Myanmar Youth Sustainability Training Centre

Dear Friends and Family, 

We hope this finds you healthy and happy! 

The situation here in Myanmar continues to grow worse. As many of you who follow the news here know, the struggles continue throughout all regions of the country. The current economic situation is getting worse, the cost of daily goods continuing to rise 3 to 5 times their normal price. Meanwhile, daily wages stay the same, causing many families finding it hard to make ends meet. 

We are fortunate though for our location of our training centres here in Kalaw. It continues to be relatively safe traveling around Kalaw and out to our village training centre, Whispering Earth. 

The rainy season is quickly approaching, currently we are experiencing the effects of Cyclone Mocha which is ripping through the Bay of Bengal. A quick reminder how quickly the season change from hot and dry, to foggy, cold and wet days. 

With the onset of the monsoon season, we focus again on some infrastructure developments at the farm. A new roof on the main building is priority before the heavy rains come.  It is a great experience for local villagers to have another experience working with treated bamboo and new forms of sustainable construction. 

The local Danu children are currently on their summer holiday and we will run several programs for them over the next few weeks before their school semester starts again. We have a lovely group of kids we are working with here in the village and look forward to further developments on the farm land so we can offer more learning opportunities for them. 

Tree planting will begin again soon as well. We will work with the children from the village and aim once again to plant several hundred trees over the next few months. 

We are so grateful for your support and contributions. It grows more and more challenging each day, but with your support we are able to carry on our work further each day. 

We look forward to sharing further news with you, hopefully happier better news from Myanmar over the next few months! 

Warmly, 

Whispering Earth Family

Dear Friends and Family, 

Another winter is upon us now, the rains have stopped and cool clear weather is here. The difficulties in Myanmar continue economically and politically.  Slowly we aim to continue our work here in Shan State serving teachers, youth and local communities as best we can. 

The situation has been difficult over the last few months and we have had to have a minimal presence in all of our projects. We are happy for the better weather to come and more relaxed times once again so we can start our projects working with youth once again! 

We hope for a more stable situation over the next few months and we hope our programs can continue to grow, but we need to monitor the situation regularly. 

We have finished the plaster on the outside of the first mud house and continue to use it for trainings for the youth and also as a model building structure for other local groups working both locally in the area, as well as a low cost, sustainable option for building in Myanmar. 

We hope for a smooth winter season and look forward to share our news with you as the good weather allows us more access to work with the communities in the village. 

Wishing you all a happy holiday season and healthy transition into the new year ahead!