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November 14, 2022

Most Vulnerable Children

“Orphans are children who depend on their strength and ability to learn and succeed without the support of their mothers and fathers. They are the ones who have lost one or both parents to age, sickness, or violence or simply by just abandoning them.”
– Dr. John Palmer (Chairman of the Mary K. Yap Foundation)

Sadly, there is an increasing number of orphans. These orphaned children who live without proper care and guidance can result in suffering and the ultimate tragedy of death; the children that survive often do so in ways that demean and criminalize themselves and bring suffering to others. We cannot just imagine how a child without proper care is being used in different personal and greedy matters, such as child labor bosses, terrorists, rebel armies with child soldiers, child traffickers, and even less than good-willed relatives who want a personal slave.

The result is heartbreaking as some orphan children will die of starvation and issues related to malnutrition, die from preventable diseases, die at the hands of others, spend much of their life in jail, and some will harm others and negatively impact the world.

As we commemorate International Orphan Day, we want to share a message that orphan children do not deserve to live a life of abandonment and neglect, especially a child who is so young, innocent, and pure. They deserve to be treated with love, care, and proper guidance as these orphaned children are the strongest people in the world by overcoming their history and facing the future with smiles. They are children who still have a bright future despite having no immediate family besides them upon growing up and ending up being homeless.

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COMMENTARIES

August 7, 2022

A Better Tomorrow for All Orphans

Despite of Myanmar’s situation, the Mary K. Yap Foundation continues to extend undivided support towards the orphaned children that the foundation has cared for and supported for the past 20 years. We believe these children should continue to have hope and a bright future ahead of them. As Dr John Palmer, Board Chair of the foundation said during a Zoom interview.

“They (the children) should not fear what will happen in the future, instead, we must take each day and pay attention to areas where they can develop new talents and skills to support their future.”
– Dr John Palmer
Board Chair of the Mary K. Yap Foundation

Orphans are encouraged to continue participating in daily self-learning and growth in their learning capacity. Our local orphanage teams provide books to the orphans to help them keep a consistent habit of reading and writing. One of the Foundation Orphanage ambassadors, Daw Meme Lwin, forges a deeper connection with the children by reading books and sharing with them a message of empowerment and hope for a “Better Tomorrow.” As part of this effort, books for children, donated by domestic and international partners, are being organized for each orphanage center.

Youth living with traumatic experiences and in unsafe environments tend to create various mental health difficulties for children, including depression.

Our Foundation promotes regular communications between orphanages, our ambassadors, and the children to provide them with the mental support they need as well as hope and attention.

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INDIVIDUAL SPOTLIGHT

October 20, 2021

A Champion for Women’s Rights

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt (The First Lady and an orphan)

The longest serving First Lady in US history, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, was born on October 11, 1884. At the early age of 8, Eleanor Roosevelt lost her mother, Anna Hall Roosevelt, due to diphtheria in 1892, while her father, Elliott Roosevelt, died of alcoholism.

Eleanor lived with her maternal grandmother, Mary Hall, who sent Eleanor to Allenwood School, a progressive girls’ boarding school in London, England, in 1899. Ms. Marie Souvestre, Allenswood ‘s Director, recognized Eleanor’s keen intellect, improving her self-confidence. As a result, she became a well-liked leader at a young age among her classmates.

Eleanor lived in the life of politics as her uncle, Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt, the brother of her father, who assumed the 26th presidency (1901-1909) right after President McKinley was assassinated. She was then involved in different charity programs and contributed to volunteer settlement houses and social work, activities that reflected the service’s philosophy of the time spent at the Allenswood ‘Girl’s Boarding School, which molded Eleanor to appreciate and develop deeper insights into politics. During this time, she fell in love with her fifth cousin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who later became the 32nd President for four terms from 1933 and 1945.

Eleanor Roosevelt is commonly appraised as one of the influential American women of the 20th century. In addition to serving as the First Lady of the United States for 12 years, she was a newspaper columnist, author, diplomat, and a great contributor to the League of Women Voters. President Truman appointed her as the delegate of the United Nations General Assembly. In 1946, she joined as a member of the Human Rights Division, further cementing her position as one of the inspirational voices in the modern world.

Our Foundation is pleased to recognize the incredible ‘life celebrations of Eleanor Roosevelt. Although she became an orphan young, she championed noble causes that embodied gender equality movements to be accepted worldwide. In acknowledgment of her invaluable workaround ‘for women’s and human rights, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by President Kennedy, among others.

