Over the years, we’ve worked hard to strengthen communities from within.

From remote hamlets to crowded urban alleys, local people have told us their needs and we’ve listened. We’ve developed local leadership and infrastructure and  provided relevant training so neighbors have the skills to help each other—even if cyclones or political storms cut them off from the rest of the world.

Strengthened by this development model, some of our local partners have become robust enough to create and manage solid, sustainable programs. Creative and nimble, these projects integrate health, water, sanitation, education, agriculture and employment. It’s a holistic approach that adds up to more efficient use of resources–and solutions that last.

We invite you to explore the newest stories on our website.

You’ll learn how the “Water Pipe Monk” in northern Burma is leveraging our support to bring school, food, and job skills to dislocated villagers. You’ll discover why parents say pre-schools are their top priority. And you’ll read about the Do’s and Don’t of installing toilets in the cyclone-devastated Delta as villages there navigate the tricky transition from emergency need to long-term community development.

We’re proud these projects were designed and implemented not by us, but by the local partners we’ve nurtured over the years-with your help.  Together, let’s move rapidly to expand training and programs that keep hope alive among some of the poorest, most neglected people in the world.

Please accept our deepest gratitude for your continued investment in bringing humanitarian aid to Burma’s people. With local partners in the field and global supporters like you, we can bring health and hope to thousands who are beyond the reach of conventional international aid.

With gratitude and hope,

Hal Nathan, President

For hundreds of displaced villagers relocated to arid lowlands in  northern Burma, water pipes mean more than just water.

Thanks to the creativity of a local “Water Pipe Monk,” the resourcefulness of FPB’s local partners and the cooperation of neighbors on the lush mountainside above, here’s what springs from a small irrigation project in Shan State: an expanded primary school attended by 106 children;  terraced farmland for essential crops; agricultural training for people living with HIV/AIDs.

Two years ago, when government projects displaced hundreds of families from their villages to a dusty clear-cut tract in northern Burma, villagers were dismayed to discover their water source was more than a mile away and did not provide enough water for even basic drinking, cooking and washing.

A stream flowed high above on the mountain, but it was already used by an established village. Monks from a monastery midway up the mountain talked with the mountain villagers about the benefits of sharing their water with people in the new settlement below. The proposal: Valley people would pay a small fee for piped water with all proceeds going to expand a cramped monastery school that was so small, it had to turn away more children than it could teach. The mountain community had long wanted to educate more of its children, and they agreed to the plan.

Now, with additional space and teachers, children from mountain and valley communities attend first through fourth grades together, learning academics along with real-life lessons in community cooperation.

Along with water, people need food. The monastery donated to our local partners four acres of land—already cleared, terraced and ready for planting mountain rice, corn, vegetables, tea, fruit and flowers. The donated farmland hosts another of our projects that provides shelter and job training for people living with HIV/AIDS as well as impoverished community members. Crops have already been planted and a home built for six residents from an urban inpatient program we support.

Our local partners enlisted a retired agriculture specialist from the United Nations Development Program to train the residents in basic  farming techniques and strategies. The food produced will help feed the growing lowland population as more and more villagers are displaced.

Price tag for all this? Only $3,500 for pipes, fittings, labor and glue!

This is a wonderful example of the innovative, integrated community development that flows as FPB invests in leadership and technical training, listens to local communities and supports local needs as determined by local people.

Author Page Bingham and husband Jim Anathan

“Shan cooking saved my marriage,” declares author and photographer Page Bingham in “A Taste of Shan,”  a culinary exploration of northern Burma that weaves a gorgeous photo essay with 50 recipes: mango salad, fried Inle fish and other Shan specialties.

Eight years ago,  as Page’s marriage hit rough waters, a girlfriend doing graduate research in Yangon invited Page to visit. Page leapt at the opportunity. Just off the plane, perched on a tiny stool in an alley eatery, Page found a new love: deep fried Shan rolls stuffed with tofu and bean sprouts; spicy vinegar sauce; tamarind fish steamed in banana leaves.

Page searched in vain for an English-language Shan cookbook. When an elderly bookseller urged her to write one, she decided: Why not? Her seven-month quest for authentic Shan recipes took her to Mandalay, Inle Lake, Maymo, Hsipaw, Lashio, villages such as Kyauk Mei and countless markets, roadside stands, tea shop, cafes and kitchens.

