Brief History

How it is conceived

The first place where Eden Centre was started

The desire to do something for disabled children in Myanmar was rooted in the heart of the founder, U Tha Uke, when he was working as a Physiotherapist in 1995-96 at the “Spastic Children Association of Penang, Malaysia”, and after volunteering twice a week at the ‘Eden Handicap Service Centre’. He continued to work as a Physiotherapist at “St. Luke’s Hospital for the Elderly, Singapore” for another two years but came back to his mother country for good in August 1998. He took nearly one year to finish his project proposal for the “Eden Handicapped Service Centre (EHSC), Yangon, Myanmar” and during that time he met Daw Lilian Gyi, the principal of the “School for Disabled Children” who had dedicated her whole life to disabled children. She helped him as a mentor for this project from the beginning.

How it grows

After giving the services to 14 disabled children for more than a year, at their own residences. U Tha Uke (Hta Oke) opened the centre twice a week at the residence of co founder Daw Lilian Gyi in Yangon, by May 2000 and he had used the residence for four months. The first site for the Eden Centre was rented at No. 13 (A), Daw Hla Pan Street, Ward 2, Mayangone Township, Yangon from September 2000 to December 2001, with the help of the chairperson of the organization. The ex-colleges of Tha Uke from St. Luke’s Hospital for the Elderly, Singapore came to visit Myanmar at the time and later helped finance the land. A one story building was financed by the ‘Grass-root Grant Assistance Scheme’ through the Japanese Embassy in August, 2001. In January 2002, they moved again to David Shwe Nu Street, Ward 2, Mayangone Township, Yangon, they remained their for ten months before finally moving onto their current site, Phawkan Insein in November 2002. Their first four staffs were recruited in October, 2001 after the ‘Association for Aids and Relief (AAR), Japan’ started to foster our ten children through the ‘foster parent program’ in August 2001 (A grant from AAR through the foster parent program is and was our main source of finance from the beginning) Today AAR is fostering our 50 children. (AAR is a Japanese organization running vocational training centres for physically disabled adults at Kyeikwine, Mayangone after signing a MOU with Department of Social Welfare in 2000).

Today more than 150 disabled children are benefiting and receiving the necessary services, both in the centre and at their own residence. At present there are 24 full time staff working at the centre.

Legal status

At the start the centre applied for registration as a local charity organization while it is still processing, the Department of Social Welfare issued an acknowledgement letter to the centre on May 2005.

The uniqueness

The centre is the first non-government, non-profit charity organization for physically and intellectually disabled children and was established by dedicated people for only social and humanitarian services, especially in the field of disabled children; one of the poorest of the poor in the Myanmar community, irrespective of race, religion and nationality.
As a pioneer organization in this specific field the centre is always trying to play a leading role, not only for quality service provision but also as a resource centre for disability related matter at local and at national level.
The centre adapts the ‘Social model of Disability’ approach and believes that disability is a development, a political and human rights issue and needs to be included in the mainstream development program and national agenda.
Advisory Committee: The advisory board includes, disabled children’s parents, donors and those who were interested and dedicated in charity work from the beginning. The committee has a meeting every three months and an annual report for the centre is prepared by the director every year. An external auditor was invited to check the financial regularity. The director is working under the guidance of the advisory committee. There are six Executive committee members.
Net-working: The centre is working closely with Department of Social Welfare and other government organizations. The centre is a member of the APCD at regional level and at local level we are working closely with all organizations that are focused on the disability field.
The centre is the only place in the country where essential services for physically and intellectually disabled children such as Physiotherapy, Occupation therapy, Hydrotherapy, special education, etc. can be provided for on the same site.
The centre is a place for those who want to do purely social and humanitarian work for disabled people in the Myanmar.