Help 2 Orphans (H2O) is an orphanage in Umphang on the Thailand/Myanmar border. The first 30 children were all Karen children whose parents had fled into Thailand to escape the war in Burma. H2O has also started a mission school to provide education to the local children who are mostly the Karen people who escaped from Myanmar into the Thai-Myanmar border to seek refuge. Today, H2O is home to 22 orphans and last year the mission school has gladly received 129 children, bringing education with a message of hope into their lives and their family's.

Recently, the Thai military government have enforced that all migrant workers must have a work permit, but unfortunately the price was set so high that none of the migrants can afford to apply for one. The cost of a work permit is £437 per person, which is impossible for those who only earn 1 USD doing 12-hour work a day. This has a negative impact on the teachers at the H2O mission school and staff at H2O orphanage. They are in dire needs to raise enough money to apply for 10 work permits by end of the month. Those who were caught without could face five years in prison and hefty fines for both workers and employers. It was this that has caused the great exodus and hundreds of Burmese workers to flee into the jungle to wait until the storm has passed.

Almost all of the Burmese workers in Umphang are from the Karen tribe and for most of them it is impossible to return home. During the last 60 years of civil war, many of their villages have been burnt down and land mines sown in their fields. For them, returning home is unimaginable.

In response to this, we are hoping to raise fund to cope with the immediate need to apply for 10 work permits for the 6 teachers and 4 orphanage staff by end of this month for them to continue to serve in H2O. Without the work permits, the orphanage and mission school will be forced to shut down and 129 children will lose their education, and the orphans potentially losing out on hope and beyond, and reducing all the good work that has been done at the orphanage and the mission school for the last 14 years or so to dust.

(Leading an afternoon session with the support from staff and teachers at H2O.)

(Picture from our recent visit to H2O - Introducing them to some cup song actions during one of our afternoon sessions)

We thank you very much for your generosity and kindness, however much or less, it will mean a lot to afford the teachers and staff not only a job, but the opportunity to continue to be a blessing to the orphans and migrant children at the H2O mission school as well as the local Umphang community.

If you'd like to find out more about the works at the orphanage and how to support them in the long term, please visit:

http://help2orphans.com/projects_orphanage.html

https://www.facebook.com/H2OHelptoOrphansry/

Note: The fund that we raise will be subjected to additional admin costs, bank charges and currency exchange rate. Any additional fund received beyond the target of 10 work permits will go into supporting the cost of future work permit applications.

(Picture with the young teacher at H2O mission school, who is also our translator for the afternoon sessions with the kids)

(The orphans doing the dishes after lunch. They learn to look after one another from a very young age and demonstrated to us what a community living centred in Christ looks like)

(Picture taken with the mission school children)

(Picture with the children and staff at H2O orphanage)