Friends of Burma Ministries
Introduction
Please note that the following ministries are only some of the projects we are involved in. Friends of Burma is involved in many projects in Burma (mostly with the Christians).
Ministry Overview: Download PDF file.
Scholarships
FOB provides scholarships for seminary students, as well as high school students in Pathein from outer villages.
The Karen leaders like this village pastor want their young people to have the best education possible but they have very limited resources. [Read More]
Health care
Primarily FOB supports the KBC Hospital and Matthew 25 Love Hospital. But we also send smaller amounts to clinics around the country.
Child Care Centers
Child Care Centers help children whose lives have been disrupted by family situations, disasters, and internal government difficulties. There are also children whose parents have sent them because they are so poor that they cannot provide educational opportunities.
The Gillen Hostel
Hostels are extremely important in Burma. While many villages have Primary Schools, very few have Middle and none have High Schools. Therefore, for a promising young person to continue his or her education, they must go to a town that has a Middle School and High School.
If a family has relatives in such a town, their children can stay with them while going to school. However many village families do not have relatives in town and so this arrangement is not available for them.
The Christians in town have constructed hostels where these children are able to stay while they go to school. By western standards they are quite crowded and sparse but by Burma standards they are adequate.
This hostel, the Gillen Hostel, was built by an American well wisher who wanted to help outstanding young scholars to complete their education. [Read More]
Retired Christian Workers Program
Christian workers in Burma retire with no income. Many do not live long after their retirement because life expectancy is much lower in Burma. For the retired worker there is no social security, no pensions or 401K plans, and recent inflation has wiped out any savings such a person may have managed to collect because in twenty-five years, the kyat went from 6 to a dollar to 900 to a dollar! [Read More]
Hearing Aid Program
Some pastors in Burma have lost hearing and so need hearing aids. Loss of hearing greatly diminishes their ability to relate to people. Even a simple, straight amplification hearing aid is beyond their reach financially. [Read More]
Where There is No Dentist
One of the students who took a business class with Neil Sowards in 2004, Naw Tha Wah, later contacted him with an idea. She had graduated and started working in Pathein, in the west part of the delta. She wanted to do a translation of the book, Where There Is No Dentist, into Sgaw Karen. Neil suggested that a Burmese translation would be helpful to more people because the language is more widely used in Burma than Sgaw Karen. He offered the support of Friends of Burma (FOB). She found a translator and formed a committee of dental professionals who oversaw the translation. She even organized a Christian Dental Care Association. [Read More]
Music Program at Karen Baptist Theological Seminary
For Diana Sowards, music is a spiritual experience. She became aware that there were only a few limited courses at a few of the top seminaries. So she encouraged the teaching of Church Music at Karen Baptist Theological Institute. She and another donor paid for the education of Naw Tahmlah Paw who was the daughter of Naw Sharo with whom Neil Sowards went to seminary at Colgate-Rochester Divinity School in Rochester, New York 1959-1962. Naw Tahmlah Paw was educated in the Philippines and came back and established the Music Department at KBTI in 2003, offering a Certificate in Church Music (CCM) a one year course. They accept 20 students per year. [Read More]
Eye Glasses Program
Years ago Neil Sowards was visiting the Shan State Bible School and the students sang for him. He noticed a number of them were squinting as they read their music. Then he realized that not one of them was wearing glasses. It seemed unusual for there to be forty students and none needed glasses. Later he learned that a good number needed glasses but they cost $17 for an examination and prescription eyeglasses at that time. That was about what a student could earn in one month. They simply could not afford them. [Read More]
Sakhantha Training School
Sakhantha Training School--located in Insein, a suburb of Rangoon--trains mostly young women in maternity and child development. [Read More]
Domestic Skills School in Pathein
Village girls come to this school to learn domestic skills such as weaving, sewing, and making clothes and bags. The goal is to give them skills so they can earn money. [Read More]
Naw Paw Wah Doh Nursery Schools Project
Naw Paw Wah Doh has dedicated her life to the development of nursery schools in the Shwe Gyin area. Her program is called Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD).
She holds seven different training sessions during the year. One is for leaders of churches and villagers who want a nursery school. The second is one month training for those who want to be nursery school teachers. The third type is for parents so they can be supportive of the ECCD program. The fourth type is for Advocacy training for all villagers. The fifth is Management Committee so they understand their role and work. The sixth is toy making. And the last is Refresher course for ECCD teachers who have been teaching to help them evaluate their work and improve their schools. [Read More]
Pathein University Christian Fellowship
Established in 1958, Pathein University Christian Fellowship (UCF) is located in Pathein, Ayeyarwaddy Region in Myanmar. Pathein, in the western part of the delta, is the capital of Ayeyarwaddy Division and students from the entire region attend Pathein University. Although the majority of the students are Buddhists, Christian students also attend the university.
Pathein UCF offers fellowship opportunities as well as spiritual nourishment for the students who are far from home. [Read More]
Myo Mission
A Karen divisional education officer, U Daing Tun Aung, was touring the Arakan area when he encountered a group of people called the Myos. The Arakan is the west coast of Burma near Bangladesh. Rangoon churches sent four evangelists who worked with Daing until he died three years later. He was able to send five young Myos to Pathein for education. These five spread the word the Karens were kind people and soon there were twenty studying in Pathein supported by churches and living with Karen families. [Read More]
Shan State Baptist Theological Seminary
Shan State Baptist Theological Seminary is in Taunggyi, Shan State, Burma (Myanmar). This Seminary was founded in 1956 by two American missionaries, Dr. William Hackett and Erville E. Sowards. [Read More]
Micro Credit Groups
Naw Paw Gaw works with the Yangon Karen Women’s Development Group and she sets up microcredit groups of six to twelve women who each develop a business plan to provide income for her family. Projects include sewing, raising chickens or hogs, small retail shop gardening, buying wholesale and selling retail, etc. The group works together to help each develop her business. The groups borrow money provided by Friends of Burma, Inc. and then repay it over time. The money is then recycled to new groups.
Naw Hser Hser Eh
Naw Htoo Nay Paw
Past Ministries
When we first went to Burma in 1985 we found a great need and hunger for Christian books. Government restrictions made it impossible to print Christian books in Burma. We were told we could mail them in by M-Bags which could be up to 55 pounds at $1 per pound. [Read More]