ISM Community Service

For our last visit of the 2008-09 school year with Mr. Todd and the community service group, we did something special. We went on an hour trip to Hmawbii on the 16^th of May, with both high school and middle school students. This was the first time that middle school students went on this annual trip that has been going for three years now!

 

The two orphanages in Hmawbii which we have adopted and visited each year are called “A Kid’s Life” and “Olive Garden”. ‘A kid’s life’ is a quite poor orphanage which grows roses and fruit such as pineapples, bananas, and guavas. This orphanage is a good example of one that works toward sustainability. They sell the things they grow in the market and use the money to provide food for everyone living at the orphanage.

 

When we first went there three years ago, it was breaking down and really poor but it was really surprising to see how far this orphanage has grown since our last visit. There are 22 orphans and as one of the orphans told us, it feels like living together in a big family there. They really love music and have great musicians there! We all were a big, happy family and they sang songs to us and we sang songs to them, so it was a good time for all of us. After some songs together, we got into groups and played soccer on their football field which was very enjoyable too. Looking at their smiles they got when they got their presents was very special to us and we were very happy that we have made them happy, even if it was just a day.

 

Another orphanage we visited was the “Olive Garden”. Like “Kid’s Life”, this orphanage was also very poor when we first visited it but now, they just built a new building and the orphans there were pretty happy too. These orphans were very appreciative and their cheers when we brought in the presents for them were very heartwarming for us. They composed us some songs and we sang them some songs too and we were a big family again. Although they are orphans, we treat them like we treat each other and showed them that we care for them too. “Just like the boat we gave you all, you will get on that boat and row to the other side like a big family until you reach the other side” stated Mr.Todd.

           

As the last visit with Mr.Todd and our community service club, we all would like to thank Mr.Todd for all he has done for us and our country. We hope Mr.Todd and Ms.Meghan will come back one day, to see the smiles on those little orphans and we all wish you the best in Thailand!

                                                                                   

                                                                                                By. Yuri

Yatanarmyintzuyi Payahitaghar Orphanage Visit

 

It’s very nice to see everybody helping out with Community Service. During our Week Without Walls trip to Pyay, we visited the Yatanarmyintzuyi Payahitagahar orphanage. Like our last visits, we donated stationeries like Shan bags, rulers, pencil boxes, pencils, erasers, and sharpeners to each child. We also provided the orphanage with food such as oil, rice and snacks for special prizes for the activities we did at the orphanage.

We divided our groups into 6 groups; Art, English Teaching, Jewelry Making, Games, Soccer, and Badminton. 

The English teaching activity was not only enjoyable for them, but it was a fun for us too. Orphans also enjoyed this booth because they sure did learn some English because of the competitions and the prizes they won when they won the competition.

 

 

Aye Aye very focused on   

 teaching the fruits to little orphans.

 

 

Karl teaching about parts of the Airplanes to older orphans.

Sandee, Crystal, and Yuri teaching new vocabularies to little orphans.

 

Our jewelry group was very fun and exciting

for the orphans. These jewels provided a

nice gift for the orphans and they could

show-off their nice designs.

                                                      

Orphans having a good time making jewelry.

 

 

 

 

 

Vivian, Nadi, Ms.Pauline, Hein Moe, and Htet Myat, the teachers of jewelry making. ;P

 

 

 

 

 

           

 

 

 

 

Arts was also popular during our visit. Orphans who were often quiet and liked art showed up for this Art activity. This includes coloring books, free-drawing, tracing, and etc. Many pictures of many topics were drawn by the orphans and were really interesting to see what they had in mind by looking at their pictures.

 

 Wardah, Seung Bin, and Blake were clustered by young artists eager to draw!

 

Orphans had fun playing games like snake- and –ladder, and many other board games.

Sporty kids also like playing badminton and soccer and sure did have fun and got all sweaty.

 

Overall, both the orphans and us had fun during our orphanage visit to Yatanarmyintzuyi payahitagahar orphanage.

 

“Together we can make a difference!”

