In Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, countless children and adolescents have to live on the streets. Most of them have no home or are sent out into the streets during the day by their mostly single mothers and told to bring home some money for the family. Many of them try to generate some income by collecting rubbish. Already at daybreak girls and boys aged six to fifteen can be seen to search the city's waste dumps for old plastic bottles, which they can sell afterwards. As this activity is officially forbidden, these children occasionally get arrested by the police and are put in prison.

The project

Since 2008 SONNE-International has been supporting a “drop-in centre” for street children and adolescents in Yangon, which was created by our local partner, the Ratana Metta Organisation (RMO). The centre provides day care and vocational training. The children arrive around midday. They can have a wash, are given a warm meal and receive medical treatment. After one hour’s rest the younger children go to school and the older ones are taught a trade. In order to facilitate these children’s reintegration and to give them the prospect of a decent future, the parents are assisted by social workers and are given financial support in the form of a loan. The aim is to provide the parents with income-generating opportunities so that they can overcome their financial difficulties and send their children to school again.

This project is co-financed by: