Charity: Time for Giving, Nurturing and Celebration!

In this season of giving and celebration, I am grateful for all the blessings I have in my life and entering our 12 years with Saffron59 Catering & Event Planning. I am especially aware of the plight of others who are less than fortunate.   

That’s why I am so proud of the children from the orphanage in Myanmar that I have been supporting all these years.  Every time they get a cup of water they are deeply grateful for the new water purification system installed just last year.

I was especially pleased to hear from them from a recent phone call, that some of the girls (out of around 74 girls) who have blossomed under their care - are about to enter college.  Education is something that I have always supported for these children and it is truly a great feat to be able to obtain a better way of life.

This holiday season, please consider your good fortune in life and make every day a celebration.  Have a happy and joyous holiday!

Travel: Asia Trip 2011-2012

Holiday Greetings!  Please follow me on Twitter & Facebook for the next three weeks for travel updates for my Asia trip this year.

In mean while, I have been busy this past month with holiday events at Saffron 59 as well as being my own travel agent; planning (numerous) connecting flights, itineraries, meeting with acquaintances and booking my old friends for breakfast on Chao Praya or dinner along the Mekong riverside.

I have not been to Cambodia since 1998. My main plan is to visit  the Angkor Hospital for Children to get a private tour from William, the Executive Director. I have been on their committee for over a decade. This hospital started as a small children’s hospital.  Today, they have treated over a million patients with a visitor’s center for those who travel from the far away villages. Last time I was in Siem Reap, there were only three hotels to open and some home inns.   Since then, there are now spas, French restaurants and trendy boutiques.

Angkor Hospital for Children Photo: Daniel C. Rothenberg, www.photoasia.org

And of course a stop in Burma to visit the orphanage in Yangon that I am involved in with my parents.

Update on Burma

Morning offering for the nuns at the Shwen Dagon Pagoda

Dear friends,

I would like to thank you all for your calls and emails about my family and the orphanage in Yangon. I was about to prepare a note to update some of you on the progress we have made with the orphanage that I have been supporting for eight years, and then devastation that hit Yangon area last Saturday, and it is deeply sad that the orphanage is severely damaged.

Last nite, I heard from my friend Kit Young, who runs the music school, Gitameit . She wrote to me that she will drive over with the American consulate jeep to check on the orphanage and some of my family members today. And here is her note below to those that wrote to me about contribution.

Gitameit has turned into a disaster relief organization. The musicians and I drove to outlying townships today. In our Gitameit Center backyard alone and - the hindu temple ceremony hall - there are 800 people camped out with less than satisfactory sanitation, diminishing clean water supply and very little else than rice porridge in the last two days.

The Karen Women's Group will assess the most urgent needs of families there and tell us tomorrow. The Myanmar Red Cross was in today - but does not have enough supplies of rice orwater and needs donations.

The regime is busy chopping up fallen trees on roads - beginning to work on electric poles - in rich areas of town. Survival for the poor or communication with citizenry is not their fault. They even neglect their own... As I passed some soldiers cutting trees yesterday, I asked if they'd eaten breakfast. Of course not! So, I went back home to get them some bread.

There is a big issue of Myanmar gov't wanting supplies but not relief personnel to come into the country. After today's slight confrontation with this Shwebaukan thug trying to control things, I understand why.

We've identified these communities linked to us already - around 3000+ people. We figure we will need to raise at least $150,000 in the coming weeks - just to keep these communities afloat until some of the markets get up and running. We will try to put progress reports up on the Gitameit website, there is paypal system at http://www.foundationburma.org the Foundation for the People of Burma website –thank you so much for your support, Kit.

p.s. the contribution to the orphanage and the cyclone victim checks are written out to Friend without borders, 59 fourth avenue, New York, NY 10003..att: irene khin wong…I will wire the fund directly to kit.