Ms. Lian Tiem and Sui Par

Dear Friends,

For the past five years, Lian Tiem, a 60-year-old widow, has lived at the Handicapped Care Center, a Heaven’s Family-sponsored orphanage for polio-stricken children in Kalaymyo, Myanmar. Lian has been blind for 12 years. Her teenage daughter Sui Par, also a resident at the orphanage, watches over her.

When I met Lian this past November, she was sitting quietly by herself on the floor of the orphanage while all the children sang Christian songs and played games. My heart went out to her.

During our visit, the director of the Handicapped Care Center asked us a favor on behalf of Lian and Sui Par. He wanted to know if Heaven’s Family could empower them to become self-supporting and move into their own rented house. He estimated that they would need a grant of $675 to help them to purchase a hand loom and thread for making clothing, as well as buy some pots to do their own cooking. Sui Par knows how to weave from her training at the orphanage, and she estimates that she could earn about $40 a month using her skills. That would be enough for her and her blind mother to be self-sufficient.

The plan made sense to us, and since we’ve known both Lian and Sui Par for years, we gladly agreed. Although we prefer to help widows become self-sufficient through offering them small-business micro-loans, we felt that in this case a grant would be better. A micro-loan may be appropriate later if Sui Par wants to expand her business.

Through Heaven’s Family’s Widows & Abandoned Women Fund, we’re lifting many poor widows from poverty around the world, through both grants and loans. Your gifts are making those blessings possible! Thanks so much.

For our Sisters,

Peter Wray
Director, Widows & Abandoned Women Fund