 

                                                                                                            By. Yuri

It's wonderful when so many people come together, giving freely of their time for the benefit of others. Over the past two Saturdays (Jan 17 & 24th) over 50 ISM students and teachers came ready, willing, and able to scrape, sand, wipe, brush and roll the walls of the "21st Primary School", a little Burmese Govt. School located about three minutes walk from ISM. From the looks of this little school it must have been many many years since it was last painted and cared for in this way.

Each of the two Saturdays the early painting crews arrived at 7:45 am with painting clothes on. Carrying our painting supplies, we walked over to the little school and began the task of preparing the walls for painting (the most important part of a good quality paint job). This included sanding, scrapping, wiping, and taping... As the morning went on, more and more students and teachers arrived to lend a helping hand, including the MS and HS community service students, teachers from the Elem., MS, and HS, the HS girls basketball team, the soccer team, the softball team, Model U.N., Ms. Amanda's 5th grade class and many more students who simply came because they wanted to be of help. Not only did ISM students and teachers come out to help, but also many of the students from the little school were there as well. It was wonderful working side by side with these students from such a different background to ISM students and teachers.

The little school is home to 120 first through fifth graders, many of whom live in a very

poor village next door to ISM. The ISM community service club feels that school, the place where kids come to learn and grow, needs to be a place that they can feel proud of. Thanks to the support and willingness of the 21st Primary School principal to open her gates for us to paint, we were able to help them come closer to fulfilling that wish.

As the days work went on the feeling of separation between us and them began to dissolve. We were simply all working together for a common purpose. And painting, as we

found, became a great way for our communities to join together. How nice to see instant results from our efforts as well. The school literally looks like a new place as you can see by flipping through the photos.

Whenever ISM students and teachers, and our new friends from the neighboring village, walk or ride or drive by the little school, it will hopefully be a reminder of what we are capable of doing whenever we put our hearts and minds together into making a positive difference in the world.

Thank you for reading and sharing in our joy.
MS Community Service Club

P.S. A BIG THANK YOU TO MAY NINE (6D) AND SI THU'S (6D) FAMILIES FOR DONATING ALL OF THE PAINT AND MANY OF THE BRUSHES, ROLLERS, AND TRAYS THAT WERE USED DURING THIS PROJECT!

The Middle School Community Service Club along with a couple of high school volunteers arrived at Thatanar Rakhita Orphanage in Yangon, equipped with activities and games ranging from badmintin to necklace making to arts and crafts. We were also very fortunate be accompanied by a Burmese, English Doctor who gave the kids a check-up and offered medicated soap to treat the ever persistent ring worm that most of the kids have had for years. It was a great joining of efforts to help both the physical and emotional well being of the kids.

Each time we go, we try to think of more ways that we can help. For example, as they enjoy the necklace making so much, we're thinking about helping them make and sell necklaces and bracelets and by doing so we hope that this could be one of the ways that they can begin to sustain themselves. With every visit we make we learn more about them and friendships begin to grow. And the gift they give us in return is surely the smiles on

their faces. We hope to continue making regular visits to our adopted ophanage, and if you'd like to join us, feel free to stop by our meetings every Monday afternoon from 3-4.

Hope to see you there!
Sincerely,
The MS Community Service Club

November has been a big fundraising month for the MS Community Service Club. First, there's the ongoing 2nd annual "November Bake Sale". Special mention needs to be made about the one lady who has made this event so successful for us this year and last. Ms. Hla is one of the CSC members Aunties, who has provided (at cost) most of the baked goods we've been selling every Wednesday of November two years in a row! A BIG THANK YOU to Ms. Hla for all she has done to help our Bake Sale be so successful. Her generosity is helping so many, as everything we earn goes to people who are so much in need of our support.

The community service club has also had some special donations from Wardah's (6B) family who gave us three chocolate cakes with peanut M&Ms on top. Also, Yuri, Sumie's (6S) & John Paul and Khant's (6B) fruit flavored drinks were a hit. Nadi's (6B) brownies were quick to go and Mr. Todd's A+ Banana Muffins were a winner as

well:) I wonder what surprises may be coming at next Wednesday's Bake Sale. Hope to see you there!

