We hope to provide over 150 displaced or orphaned Karen children with an Orphanage, a Family, and a house for visiting friends. The orphanage has 17 bedrooms, each with its own bathroom. The rooms are large and comfortable, and each one has a fantastic view of the terraced ricefields and mountains that surround this area. The house also has a kitchen, a dining room, a suite for the resident house parents, and two large common rooms. There are hopes to have a computer classroom as well. In addition to receiving a traditional education from a local school, the Karen students who live at the house will receive on-going training about how to care for and manage a guest house, and several of the rooms at the facility have been set aside for international visitors. Student residents will also continue their own organic farming projects (already under way), using traditional Karen farming methods. The overall project is designed to house young students in need of housing, teach them useful skills leading to better employment opportunities in the future, and allow the Karen students to share their culture and heritage with visiting guests. One of the largest concerns for these orphans is that after graduating from high school or university, they are left unemployed, and living in poverty.

For every $450 that we raise, a child will go to school for a year.

Ready. Set. Go.

The Tribe-to-Tribe International Marathon

Mae Sariang, Thailand. July 4, 2010.