Last week three of our social workers visited remote villages in Chin state, to check on children from five different families who have left orphanages in Yangon and gone back to live with their families. Chin State is located on the Western side of Myanmar, and is bordered by Bangladesh and India. The area is predominantly Christian, and due to underdevelopment in local villages families are often encouraged to send their children away to Christian Children’s homes in Yangon, not knowing the detrimental affect that institutional care can have on their children’s wellbeing.
Monitoring visits from our team are vital to ensuring that children have been reintegrated into a safe environment after leaving a Residential Care Facility, and to insure their continued support.
Our team had a challenging journey! Travelling in Myanmar during the months of June to September is not usually recommended, as rainy season makes roads slippery and dangerous. Rainy season is usually even worse in Chin State, as rainy season last longer, and landslides easily block muddy and mountainous roads. The social workers first had to take a twenty hour bus ride from Yangon, before getting a ride by truck to the village they needed to visit.
Our social workers were really happy to find that all the children and their families were safe and happy, after not being able to visit due to Covid for an extended length of time. While they were there, they spent a lot of time listening to how everyone was doing. Our team also distributed some of the last food packages that have been donated from the French embassy, along with some bags of rice.
The main goal of the visit was to monitor everyone’s general health and wellbeing; to check that the relationships between the children and their parents were doing well, and to make sure that the families were all were supported. We are so happy that this visit was possible!
