Yangon Animal Shelter

Project Week 2017 in Yangon, Myanmar

Playful dogs at the shelter

Every year my high school would arrange for I.B students to go on a charity trip abroad; a country of their choice and a charity of their choice. We all chose our own groups to travel with, organised our hotels, tourist activities and charity activities. My two best friends and I chose Yangon Animal shelter in Yangon, Myanmar. We wanted to go somewhere exotic and new. The aim of the week abroad is to visit a place on a budget, focus on helping the community and make a positive impact. The school gave us a spending limit of $900 SGD including flights, hotels and necessities. So here is how it went:

Some things to know about Myanmar (formerly Burma);

- Their official language is called Burmese

- Betel nut chewing is quite a common, traditional sight. They are sold by street vendors.

- Myanmar became independent in 1948 and subsequently formed a bicameral parliament and decided to not join the Commonwealth

- Myanmar is highly culturally diverse, geographically being surrounded by India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand and Laos (it was very evident in their cuisine and traditional clothing)

Our hotel: We chose a humble accommodation called the 'High Five Hotel' and in hindsight it was quite an experience (a hotel staff used my toothbrush as it turned pink when I returned, betel nut is the culprit here!). It was not a hostel but also not a five star hotel, it was very nice for the price we paid. I think it cost us $150 USD each for 8 nights, a very good price. They even organised our daily packed lunch, breakfast and transportation and it was in a location close to the main city. It was definitely worth the price.

Schwe Dagon Pagoda at sunset

Everyone is required to cover their legs and shoulders when entering the religious area

The famous 'Schwe Dagon Pagoda' and surrounding structures at around 7:30pm. The Pagoda itself is heavily decorated in gold and a 75 carat pure diamond can be found at the tip.

Our charity of choice; Yangon Animal Shelter was founded by an American lady who teaches at an international school in Yangon. She was a very nice, humble and hard-working lady. We were fortunate enough to spend 5 days at her shelter, socialising with dogs, feeding them etc. Our purpose was to take pictures of the dogs to make them more adoptable (500+ dogs), to make sure they got used to people and ensure they were more adoptable.

Some of the possessive doggies trying to hog the quality TLC

His name was 'Quasimodo', the hunchback, paraplegic dog. He was saved from a car accident but lost his ability to walk on his hind legs.

Two more copies of Quasimodo in the paraplegic dog arena. One man even came all the way from Japan to adopt one of the disabled puppies. How sweet :)

One last photo of my favourite dog - Quasimodo.

Cute happy dogo, I'll call him Ben.

The shelter staff during our stay. We communicated through elaborate theatric miming and body language

At the shelter: One of my favourite experiences volunteering included:

- Taking the motor bike with the shelter workers to the rural village (all houses were on wooden stilts and made up of wood

My two best friends riding on a motorcycle driven by one of the staff through a rural Yangon village

This was our daily ride to the shelter, after a 1 hour car ride, we sat on a small truck driven by a motorcycle for around 5 minutes.

- Trying an exotic fruit at their local market (I forgot what it was called) but it looked like a rambutan

- Meeting the paraplegic dogs

- Touring around the local city and taking the local open air train (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) around Yangon

This way the view out of the open air railway, near the central city of Yangon. Rural Myanmar is absolutely stunning.

- Trying all the amazing Burmese street food and restaurants (we paid around $8USD for an entire meal with drinks for 3 people!!) - Recommended: 999 Shan Noodle house (the food is incredible, fast and cheap)

Feel free to contact me about specifics such as hotels, the shelter and general tourist activities.

#Yangon #Myanmar #Charity #Volunteer #Asia #Travel