clarinet Choir 7.45pm Saturday 3 June, St Mary’s Church, Watford town centre Visit to Yangon YMCA In November, Russell Cleaver spent 10 hectic days on a working visit, staying at Yangon YMCA. Besides formally opening the 2 guest rooms sponsored by Watford YMCA and visiting the ‘YMCA Village’ in Yangon’s outskirts, he was involved in a range of discussions helping to promote the Yangon YMCA link. This Newsletter highlights the main areas of progress and lists ways in which you might wish to assist. Lifetime Learning Centre – change of emphasis Due to the difficulties in recruiting volunteer English Teachers, and with the increasing access to email and now broadband, various ways of distance learning are being explored to assist students. These include students accessing the internet via the new broadband installation (funded by a generous grant from Watford YMCA), establishing a distance learning link with London University and developing a network of English-speaking mentors who would be ‘twinned’ by email with a Yangon YMCA student. Volunteer teachers are still welcome. Opportunity: if have you an interest in English Literature, you could become a 1:1 coach, assisting a student in their studies of set books. Enquiries welcome. Breathing Life into the new Annex Whilst the building of the new 8 storey annex to the main YMCA building is now complete, much work and resource is still required to commission the building so that it can start providing services and ‘paying its way’. So far, one floor is being used for teaching whilst 1 of the 2 floors designated for sleeping accommodation is now in use, with the launch of the guest rooms mentioned above. However there are still 27 more rooms to be fitted out and sponsors are now being sought throughout the YMCA movement globally, together with approaches to be made to companies, charities and individuals. Reference to the new guest accommodation in the new Lonely Planet guide to Myanmar should help to generate business from foreign travellers. Opportunity: as a % of guest takings goes to support educational and welfare work in the ‘YMCA Village’ there is an urgency in finding sponsors to pay ?subject=From Website'>750 - ?subject=From Website'>1000 each for the fitting out of further rooms. In return, the sponsor’s name would appear on a door plaque. Enquiries from individual or corporate welcome. Micro-finance Project success story Since it was launched some 2 years ago, Yangon YMCA has initiated 105 micro-finance projects, working with families in the YMCA Village. All these families are now economically active and have paid or are in the process of returning the loan. An Information Sheet will shortly be available on the website. Mary Chapman School for the Deaf Whilst not run by Yangon YMCA, the General Secretary is a Board member of this special school and having been visited by Russell Cleaver in November, it was felt appropriate that its needs should be publicised in this Newsletter and the Myanmar Directory website. There are over 350 deaf children (about 200 boarders) with some 20 older students on vocational training classes organised on-site. More recently, an audiological unit has been developed with teachers who can work with the 120 children who are supplied with hearing aids. The school is heavily dependent on voluntary contributions to continue its valuable service, started by the English lady Mary Chapman in 1920. Opportunity: Various forms of sponsorship are available e.g. for ?subject=From Website'>30 pa you can sponsor a named child i.e. feeding and clothing. Check the website for more details. Cornelius Clinic provides low level children’s health care on a shoestring Though not specifically a YMCA project, Russell Cleaver has visited this one-man clinic in north Yangon, has met the founder and Director, Dr Thang Cin Mang on numerous occasions, and recommends support for Dr Thang’s work (for more details see the website). A trained, now retired paediatrician, Dr Thang provides a low priced medical service for up to 30 children daily, mostly brought across the Yangon River from villages in swampy areas with primitive sanitation systems involving stagnant and polluted water. Hence, young children are susceptible to gastro enteritis, diarrhea, respiratory diseases and TB, scabies and skin diseases. Treatments are basic: antibiotics, vitamin pills, boiled water with salt tablets and sugar, health education and personal hygiene material. Dr Thang hopes to develop the clinic’s effectiveness by providing an outreach service to a string of villages the other side of the Yangon River. Opportunity: ?subject=From Website'>1 would pay for treatments to keep a sickly child alive for a week. Interested in a Study Tour of Myanmar? To learn about the activities of the YMCA movement in Myanmar, visit Buddhist and Christian sites, cruise up the Irrawaddy etc, - and generally raise your awareness level of this vibrant but troubled country, why not gain first-hand experience by joining a Study Tour in late 2006 or early 2007? Pre – departure briefing arrangements offered. Opportunity: If you are looking for a most unusual and ‘not to be forgotten’ experience (you would also be supporting a YMCA operating in difficult circumstances), this could be for you! Early expressions of interest welcome (without obligation). Contact details below. Interest shown from Y Care International (YCI) YCI have now been fully briefed and updated on the link with Yangon YMCA and are looking at ways they can assist e.g. suggesting and contacting other YMCA’s internationally who might be interested in adding their support to the link. Contact person for enquiries and offers of support: Russell Cleaver, Co-ordinator, Yangon YMCA Support Group (UK): email: jrc@cleaver.freeserve.co.uk