On to another important fundraiser, International Day, which is a major school wide event. In this event, hundreds of people from all walks of life come to celebrate the many nationalities that join the ISM community together making us truly an international school. This was our third year selling drinks and sharing with people what we do in Community Service through a slide show presentation. Usually we have no trouble selling hundreds of drinks with ice and lime to our thirsty customers. It's a non-stop fast paced job being behind the counter at this event. And, thanks to Mary and Crystal's (6B) families for donating the drinks, we were able to make this the most successful

International Day fundraiser yet.

With the earnings from these two events, we plan to soon go to Thatanar Rakhita Orphanage to deliver much needed wished for items to them. Updates coming soon about that visit.

Thanks for reading and supporting the MS Community Service Club!

TOGETHER WE'RE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!!

A three minute walk away from ISM Middle School lies a little local Myanmar School made up of about 120 elementary students ranging from about 5 to 11 years old. This year ISM 6th Graders embarked on a service learning project which invited ten girls and ten boys from this little school to visit our classroom.

In the beginning to help us overcome some shyness in meeting for the first time, we played some games together and formed "buddies". Throughout each of the five visits they've made so far, ISM students took care of their buddies in the activities we planned for them. Some activities we did included: "Blind Walking" (taking turns guiding each other while blindfolded); "Charades" (to teach and practice new English vocabulary words); "Reading Buddies" (again learning English together); "Lantern Making" (thanks to Ms. Pauline!); Origami; a Piñata; Soccer; Math Games and more.

Many of the students from the neighborhood school live in the village just next to ISM. It's been interesting to see the difference in size of ISM students to the neighborhood kids. It's obvious what the results of poverty and malnutrition can do to a young person's body over many years. And yet, even though our kids and the Myanmar school kids have some differences, they are both finding that there are plenty of similarities. They both love their families, like to play soccer, learn English, do math, play games, do art, etc. They're learning from each other and it's been nice to watch them make friendships together, forming a larger community outside the walls of ISM.

Middle School Community Service students have been working with the basic idea that if every one works together toward a common goal, we can reach our goals more easily. With about 230 students (including teachers) in the middle school, just a little from each of us adds up to a lot! And during the week of Sept. 29 – Oct. 3 we came to prove it. This week we called “Charity Week” and each day had a theme for the donations we wished to give away. At the end of the week we delivered the donations directly to an orphanage which was greatly in need of these items. The daily themes included hygiene, clothes, school supplies, food, and money days.

Each day of “Charity Week”, middle school students could be seen bringing in something from their home to contribute to the sum of the whole. When all was said and done, we had over 900 hygiene items (including soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes); over 800 pieces of

clothing; thousands of school supplies (including pens, pencils, erasers, pencil cases, and over 1,200 notebooks); several large bags of rice, lots of canned food, noodles, cooking oil, snacks and more. When money day came, we didn’t slow down at all and ended up raising over 800,000 kyat (about $640 US)!

The success of this week took us all by surprise. It was wonderful to be able to deliver most of the items listed above to Thatanar Rakhita Orphanage here in Yangon on the following Saturday, October 4th. Thatanar Rakhita Orphanage is one of our adopted orphanages which houses approximately 130 children ranging from 1 year up to 18 year olds.

Not only did we deliver these much need items, we also came prepared with several activities to do with the children. One of our goals is to leave them with more than the material items we bring by providing learning opportunities including English teaching, art projects and coloring books for the young ones, beads for necklace and bracelet making and more. We also had some happy times with the children by providing fun activities like a "Lucky Draw", playing "Snakes & Ladders" and just hanging out and talking together. This was truly an outstanding visit and proof could be seen on the smiling faces of every boy and girl who lives at the orphanage.

Together we proved that when we all work toward a common goal, we can truly make a difference!

