Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre

Dear Family, Friends and Supporters,

We are happy to share the latest news from our Sprouting Seeds Learning Centre. As many of you know the Learning Centre will be the base for our trainings and the location of our social enterprise The Sprouting Seeds café, bakery and eco-shop. It’s been a busy few months as we edge closer to the opening of the café and we continue to deliver trainings and support initiatives across Myanmar.

6 Month Internship with Shalat Education Resource Center (Kachin State)
Back in April we ran an intensive training for students from Shalat Education Resource Center based in Myitkyina, Kachin State in Northern Myanmar. (See 4^th Report) The exchange helped the students build a variety of skills they could then use to implement new programs back at their school. As part of the exchange the students taught us wood working helping them build their confidence and giving us valuable new skills.

Two of the students, Grace and Bawk Mai, were so inspired by the training that they now hope to open a small café. To further this aspiration they have returned to Kalaw to spend six months with us working on the café so they can experience first hand every aspect of running a small business.

Together with Aye Aung, the girls have been working diligently on getting the café and bakery open and helping to facilitate the trainings.

DevelopEd School (Lashio, Northern Shan State)
We have been working with DevelopEd, a small pre-collegiate program for ethnic youth based in Northern Shan State for the past two years. These youth have limited opportunities and are routinely discriminated against. In July we set up a five day training program for the students and teachers of DevelopEd . The group and their teacher joined us in Kalaw where we taught them a variety of skills including baking and cooking of western dishes and breads, ice cream making, handicrafts and yoga.

The group is currently working on business proposals as part of their third year school projects and are thinking of starting a small café as part of their efforts to gain skills and raise funds for the school.

We have future trainings set up with DevelopEd to continue to support their work in Lashio.

Ngaung Shwe Buddhist Youth Group (Inle Lake, Southern Shan State)
In the famous tourist area of Inle Lake in the town of Ngaung Shwe, we have been working with a multi ethnic group of lower income youths. They are working on livelihood generation projects including an eco shop and crafts which we have been supporting. Our latest training with them was around environmental awareness. We aimed to give them the tools and knowledge to advance their efforts in environmental protection in what has sadly become a highly polluted part of the country.

Opening of Shop in our Centre in Kalaw
In August we were joined for a few weeks by the ex Senior Director of UnLtd India an incubator for social enterprises based in Mumbai. She led us in a number of brainstorming sessions that helped us redefine our business plan and build a stronger marketing strategy. This combined with our conversations with tour guides, hoteliers and others engaged in the tourist industry in Kalaw have led us to the decision not to wait for a viable space in town but to launch the Sprouting Seeds Cafe and bakery in the existing training center which is a short walk from the downtown area.

Upcoming
In the next few months we will be working with two new monasteries Tilokarama and the Naung Taung Monastic School to help support them in their livelihoods efforts to launch a café and bakery within their Monastic Schools.