Our Story

When founders Steve and Oddny Gumaer met Rose Mu, she made this simple request: "Tell your friends in the west what is happening to Myanmar’s children.” With these words, and a commitment to support this young girl who had arrived at Rose Mu’s doorstep the night before, Partners was started. Joining hands with locals to put love into action has been in our DNA from the very start.

As our experiences working with communities deeply impacted by the civil war in Eastern Myanmar grew, so too did our global community of supporters, allowing us to reach even further into areas of Myanmar like Shan, Kachin and Rakhine States, where countless children in remote and hard to reach places were experiencing the same devastating effects of war: poor health, limited access to education and little hope for the future.

Witnessing the power of partnering with locals to develop solutions to improve the wellbeing of children in their communities, our team’s attention was drawn to the outbreak of violence in the Middle East. These kids matter just as much as any. So in 2016 we launched emergency relief efforts in Syria and Iraq, extending into Yemen and Afghanistan in the years that followed.

Thanks to countless people like you who believe that children shouldn’t suffer because the adults are fighting, we've been able to help hundreds of thousands of children in conflict zones in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. And we’re not done yet. Wherever children are suffering as a result of conflict and oppression, we’ll continue to stand alongside them. We invite you to stay with us.