P.S. Anyone who would like to help us out in any way, please contact:  communityservice@mac.com

YIEC’s work continues thanks to the generous donations and the volunteers involved in our projects.  As you may recall from previous postings, we have been assisting a monastery in the city of Kungyangon in the cyclone devastated Ayeyarwaddy Delta.  The monks there have been working tirelessly to care for the victims of the cyclone in their area, including 750 families from villages around the monastery and 16 families of refugees (about 50 people) from a village in the Kyonemaw area about 20 minutes down the river from Kungyangon.

Since the last posting, the 16 houses in the Kyonemaw village have been rebuilt from the materials YIEC Community Service donated. (See pictures of the villagers building) and the finished houses.

  In the pictures, you may notice that the houses are made mostly from bamboo poles and tarps.  The villagers said they preferred this because the lower cost meant we could help more in other ways and they will be able to replace the tarps with more permanent materials in the coming months.

The progress in Kungyangon has been so great that we have been able to scale back our visits.  A system is in place now where we only need to buy a few supplies outside of the local area.  With our financial support, the villagers are able to arrange purchases and delivery of food and many other supplies from the local shops, enabling our teams to use smaller trucks or no trucks at all.  This helps us more easily focus our efforts on the long-term goals of getting the people back to work and school, and rebuilding their lives.  The availability of food and other basic needs will be a problem for the foreseeable future, but our hope is that the people can begin to take care of themselves with continued support from YIEC Community Service.

One of our most proud accomplishments has been helping many of the families to start working again.  We donated two farming machines for the monastery area and the Kyonemaw village as well as fishing nets for Kyonemaw.  Due to the high cost of these items, we could not give enough for each family to have their own, so some families have agreed to share the equipment until they earn enough money to buy what they need.  Imagine how proud our team felt when we arrived on June 13th and heard the machines being used in the fields!  (See pictures of the machines being used and the villagers posing with the machine in Kyonemaw).  We are currently planning a donation of fishing nets for the monastery area.

A difficult question facing the people in Kungyangon is what to do about the bodies of those killed in the cyclone.  By mid-June, villagers were still finding 20 to 30 bodies each day.  A few brave monks and villagers began collecting the bodies, praying for them, and cremating their remains.  This required renting boats to get to the areas, buying the materials to make the fires, and caring for the needs of the workers.  YIEC Community Service helped with some of those costs for a short time until another charity organization offered to fund that work.  The latest reports, however, are that even these efforts have been stopped by authorities for unknown reasons.  We don’t know when they will be able to continue.

A follow-up to the last posting: We have learned that the other group who offered to donate one bag of rice for each of the 750 families in the monastery area was only able to donate a total of 180 bags in the end.  While this was a disappointment, it has helped us to rethink our

relief strategy in the area.  The cyclone victims cannot go on forever depending entirely on donations to survive.  It’s not good for their community and it’s not possible for us!  Instead, we’ve asked the Sayadaw of the monastery and some village leaders to take charge of their own relief planning.  YIEC Community Service can work with them on their plans and find ways to assist them in helping themselves.

YIEC Community Service is also building up a relationship with the schools in the area, donating a range of supplies from toilets to chalkboards for classrooms to pencils, pens, books, and school bags for poor students.  Keeping to our belief that buying supplies in the area will stimulate the local economy, the chalkboards were made especially for us in Kungyangon [see pictures of school supplies donations].

above written by Mike S.

Again we would like to say THANK YOU very much to all of you who donated your time, money, clothes, and much needed material items! Without your response it would not have been possible to make the positive impact we are making in and around Yangon and in the Delta Region.

Even though Myanmar is no longer in the news, the work goes on and people are still in great need of our help. There is much more Community Service can do to help the Cyclone victims, as well as continuing our many other Community Service Activities we are involved in. We would very much like to keep the spirit of giving alive and well, into, through and beyond the 2008-09 school year!!
 
If you'd like to support our Community Service work by making a donation, there are a couple of ways you can do this. If you're in the U.S. and you know a teacher who is heading to Y.I.E.C. in August, you can give your donation to them before they leave so they can bring it out to us, or you can send a check or money order to Mike S. before he leaves at the end of July. If you would like to send a check to Mike, please contact him by email and he will then send you his address details:   mrmikeyangon@gmail.com

Another way is to send a check to my father's address and he will deposit the check in my account and I will then take the money directly from my pay check in Myanmar. It's a fast and easy way to get money into the country. My Dad's address in the U.S. is: 
Richard Davis
811 Crossbrook Drive
Moraga, CA  94556
Please make checks payable to Todd Davis. And please let me know about your donation by email, or by private message through signing up with VOX. This way I can let my Dad know your check is on the way.

If you are outside the U.S. and would like to wire transfer donations, please send an email to either Todd or Mike so we can help to make that happen...

And if you're already in Myanmar and / or plan to be there in August, please let us know if you’d like to help out in any way with your time and talents!

Thank you all again very much for all your support!!!
YIEC Community Service
 

On Friday, May 23rd, YIEC teachers, assistants, and friends of Gitameit Music School made our 4th visit to help a community living in Khunyangon in the Delta Region. We have decided to "adopt" this community which is centered around a monastery, and do what we can to help them. Every visit we bring them what we can in a large, 14 foot, 6-wheel truck. Each time we've increased the load of food and needed items such as roofing materials, clothes, family packs with basins, kitchen supplies, medicines, etc. Before we leave, we do an extensive inventory of their needs and adjust our deliveries accordingly for the next time we come.

We also try to bring some activities for the kids to do (see photos of Ms. Cathy helping the children in an activity). One time we had the children draw what they saw during the storm. The pictures they drew told a terrifying story from their eyes. These pictures are being sent to kids in the U.S. who will then draw pictures back. We hope to have them back soon to share with the children in the village.

On our May 23rd visit, as we looked around and talked with the Sayadaw (head of the monastery) it became clear that not nearly enough aid is reaching them, and they are not too far from a main road... I note that because if they are not receiving enough aid, then clearly the surrounding villages that can only be reached by boat are not receiving enough either. When we arrived, they had hardly any rice left and were suffering from a food shortage. They were very grateful for the 41 bags of rice plus potatoes, beans, onions, noodles,...etc. we brought them that day. This village has 750 families which require at least 32 BAGS of rice to feed them EVERYDAY. This news just in, someone (we're not sure who) has just donated 750 bags of rice to this village (one per family) which will keep them going for the next 24 days! This will allow us to give more to the surrounding villages which is wonderful!

We are very thankful for the many donations we have received from YIEC teachers, staff and their families and friends. These donations have given us over $30,000 to work with and with this money we have been able to truly make a difference! We are currently trying to sustain regular $2,000 to $3,000 truck loads of food and needed items every two to four days. We've bought enough tin to replace the monastery roof that was destroyed in the Cyclone. We have committed to buying all housing materials for 16 houses that will hopefully be rebuilt very soon. We are buying the bamboo needed for these houses in Khunyangon. We are also trying to buy rice and whatever we can in the Delta Region. We're learning that buying things in the Delta Region helps to support the local economy, which we hope will get them back on their feet sooner than if we buy everything in Yangon. Whatever we aren't able to find down there, we continue to deliver by truck from Yangon. We are also looking into buying two plowing tractors for the 10 farming families in the village. Most of the families are fishing families and so we're trying to replace their lost nets as well.

Our relief effort is being praised by many, including "The Foundation for the People of Burma" FPB which has decided do an in depth case study on the village we are supporting. As we look to the future, we are finding that the donations we've received will be running out probably in the next couple of weeks. The building materials along with the food will continue to be of great need over the next few months, so much more will be needed to help our adopted village recover.

If anyone would like to continue supporting our relief efforts it would be greatly appreciated!! There are a few ways you can do this, and if you would like to donate to us directly we still have money in Myanmar that can be covered by donations. Just send me (Todd) an email if you'd like to do that. If you don't have my email, you can post a message on this blog by signing up with Vox. Another way to help is by making a donation to FPB at www.foundationburma.org  attn. Gitameit. They have been doing great things to help not only us but many others in their relief efforts. And if you're still in Myanmar, you can contact Mike Shirk at  211-789  ext. 115

Please keep checking this blog for updated info on the YIEC / Gitameit / FPB Cyclone Relief efforts.

