Mingun Home for the Aged

This was the one that started it all. The Mingun Home for the Aged was founded in 1915 by a lady benefactor, who actually lived in the Home towards the end of her life, and indeed died there in 1944.

The Home, with its 100 or so elderly residents, sits on the edge of town, on the banks of the Irrawaddy River, not far from the area's main tourist attractions. In fact, many tourists wander through the grounds of the Old People's Home, and some even stop to drop some loose change in the donations box. But the Love Family, visiting Myanmar on holiday from Singapore in 2002, wanted to do something more meaningful to improve the lives of the elderly men and women of Mingun.

In consultation with the charismatic Nurse Thwe, who runs the Home, and enlisting the help of several friends, they set about raising funds, initially to finance the purchase of new bedding for every resident. In fact, the donor group returned in early 2004 with sufficient funding, not only for the intended purchase of sheets, blankets, pillows and mattresses, but for an additional contribution towards the construction of a new medical clinic in the grounds of the Home. Donations of a wheelchair, walking frames, clothes, medicines and toiletries were also made, to the delight of the Nurse and her staff and residents.

Visiting the Home once again in March 2005, the group was pleased to see the new Clinic up and running, and decided to support another leg of the Mingun Project by financing an upgrade of the Home's kitchen area. The old folks of Mingun have a simple, but clean and comfortable existence, and the Project group is happy that its donations have been put to such practical and meaningful use.