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CORPORATE NEWS

September 5, 2021

A Warm Tribute to Mr. Edward

The Board of Directors of the Mary K Yap Foundation would like to extend our tribute to our beloved Board member, Edward Thaung, who passed away at the age of 73 on August 7, 2021, in Yangon, Myanmar.

Edward Thaung was a devoted Roman Catholic who stood by his religious convictions in supporting those in need. He was always available to lend his ears and share his valuable insights and experience with anyone who asked for help. As a faithful husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and mentor to many start-up companies, Edward Thaung touched many people with his candid personality, storytelling talents, and five decades of knowledge of the country’s regulatory and commerical affairs.

During his professional career, Edward Thaung counseled and advised many local and foreign companies on such diverse matters as company formation, taxation, investment proposals, criminal law, family law, international contracts, and dispute resolutions. His early years of legal work included serving as a Town Law Officer, Grade (4) Public prosecutor, and Pre-trial Legal Advisor to the police department, revenue, customs department, immigration, and other government departments. Among his notable contributions was his time as Senior Law Officer at the Attorney General’s Office (1989-1993) in coordination with other government bodies to successfully host the Rights of the Child Seminar in cooperation with UNICEF in Yangon. He redrafted new laws in coordination with the relevant Government departmental personnel and translated Myanmar legal statutes into English.

From 1993 to 1995, he was the Assistant Director for Environmental Affairs ‘Office’ and attended the United Nations Environmental Program UNEP Seminar as National Ozone Officer for Myanmar. For ten years, he held the Secretary to the Board of Directors position at Air Mandalay Limited from 1996 to 2006. He was responsible for company compliance with the relevant laws of Myanmar as the chief legal consultant to Petronas, World Trade Center Yangon, Awba Group, and Mandalay Productions, to name a few. In addition, he was appointed as visiting university law lecturer in 1996 to teach commercial law subjects in Master of Business Administration (MBA) classes in Yangon sponsored by the Institute of Economics, Yangon. For the past three years before his death, he served as the Chief Regulatory Officer for the KMA Group of Companies.

The work contributed by Edward Thaung was done with the utmost integrity and professionalism on behalf of the public and private organizations he served. Despite his busy schedule, he always found the time to give a hand to worthy organizations and individuals. Over the three years that Edward Thaung represented our Foundation board, we benefited from his legal advice and developed our sponsored programs in Myanmar in full legal compliance.

Our goal has always been to become a trusted partner to our donor community so that charitable funds make it to the orphanages that need the most help. With the help of Edward Thaung, we have become a trusted partner with local communities, positioning our organization to serve all orphanages in the country. So much of the success of our empowerment programs working with Myanmar orphans would not have been possible without the dedicated and faithful help of Edward Thaung. His passing represents a great loss to our organization and Myanmar.

By admin

COMMENTARIES

May 9, 2021

Orphan Children on Mother’s Day

“A mother is she who can take the place of all others but whose place no one else can take.”
– Cardinal Gaspard Mermillod (1824-1892)

Every May, America celebrates and honors mothers on this special day by thanking them for all the love and sacrifices they’ve made. But sadly, this is not the case for children in every town and country in the world who have lost, been taken from, abandoned by, or sent away from their mothers.

An orphan may suffer long-term emotional problems due to their failure to resolve their sense of loss for their mother. The effects of trauma can include symptoms of depression, being more anxious and withdrawn, having more problems in school, and diminished academic performance than non-bereaved children. Some also have difficulty building relationships and have trust issues as they lack maternal support while beginning their life journey. Abandoned orphans will always be left with the question of if their mothers truly loved them. These orphans feel incomplete without their mothers.

Celebrating Mother’s Day is not the same for everyone; for some orphans, it will remind them of their feelings when they lost their mother. Mothers generally support us through all our victories and hardships as we build our lives. Therefore, some orphans will feel envious of the children who can spend time with and be cared for by their mothers. Living and growing up without a mother to lean on, especially on the most challenging days, is not easy.

Many orphans also live in poverty and cope with mental and emotional problems at an early age, in addition to the burden of losing their mother. Even though some still have their fathers and are considered “single orphans, ” the loss of the love and care that mothers bring is irreplaceable.

These orphans are vulnerable but hopefully will remain strong and determined to continue living and pursuing their dreams. Although these unprivileged children have no mother to celebrate Mother’s Day, they should still be surrounded by unconditional love from those who appreciate and care for them. Let this be an encouragement for us to be there for the underprivileged ones, the orphans, as we celebrate this Mother’s Day.

