About us


We, Lill and Stig Skaran, have worked with faith-based orphanages in Myanmar since we moved to Yangon in 2004. We moved back to Norway in March, 2013, but are still engaged with helping children stay with their families in their own villages. We do this through a project called Families Together. We have seen many changes in Myanmar over the years. We have also met countless people who invest or would like to invest in children homes throughout the nation of Myanmar, and it is for those people we have set up this website.
We want to give you some information about the “orphanage” situation in Myanmar. We come from Norway and have volunteered in Myanmar with different organizations, but have always been involved with children homes.

In the first years we developed a seminar we called Understanding the Child in cooperation with Dr. Bjarte Sanne, a child-psychiatrist from Norway. He wrote a book called Understanding the Child that is written specifically for the Myanmar situation. The book is available in Burmese in Christian bookshops in Myanmar. You can read more about this book and download a PDF file from this link. Our training is in Family Counseling and we have since 2006 worked with solutions on how to keep families together.

Leave a donation with PayPal for our work with the children of Myanmar:


9 Comments

  1. I am in Myanmar for 1 month. It has really touched me seeing all the orphans. Everyone I see, I see a heartbreaking story. The ones I have see are being looked after by monks. I worry about safeguarding (I am a healthcare professional in the UK). What safeguards are in place to protect the kids from sexual, physical and emotional abuse? Is there anything I can do to support/raise awareness of safeguarding issues? Or donate? You are doing great work.

    • Stig Skaran

      I am not sure what safeguards are in place in Myanmar, but many of the thousands of kids who are in child care centers are in great danger of being exploited.

    • Yes. I follow Ygw orphanages and one of them is terrible. They commit child abuse. And Neglect. The babies and children are in a very bad way. Those monks and caregivers are pure EVIL. They beat and hurt the children. They neglect them badly. They do not even wash them they are filthy and riddled in ringworm and bad skin infections. But monks live in luxury.They are horrid people. And unicef and The Embassy know about this and they do nothing. They leave those poor children with those ABUSERS.

  2. Marissa

    Can children be adopted to families in the United States?

    • Stig Skaran

      That is exactly our fear as well. These children are so vulnerable that even when visited with the best intentions, they are still at risk of bein exploited.

  3. vivian gan

    my friends and I will like to take a trip to Myanmar to visit an orphanage home. I will have a doctor, nurses and ancillary staff with me.. My aim is to give the children a health check and also to impart some skills to the children so that they can live for a lifetime.
    Appreciate if you can advise how to go about this as in which is the best month to be there? do I need to report to any government body in Myanmar if I am visiting the orphanage?

    Appreciate if you could enlighten me with your professional advise.

    Thank you

    Vivian Gan
    Singapore

    • Stig Skaran

      Dear Vivian,
      Don’t know how to give an appropriate answer. Should you report to the Social Welfare Department? Yes, you should, but if you do, you will not likely get an approval. Many teams come in and do whatever they like, because so many of these homes are unregistered. It’s really dangerous, because noone knows what they do to the children. Find a way where you can work under an existing NGO work, don’t just go in and do your own thing. I am not aware of any registered NGOs who do this kind of work.
      Best regards,
      Stig

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.