With heavy hearts, the Board of The Mandalay Projects has made the difficult decision to suspend services in Myanmar. Read the full announcement here.
With heavy hearts, the Board of The Mandalay Projects has made the difficult decision to suspend services in Myanmar.
Since the military coup in 2021, Myanmar has become increasingly volatile and dangerous. The public health and education systems are decimated. The banking system has all but collapsed. Utility services are broken, with electricity supply limited to a few hours each day, the impact of which has been exacerbated by extreme temperatures across the country. The junta has imposed compulsory military service for all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27. The children of our local reps, plus residents and staff of our partner orphanages have been caught up in the draft, forced to fight for a cause they abhor. An even darker side to this has emerged, with junta soldiers kidnapping young men and blackmailing families to pay for the release of their sons. This is an absolutely dreadful situation. A generation of young people, having just become accustomed to the prospect of democracy, freedom and economic development, have been cast back into the dark ages of the military regime which their parents and grandparents had endured for 50 years.
We have managed, with difficulty, to provide support to all of our partner orphanages in recent months, although the form of our support has been quite unlike that of recent years. Strategic development work is off the agenda –the priority has been the safety and wellbeing of the children and staff. We have provided funds to assist with the total relocation of one orphanage – in fact we helped them to move twice in as many months – to avoid the frontline of the ongoing civil war. We have provided basic welfare support (food, medicines and fuel) to several other orphanages, and have funded the installation of solar power systems at three sites, to help them deal with the frequent electricity outages. Crucially, we have also been able to finance education programs, including paying for teaching staff. In the process, we have run down our cash reserves to close to zero, which has placed us at a critical juncture in our history.
The most important consideration in suspending our operations has been the safety of our principal supporters in Myanmar. Bluntly, they have enough to contend with, in protecting their own families and in dealing with the daily challenges of life under a brutal military junta, without having to worry about managing projects, on our behalf. We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to them for the incredible support they have provided TMP over the past 20 years. We simply could not have done what we have done, without their guidance and support along the way.
And we are proud of what we’ve done!
Since 2004, we have provided strategic support to 13 orphanages and youth development programs in Myanmar, Laos and Nepal. We have positively impacted the lives of over 3,000 children, providing healthier and safer living conditions, better education, and life-enhancing vocational training. In the early days of The Mandalay Projects, we used to say that we didn’t really know how to start, or where we were going, so we just started. And then we didn’t know how to stop, so we just kept going.
Sadly, we have now reached the end of our journey – for the time being at least. We hold out the hope that we will return to the fray in the future, and we will certainly be keeping in regular contact with our partners in Myanmar to assess whether, and when, this might be feasible. We will also be providing ongoing support, in a personal capacity, to our friends in Yangon – they need our help and we will not walk away from them at this terribly challenging time.
For now, all that remains is for us to thank all of you, for your fabulous support over the years. Your words of encouragement have meant a lot to us, and your generous donations have made our work possible. On behalf of the many disadvantaged children we have assisted, we thank you from the bottom of our (heavy) hearts.
Ian Love – Founder & Chairman
David Gibson – Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Anne Love – Founder & Director