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Shanta Foundation addresses inequalities in rural Myanmar by empowering villages to assess their own needs and fund their own solutions. Community banks, transparent committees, and training in new income-producing activities provide dignity and a path out of poverty for villages that have been stripped of so much. It has been over a month since the [...]
“I’m excited to make my future plans happen. I feel that our village is lucky to have the community loan fund. I love it. I believe that I am also able to make my dreams happen,” U Htut Lay opened happily, with hopeful eyes. U Htut Lay is a 46-year-old married man living in Than [...]
Transformative Capacity Transformative capacity means having the ability to affect systemic change or create a positive enabling environment for people to work together to invest and innovate while actively managing risks. If village flooding is made worse because of upstream conditions outside of the villagers’ control, transformative capacity can be realized if they are able to get the government and other stakeholders to act to [...]
Visit this link to read more about the impact of U Maung Boat's new business, as well as view the rest of our November Newsletter, which also contains pictures from our recent Zambia expansion trip. November Newsletter
Thoughts from Executive Director, Wade Griffith Ever been to a Golden Corral restaurant? For your sake, I hope not. Still, there is one fantastic attraction at these semi-seedy buffet joints. THE CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN. An ever-flowing font of milk-chocolatey goodness surrounded by dippable treats like strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows, and cookies. No, you didn’t stumble into a [...]
Community-Led Development in the face of COVID19? The emergence of COVID-19 in 2020 posed an existential threat to thousands of international development programs. Organizations stopped operations as local staff self-isolated and expatriates left the country. How could a modest rural village-led development partnership program stand up to such a tremendous challenge? Precisely because it is [...]
Imagine walking a mile to retrieve water for your everyday use. It may require several trips a day to complete ordinary tasks like cooking, cleaning, animal care, and watering garden plants. These treks were part of a daily routine for the people of Aung Le village in the Pi Laung Township. Village leaders regularly organized [...]
While I am always enthusiastic about Shanta's work, I get truly enthused when I think about Shanta's future. On the cusp of expansion with a blueprint of the Village Partnership Model (VPM) in the works, we are poised to take our next step as a thought leader and influencer in the development space. More importantly, [...]
Ma Khin Lay is a 37-year-old married woman living in Htee Lone village in Taunggyi Township. She has two children in the 5th and 7th grades. Ma Khin attended school up to grade 5, and her husband never attended school. She and her husband grow corn, garlic, and rice. In addition, they had a pig [...]
What makes Shanta unique in the humanitarian and community development world? Our unique development model has three pillars of sustainability that ensure a permanent (yes, permanent!) solution to poverty: 1) A holistic approach that addresses all of the interlocking and self-reinforcing dimensions of poverty. 2) A mechanism for villagers to self-finance village development work through [...]
