Habitat for Humanity Build – Who Are We Helping In Myanmar?

We have a few hours to spare as we lounge in the Singapore Airport before our flight to Yangon, Myanmar and thought we would take the time to talk about the two families we will be helping in Myanmar.

Family One –

U Kyaw Min Oo is 32 years old and his wife is four years older than him.  They have no house in their village, so they are staying in the small house where the wife’s mother used to live (we have included a picture of their current house below). They have inherited a piece of land right in front of the current house they are staying in.  They have two sons; tragically, one of them has a heart condition.  He needs daily medication to survive. 

Both U Kyaw Min Oo and his wife do not have stable jobs.  They just take whatever jobs are available for them in the village. U Kyaw Min Oo works as a farmer and fisherman during the rainy season and can earn up to 3,000 Myanmar Kyat ($2.28 USD) per day.  His wife can earn 1,500 Myanmar Kyat ($1.14 USD) a day from rolling cigarettes.  They sometimes don’t have jobs for days and weeks at a time.

All their hard-earned money goes to their daily needs such as food, clothing and medicine for their son.  It is not possible to save enough money so that they can build their own home.  They are very grateful to our team for helping them and will be able to focus their energy on the health and education of their children.

Family Two-

Daw Win Than is 48 years old and her husband is 50 years old (he is not in the family picture, as he was working the day it was taken).  They have 4 children, of which only one has been married.  They all live together in their current house. The younger son and daughter are still attending school.

U Kyaw Soe is a farmer and a fisherman in rainy season and earns 4,000 Myanmar Kyat ($3.50 USD) per day.  When rainy season is over, it’s much harder to get a job.  When he isn’t working, they don’t have any income, so they have to spend the little money they can spare earned during the rainy season for food and clothing.

Daw Win Than and her daughter roll tobacco cigarettes just to cover their daily meals. They can make up to 3,000 Myanmar Kyat ($2.28 USD) per day rolling cigarettes.

How are the Families Chosen?  While we don’t have exact details for families in Myanmar, we can rely on our experiences from prior builds.  The families are generally chosen by community religious leaders that have deemed the families as having both a need and sufficient social capital to have earned a new home.  The families also need to own the land and must participate in the building of their home.

Why are Homes Important?  Because children can’t go to school when they’re sick and homes with leaky walls and roofs facilitate illness.  New homes rectify these situations and hopefully contribute to the families being able to break the cycle of subsistence farming and underemployment.  All of the parents and grandparents that we’ve met hope that their children can be properly educated, get superior paying jobs outside the village and pursue options that the families haven’t historically had.  In short, they change the life trajectories of these families. There is more need than resources but that’s not a good reason to avoid participating or to avoid donating.

We feel honored to take part in such a worthwhile cause – the aid of families with children.  These are the poorest of the poor in the poorest parts of the world.  But they’re virtuous people that share the exact same hopes and dreams that we all have.  They want better lives for their children and families than they themselves had.  But sadly, they don’t have the tools or education or the local institutions to make those goals achievable.

We don’t get anything directly from these builds except a little satisfaction and lots of good memories (which hopefully last as long as the homes do!!).  Many of you know this is Emily’s 5^th build and Salil’s 4^th build (our build leaders have participated in 40+ builds – hooray).  While we have already surpassed our fundraising goal for this build, we are currently fundraising for our next one; which we hope to sign up for later this year, or the first quarter of 2019.  Please consider making a small donation by clicking on the link below and please share this link with your friends and family.

https://share.habitat.org/globalvillage-mehtaforgv

Thank you for your continued support and love!