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Contacts

HEAD OFFICE:                          548 Market Street,
San Francisco, CA 94104         USA

PROJECT OFFICE:                  Pearl Condo, Bldg A, 15 Fl., Kabar Aye Pagoda Rd.,      Yangon, Myanmar

hello@marykyapfoundation.org

US: +1 415 991 2030                 US: +1 415 799 8282                    MM: +95 9 977 66 7777

Category: CORPORATE NEWS

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CORPORATE NEWS

A 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.

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CORPORATE NEWS

Chairman’s 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

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CORPORATE NEWS

Founder’s 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

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CORPORATE NEWS

Movie for Charity

The program “Movie for Charity” net proceeds will benefit the Myanmar orphan community’s advancement.

As part of the Mary K. Yap Foundations’ extended effort to produce new and vibrant fundraising activities, Mary K. Yap Foundation is working on the “Movie for Charity” program, which is in partnership with Mandalay Productions LLC for the first-ever feature film. 

It gives our Board a tremendous appreciation to work closely with a creative film and video production company based in the US and Myanmar to deliver and produce unrivaled films based on their commitment to maintaining and providing the best international filmmaking practices. 

The “Myittar” film will blend well-known artists from Myanmar and individual Burmese American acting community stars.  Mandalay productions are the sole financial partner and the producer of the First Burmese and American feature film ever to be filmed in the United States and Myanmar (Burma).  Our Foundation takes enormous pride in promoting our worldwide non-profit initiative to promote the “Movie-for-Charity” project affiliated with Mandalay Productions LLC.  

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CORPORATE NEWS

Music for Charity

As part of the foundation’s ongoing efforts to transform the lives of Myanmar Orphans, Mary K. Yap Foundation organized and launched a “Music for Charity” fundraising campaign from 2001 until this day (pre-2020 pandemic), where the foundation offers a free show for everyone to enjoy. Mary K. Yap Foundation rents a theater and convention room yearly for the “Music for Charity” campaign.

The community of passionate volunteers and multiple entertainment contributors sing their favorite traditional Myanmar songs and dance along with them.

To collect charitable funds for the Myanmar orphans, Mary K. Yap Foundation distributes coupons wherein that friends and families from the community will sell to their networks which they can use to purchase traditional Burmese foods prepared and sold by some contributors. In addition, some donors donate food at the event. Financial support and donations are also generously welcome at the Music for Charity event.

 

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The Guests, donors, partners, volunteers, and family members enjoy the performances each year. These are all the efforts made by the staff, volunteers, and the community to help and transform the lives of Myanmar orphans. To show transparency in the donation amount collected, Mary K. Yap Foundation published a financial clearance containing the previous year’s money for everyone to know how much money had been collected and how much money had been donated to Myanmar Orphans.

The foundation desires to make awareness of the everyday need of Orphaned Children.  As more people become aware of the event, more donors and funds are available to achieve the foundation’s mission to empower Orphaned children throughout Myanmar. Mary K. Yap Foundation believes that a bit of effort goes a long way; thus, they encourage everybody to donate or volunteer their time to support the future generation of needy children. 

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CORPORATE NEWS

Our Aspiring Mission

Mary K. Yap Foundation operates by its core mission to transform the lives of Myanmar orphans to become independent and productive members of the community. The Foundation believes these orphaned children can prosper when given proper guidance and support. They deserve the undivided love and care from the people who believe in them and provide hope. We are humble to serve the interest of these disadvantageous children during the past twenty years.

Our aspiring organizational mission is to provide every orphan with the enduring hope that they, too, have equal access to quality educational programs and sufficient facilities and tools to aid them in a brighter future.

The Foundation engages in socially impacting activities that would help these orphaned children develop their skills in communicating and interacting with others and building their self-confidence. Thus, the Foundation ensures these orphaned children will be empowered and become reliable community citizens.

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CORPORATE NEWS

Our Vision for a New Hope

Our vision is to bring the most significant impact on the orphan community in Myanmar by delivering quality programs so that they can prosper and become successful citizens in their communities.  

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CORPORATE NEWS

Three core pillars

The Mary K. Yap Foundation firmly upholds these three core pillars, Unity, Excellence, and Integrity, in our everyday actions and decisions.

These core values represent our organization to the world.

UUnity is one of the guiding principles that an organization must possess to deliver the best goals. Therefore, the Mary K. Yap Foundation brings together a group of passionate volunteers and staff from different cultures, religions, and nationalities to understand that Unity is the essential cornerstone of the foundation that holds everyone together. 

EExcellence defines our committed position on behalf of the children we serve, and we deserve nothing less than excellence in our performance, thinking, and approach to pursuing their best interests. Every work must be done with excellence in mind. Through our commitment to excellence in all our actions, we can grow and encourage the innovation and creativity required to find more effective ways of achieving our mission.  Our quality of work measures our commitment to excellence, the quality programs we administer, and the improved care and protection these orphaned children receive.

IIntegrity is the foundation of trust and confidence. It involves honesty, morality, and ethical principles. The Mary K. Yap Foundation is always transparent in dealing with orphaned children, their well-being, and those who support the foundation’s mission. Integrity is a choice we make, and it is a choice we must keep making repeatedly. Integrity must always be part of any reputable foundation because it involves trust from those who receive help and the faith of those who donate to the charity.

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CORPORATE NEWS

Myanmar-Orphan Project

Mary K. Yap Foundation believes in its mission to transform the lives of Myanmar Orphans to become independent and productive members of the country’s society. One of the projects that the Mary K. Yap Foundation supports and would like to introduce is the “Myanmar Orphans – www.myanmarorphans.org”

This project aims to help orphans improve their learning potential and provide access for disadvantaged children to excel. It also aims to advance Myanmar Orphans to become responsible citizens of Myanmar country.

The project includes different programs such as education, nutrient and food development, sustainable solutions, social welfare, and disaster support assistance initiatives that help orphans achieve greater equal opportunities that are not easily accessible or not possible for disadvantaged children.