By admin

CORPORATE NEWS

January 8, 2021

Chairman’s Message of Gratitude

January 8, 2021

Happy New Year!

Mary K. Yap Foundation continues collaboration with our charity film partner, Mandalay Productions, at the beginning of the year for the post-production process for the upcoming film “Myittar.” The final mixing for the feature in Thailand was initially held last February 2020 but halted due to the Pandemic. The team also started scouting for a location in early March to shoot another music video to support the upcoming charity movie if COVID-19 comes to closure by year-end 2020.Covid strikes from the beginning of April until the last days of 2020. During these times, we planned and organized the Marketing strategies for the future release of “Myittar.”

Although traveling was impossible, we retooled and redesigned our outreach programs, anticipating that traveling and fundraising would be limited. By August 2020, the editing adjustments were successfully submitted to the Censorship board. Due to the continuous Covid Outbreak, we did not have the chance to celebrate Christmas with the orphans since social distancing was strictly observed in Myanmar.

Please join me in extending our warm hearts and prayers to the orphanages during this difficult time. Our rice donation program will continue with selected orphanages where we can travel freely using domestic routes.

Should your have any extra attention, our Yangon offices is always opened for assistance.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. John Palmer

By admin

INDIVIDUAL SPOTLIGHT

March 12, 2020

Bridgit Claire’s Inspiration

Bridgit Claire Mendler was born December 18, 1992, in Washington, D.C.is, the daughter of Sandra Ford-Mendler and Charles Mendler. She is an American actress, singer, and songwriter.

In 2010, Mendler became ambassador to First Book, a campaign to encourage reading and give books to children in need where it became part of Disney’s Friends for Change, a pro-social “green” initiative of charity for environmental issues encouraging fans to act in the year 2011. She released a promotional single called “We Can Change the World” on June 11 as part of the campaign theme. It raised $250,000 for the Disney Worldwide Conversation Fund.

In 2012 Mendler won the honorary award from Common Sense Media as Role Model of the Year for her work against bullying. Mendler was the third young artist to win the prize, which usually honors environmentalists and scholars. She also attended the annual UNICEF acoustic concert in New York to raise donations for charity in January 2013.

During the course of her young professional life, Mendler participated in various public causes including the end for cyber-bullying, a charity race to help children with health problems in underprivileged countries and a Bay Sit-In project which asks for teens to help give parents a break and give babies a healthy start to their future. Mendler represented the Save the Children during the charity congress for the institution’s annual Advocacy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Mendler said, “It’s an easy way for kids to help little ones everywhere get a healthy start and an opportunity to learn just by doing something they do most weekends anyway.”

The Save the Children’s president, Carolyn Miles thanked Mendler publicly for humanitarian work: “We are thrilled to have Bridgit on board. Her passion for helping children came through when she met with families and kids during her visits to the remote communities in the deserts of California and Guatemala’s western highlands”.

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CORPORATE NEWS

January 8, 2020

Founder’s Message of Gratitude

January 8, 2020

Dear Friends,

Happy New Year to everyone, and I hope that 2020 is off to a great start for you.

Earlier last year, I am pleased to inform you of our foundation’s milestones, results, and achievements in which the Mary K. Yap Foundation entered a Memorandum of Understanding in the filmmaking process with Mandalay Productions LLC (MP) for their first-ever movie entitled “Myittar,” a charity film to combat the plight of orphan communities in Myanmar.

Our organization has worked closely with Mandalay Productions for the shooting process over the past two years. We sincerely appreciate our dear friends, Edward Thaung, George Rush, and Gabrial Jack, for providing valuable legal guidance to successfully bring foreign artists from Myanmar to the US on a 0-1 Visa. After nearly three years of planning and preproduction, our film team commenced principal photography on February 17, 2019. Having a huge cast and production team in the United States is challenging. Multiple shooting sites brought Myanmar talents Htun Eindra Bo and Lumin to the United States for the first time on American soil. Our US team, led by our Director, Graham Streeter, together with Alex Lebosq, Producer and AD, and camera team, Nicholas Burress visited Yangon to complete the Myanmar production in June 2019.

We thanked Skyline College in San Bruno, California, which permitted us to the theater shooting sites. Thank you for the celebration at Skyline College and for believing in our charity film project. Additionally, we could not have completed the second half of the production in Myanmar without the unwavering support of our Unit Director, Grace Swe Zin Htike. We are extremely grateful for Grace who facilitated site permit arrangements of B-Roll Myanmar’s culture at the Film Development Center studio in collaborations with the Myanmar Motional Picture Development Office.

