Myanmar’s rural communities struggle to even meet their basic needs. Shanta Village Partners began its work here after a life-changing encounter allowed our founders to witness both the struggles and the resilience of Myanmar’s villagers. Inspired by this experience, we chose Myanmar as our first project site due to its tremendous potential for community-led development.
Shanta partners with Pa’O ethnic minority villages in Myanmar’s Southern Shan State, where communities face extreme neglect. Despite their resilience, villagers drink scummy pond water, rely on walking for transportation, and cook over open fires in their homes, contributing to deforestation and lung disease. Schools (when there is one) are often dim, one-room bamboo huts that rarely go beyond grade four. There are no local healthcare providers, and poor roads and limited funds make hospitals in nearby towns nearly unreachable. Economic options are limited, with most families subsisting on low-yield cash crops like rice, while half the villagers live on less than $600 a year. Shanta partners with villages where help is scarce, needs are urgent, and sustainable change is vital.
Mone, a farmer in Ga Naing Nge West, is one example. After years of hardship—including losing his bamboo home to fire—Shanta’s partnership helped Mone start a pig farm, increasing his income enough to build a safer home for his family. His youngest daughter now attends a special school, and Mone reflects, “Ever since Shanta came into our lives, it feels like Buddha is lifting us up.”
Nang Ohn Phyu, one of six siblings, had to leave her village for school but returned when her mother fell ill. Facing limited options, she worried she’d have to work illegally in Thailand, as her siblings did. But after Shanta’s partnership with Pone Tan village, Nang was selected and trained as a Village Nurse Midwife (VNM).
Building on our success in Myanmar and wanting to test our development model in a different cultural context, we expanded into Zambia in 2022. Economically, Zambia is similar to Myanmar. The majority of the population live in remote villages and eke out a living as subsistence farmers. Despite these similarities, the culture is quite different and affords us an opportunity to see if we can replicate our impact among another, quite different, people group. Although we are still in the early stages of our work there, early indicators are promising, and we look forward to reporting our results once our first villages move into the later stages of the six-year partnership.