Thank you again for all your support!!!

As most

of you know, Yangon and the Irrawaddy delta were hit by a cyclone, with huge devastation across the country and city. Due to the chall enging circumstances, YIEC had to close early, however we have still mobilized to help.

We have had an amazing response from teachers, parents, students, and the overseas family and friends of teachers. There is such difficulty in getting money into the country, that many fr

iends and family overseas have pledged money, and teachers have covered this pledge out of their own money, so that we can get the money and help to the affected people as quickly as possible. So far, our fundraising efforts have put us at over $25,000, and we are looking at possibly $30,000 by the end of the week!

So what are we doing with all of this money? In a nutshell, we’ve been transforming money into food, water, and shelter, and finding ways to transport these goods to those who need them.

So far we’ve bought and distributed:
135 bags of rice
400 five liter bottles of water
Several sacks of beans, onions, potatoes
28 boxes of instant noodles (Yum Yum variety)
2 large bags of dried fish, several cases of canned fish
145 blankets
Many tarps for temporary roofs, and other building supplies
Liquid Waterguard and iodine for purifying water
Medical supplies such as re-hydration salts, vitamins, antibiotics, plasters (Band-Aids), etc.
Shoes and other clothing items, and we’ve also given several bags of donated clothing
Pots, plates, cups for cooking
Candles, lighters
and the list goes on…

We’ve worked with a variety of people to help make this happen. In the beginning we coordinated with a dynamic woman who rented boats and took trucks and just drove down the road to find people who needed supplies. We also worked with the Myanmar Compassion Project, completing a long-planned orphanage visit, with an updated wish list for their needs after the cyclone. In some cases, people we know came to us asking if we can help them with certain items to add to their truck loads, and we gladly try to help them in any way we can.

Then we joined up with Gitameit, a music school in Yangon that is under the umbrella of the Foundation for the People of Burma. Gitameit has transformed from teaching vocal and piano to coordinating a relief effort for cyclone victims. They formed teams of students and other volunteers (including medical) to go out to specific areas, find out what the people need, and then bring them what they need. Then they return to the areas, always adjusting the supply list to their current needs, and trying to help people to return or rebuild their homes and livelihoods. So we’ve formed a YIEC team, with YIEC staff and students, and we have adopted a community in Kunyangone as our focus (see Map).

This community is about two and a half hours south of Yangon. There, we were able to locate a monastery that is off the main road and found them to be in great need of our help. About 2-3 hundred people are taking refuge there and they are depending on the donations from people like us for their survival. Even worse off, living upstairs in the same monastery, which currently has no roof (so it rains inside the building), are a group of about 50 men, women, and children who have lost basically everything. The cyclone swept them away from their village and nothing remains where they once lived. Most have lost some or all of their family and they are now left as a group of orphaned children, widowed husbands and wives, with nothing more than the clothes on their back. They are a high priority and we are working closely with them to provide the materials and the means to rebuild their homes, their livelihood, so they can gradually begin their lives again.

Our hope is, using the monastery as our focal point, to help put all these farmers and fisher-people back on their feet so they can become self-reliant again. All of our donations are going toward this effort, and we are in it for the long-term. Hopefully as we help these people, we can then circle outward from the monastery and help more and more people in the villages surrounding. We have already begun this process by supporting the Sayadaw (Head Monk) of the monastery in delivering several bags of rice, noodles, blankets, etc. to three of the villages that are located between 20 min. and 1 and a half hour boat ride from the monastery.

We plan to write more in the coming days on this blog, but first we would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude for the overwhelming support we have received from everyone who has donated their time, money, clothes, material objects, and support. All the YIEC teachers, assistants, families and friends have really pulled together to help and we're proud to be a part of this extended community. Thank you for all your efforts and support!!