We wrap up the year at three orphanages by sponsoring luncheons, desserts, and activity games with orphan children. Our ambassador volunteers presented the children with one stuffed toy for each child as a present to hold on to at night, especially during the holiday.In the coming year, 2020, together with our partners and church communities, we are looking toward a more exciting year when we have completed our post-production of Myittar, slated at the beginning of 2nd half of 2021.

Yours Sincerely,

Mary K. Yap

By admin

INDIVIDUAL SPOTLIGHT

January 4, 2020

Life is tough without Hope

No other Hollywood celebrity has captured the hearts and affections like Marilyn Monroe has done for decades. Her stardom and popularity continued to glow even after she died in 1962.

In 1999, the American Film Institute listed 100 Years …. 100 Stars. Monroe ranked as the sixth greatest female screen legend. Yet, her story is no other than before her. Marilyn was an orphan. Her mother, Gladys Baker, had paranoid schizophrenia throughout her life. She was mentally unstable and financially unable to care for her daughter, so she placed Norma Jeane Mortenson (Marilyn Monroe’s birth name) with foster parents, whom she lived with until she was 7.

There are scores of Hollywood films, one after another, starring Marilyn that brought fame and attention to the screen. Among all her releases, the most famous film was “Some Like it Hot,” in which she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress Award category in 1960. The film co-star Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and George Raft. The comedy story was about two male musicians who witnessed a mob hit that led them to flee the state in an all-female band disguised as women, but further complications set in.

Despite the many unfortunate events in Marilyn Monroe’s life ever since she was a little girl, from having an unable mother to marrying a couple of times to different men in her life, Monroe lived a beautiful life before her death on August 5, 1962. However, she didn’t let these unfortunate moments in her life stop her. Instead, she made it possible to be famous and well-known in her craft and delivered each film excellently.

“Keep smiling because life is a beautiful thing, and there’s so much to smile about,” said Monroe.

Our board continues to provide hope and love to all underserved children in Myanmar, especially during this worldwide pandemic. Our goal remains to reach out to vulnerable children and integrate them well into their communities so that they can thrive, like how Marilyn Monroe was able to do when she was adopted into a foster care system at a young age.

By admin

INDIVIDUAL SPOTLIGHT

November 24, 2019

The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi

“By helping others, you will learn how to help yourself.”
– Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi, the most visible and polarizing political figure in Myanmar’s modern history, has contributed much to the country. She is an advocate of freedom and democracy. She was awarded the 1990 Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize in 1990, awarded to individuals that have distinguished themselves in their work for human rights and democracy. She has also won a $1.3 million Nobel prize for her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights that she used and donated to establish a health and education trust for the Burmese people, wherein she founded Daw Khin Kyi Foundation.

The Daw Khin Kyi Foundation, named after the memory of her mother, Daw Khin Kyi, is a non-profit charitable organization that promotes the country’s people’s health, education, and living standards, focusing its attention, especially on the needs of Burma’s least developed areas. The foundation has developed different programs to achieve the needs of the citizens in Myanmar, which are mostly concerned about health, specifically Mobile Library for education, Hospitality and Catering Training Academy, La Yaung Taw (a Horticulture Training Academy), which provides Humanitarian assistance, and others.

“To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

The foundation’s mission is to achieve these goals irrespective of ethnicity, race, political division, or religion, believing that improvement in one place creates a better future for all. Aung San Suu Kyi has the purest heart and gives all their love to her citizens, as she stated that she is willing to donate her body organs to whoever may need them, even if this can cause harm and death. She also presented her house as an exhibition for the young generation to observe how Burmese Traditions and Burmese woman’s culture and outfits. Given her love for the country, Aung San Suu Kyi is considered the heart of Myanmar.

Mary K. Yap Foundation recognizes Aung San Suu Kyi’s undivided attention dedicated to the people of Myanmar and to providing humanitarian attention to the country she bravely extends to the fullest.

By admin

Contacts

Most Vulnerable Children

A Better Tomorrow for All Orphans

Board Chair of the Mary K. Yap Foundation

A Champion for Women’s Rights

A Warm Tribute to Mr. Edward

Orphan Children on Mother’s Day

Chairman’s Message of Gratitude

Bridgit Claire’s Inspiration

Founder’s Message of Gratitude

Life is tough without Hope

The Lady: Aung San Suu Kyi

“To be kind is to respond with sensitivity and human warmth to the hopes and needs of others. Even the briefest touch of kindness can lighten a heavy heart. Kindness can change the lives of people.” – Aung San Suu Kyi

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