For almost 60 years now the government in Burma has been actively seeking to annihilate the minority ethnic groups within it's borders. Among these are the Shan, Karen and Lahu tribes, to name a few. Over the years many of these groups have migrated to Thailand to escape the persecution. Many live as subsistence farmers in villages in the jungle. Many live in refugee camps on the border that are still fired upon by the Burmese army on a regular basis. Still more are children, orphaned and alone, who have escaped to Thailand and now face deportation or slavery in a brothel. The Charis Project exists in cooperation with community leaders from the hill tribes who wish to address the current needs of their people and also dream of one day returning to a free Burma with the tools and knowledge needed to rebuild.

This project is devoted to getting them exactly what they need.

Our immediate focus is on providing training and equipping for the hundreds of indigenous community workers, from many tribes, who are already self-invested in serving and caring for their communities. They know what they need, we aim to provide it.

As an integral part of that we are focused on helping them care for the children that they come across and take in who are in danger. These children are either orphaned or at risk of being sold or abandoned due to the extreme poverty of their families.

They are all refugees, they are all at risk of deportation, enslavement by sex traffickers, or starvation and death. There are no government agencies to help these children. Our workers have chosen to take them in when no one else would in spite of the emotional and financial strain it causes in their own families. Child sponsorship is a way to alleviate this strain.