Kinnecting Kin

27 Jun

Nge Nge visiting a family in Kachin State, Myanmar
Nge Nge (at center on mat) visiting a family in the city of Myitkyina, in Kachin State, Myanmar, as she works to find the families of children in orphanages

Kinnecting Kin

How one social worker is finding healing for her own heart by finding families for kids

Dear Friends,

Let me introduce you to Nge Nge, one of the newest co-laborers we’re working with at Heaven’s Family. Born in a small rural town in Myanmar (Burma), she was just 3 months old when her father tragically died in a car accident. “There are no words to explain such feelings,” she now says with an aching heart about the father she never knew. After his untimely death, his widow was unable to support her young family, so she sent Nge Nge and her other children to live with different relatives. Nge Nge only saw her mother during school holidays.

Excelling in school, Nge Nge was able to attend university, earning a diploma in social work in 2004. Her own childhood experiences motivated her to seek work in which she could help reunite children with their families. She first worked for a UNICEF-funded project, and then moved on to helping children who were affected by Cyclone Nargis in 2008. Although she found those jobs interesting, they didn’t satisfy her desire to see institutionalized children reintegrated with their families and communities.

Most children living in orphanages are not orphans—they have families. And the Orphan’s Tear Ministry of Heaven’s Family is working to get children out of these harmful institutions—yes, studies universally agree that children in institutions suffer various forms of depravation, and, in many cases, outright abuse—and back into safe families where God intended for children to be raised.

To accomplish this Orphan’s Tear and Australian Christian Churches International Relief (ACCIR) have joined forces in Myanmar. ACCIR brings technical expertise with child reintegration through their Kinnected Program, and Orphan’s Tear brings its many contacts as well as 15 years of experience working in Myanmar. Getting children out of institutions and back into families, however, is not a quick or easy task, so we began looking to enlist the help of social work professionals who had been born and raised in Myanmar.

That’s when the Lord led us to Nge Nge. She later told us, “By the grace of God I learned about the Kinnected Program, which has committed to help children from orphanages, so I applied for a job…and was successful. God sent me to the right place to work with people in need.”

Nge Nge is one of four Burmese social workers whom we’ve hired. And this month your Compassion Club investment is going to pay Nge Nge’s salary for one year. Under the guidance of professionals from the UK, USA and Australia, she’s handling her own caseloads. She’s already visiting orphanages, building trust with children and orphanage directors, and tracking down the families and relatives of children in orphanages. She’ll soon be making assessments, creating reintegration plans, and making routine visits to monitor each child in his or her new family environment to ensure the success of the reintegration or placement.

Nge Nge with children on followup visit
Nge Nge, at left, conducting a followup visit in Kachin State, Myanmar

It’s always amazing to me how God brings so many different people together to accomplish His work. Thank you for your membership in the Compassion Club. You are enabling Jesus’ kingdom to be advanced all over the globe.

Blessings!

Jody Walker
Compassion Club Coordinator

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