Over the summer break, Orphan’s Promise, in cooperation with Operation Blessing, funded a three-week vocational training camp for 49 Shan children at the House of Hope orphanage in Mae Hong Son, northern Thailand.

The children took part in a range of classes that included English, baking, mechanics, sewing, agricultural studies in poultry and organic gardening, handicrafts and traditional Shan worship and dance. Fifteen-year-old Im is an orphan who has been at the House of Hope since she was just 5 years old.

“A camp like this gives us all the opportunity to have a skill when we leave from here,” she said. “We should have it every year! I am excited about our own Shan Worship Band. I also learned the basics of sewing and one day maybe I can become a designer.”