Myanmar Youth Sustainability Training Centre

Dear Friends and Family,

Warm greetings from Myanmar. We are deep in the monsoon season, and with it come both the nourishing rains and ongoing challenges.

As many of you may know, a devastating 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck at the end of March, causing widespread destruction across the Mandalay and Sagaing regions, as well as the Inle Lake area. Entire communities were severely affected, and the scale of loss has been unimaginable.

With the support of partner organizations both locally and abroad, we were able to respond quickly and provide essential food supplies to several hundred families during their most difficult moments. These distributions were made possible through generous financial support and through the strength of our teacher training networks across the country. The road to recovery will be long, as communities already burdened by ongoing civil conflict now face the monumental task of rebuilding yet again. Please see Sprouting Seeds report for further details. 

Here at Whispering Earth Training Centre, both in our village and in Kalaw, we’ve felt the persistent aftershocks — some as strong as 5.0. One particularly powerful aftershock, two months after the main quake, brought down our farm kitchen just days before a scheduled training. As the rains begin to ease in the coming months, we will begin rebuilding.

Amidst these challenges, we’re grateful to have hosted several trainings at the farm in Ecovillage Design Education and holistic teacher training. Looking ahead, we’re planning even more trainings in partnership with local and regional organizations.

The rebuilding of our kitchen will also serve as a learning opportunity — a hands-on training in natural building using earth and bamboo. We aim to empower teachers and community leaders from across the country with regenerative building skills that they can bring back to support their own communities. In the face of so much loss, we find hope and purpose in building not just structures, but resilience and connection.

If funding permits, we will also have the pleasure of building a larger 2 story dormitory to house our participants for the trainings. This building project too will serve as a training, as we teach participants from across the country in natural building techniques as they help us to build our next new building. We are very excited about these upcoming trainings and building projects!

With deep gratitude for your continued support and encouragement,

The Whispering Earth Team