“It was surprisingly easy,” Page says. “People were so excited I was interested in them, much less their food.”  A market vendor would introduce her to a friend who’d take her to a cousin’s tiny kitchen. An old lady in Inle Lake led her by hand to a backyard gathering of 20 women, talking, laughing, sitting cross-legged in a circle around a fire, preparing fritters for a wedding feast.

Often, Page used pantomime and photography to capture cooking techniques and generations-old family recipes which had never been recorded.  She feels good about helping preserve Shan culinary culture.

“Here I was in Shan state, and there was no Shan food, really. People would say it was just easier to eat and make Chinese food. Slowly, they were kind of losing their traditions.”

As Page inhaled fragrant rice, or sat down to an elaborate Shan family feast, she realized she wanted to share her adventures with her husband. She emailed. He enthusiastically responded. They reconciled and recently celebrated their 12^th anniversary.

When her book was published last fall, Page says,  “I really wanted the money to get back to the PEOPLE.” In that case, her friend told her, “donate to Foundation for the People of Burma!” Page is also generously allowing us to use recipes for fundraising dinners to provide humanitarian aid to those most in need. Thank you!

Want to host a “Taste of Shan” fundraiser in your home? Email: paula@foundationburma.org for a How-To kit that includes recipes and information about FPB’s programs, partners and projects.

Order “A Taste of Shan” from Amazon or at pagebingham.com

Why? Preschools enable parents to work, earning income to better support their families. They give children a head start on school and teach ethnic children the Burmese-language skills needed to succeed in the national education system. Preschools allow older siblings to attend school instead of babysitting. Preschools provide public health access during the vulnerable years before age 5, when child mortality is highest.

To respond, we’ve started preschool program across  the country. Now, in collaboration with a local non-governmental organization in Burma, our local partners have developed a teacher training program in Early Childhood Care for Development (ECCD), a holistic approach that promotes interactive classrooms and critical-thinking skills.  Teachers are trained to share their skills not only in their own village school, but also with other teachers in the region, thus reaching schools and monasteries even in remote areas.

As a bonus, many of the dozens of preschools FPB has helped launch now support themselves by charging minimal fees to working parents. A few pre-K programs generate enough revenue to subsidize other child-centered programs, including orphanages.

Two years after Cyclone Nargis struck Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta, the land looks green, fresh, vibrant. But people still face the daunting task of rebuilding their lives. Homes, agricultural lands and fishing grounds were severely damaged, and many families suffered the loss of children or parents. International aid was spotty in all but the largest towns; and most of that aid was purely emergency in nature. FPB took a different approach – and has remained active on the ground in developing longer term solutions for devastated communities.

In one village, a large aid agency with good intent built toilets for 200 households—leaving 117 without any. This inequality sowed discontent among the villagers, who told FPB’s Water and Sanitation Health (WASH) team of their unhappiness. Recognizing the importance of recreating village harmony, the WASH team worked with the community and recently completed construction on toilets for the whole village.

Over the two years of intensive work,  FPB’s teams have developed trust and friendship with villagers.  Typifying many villagers’ sentiments, a teacher remarked on the child-health team’s projects: “They remind the parents how to play with their children, how to smile after so much hard times and worry. We love having them—it helps us remember how to be happy.”

Dr. Tom Lee in the field

Congratulations to Dr. Tom Lee, founder of the Global Health Access Program (GHAP), for being named 2010 International Public Health Hero by the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health.

Dr. Lee was honored for his dedication to resolving the health crisis in Burma’s conflict zones and for his leadership in defining new roles for community health workers in inaccessible settings. He joins an esteemed group of public health servants, including last year’s award recipient, Dr. Paul Farmer.

In the field, we’ve long admired Dr. Lee, his colleagues and GHAP’s village partners for their community-based approach and meaningful work on landmines, malaria, tuberculosis and reproductive health.

This spring, Dr. Lee accepted the award on behalf of GHAP’s local partners and health workers in the jungles, villages and conflict zones of Burma.

“They are the unsung heroes,” he said, “because of their unrelenting efforts to serve people uprooted by war and oppressed by authoritarian rule. Unfortunately, their plight is not unique. Around the world, millions in need are beyond the reach of conventional humanitarian aid. We must change our model of international assistance” to support grassroots groups that can help them.

Over a year after Cyclone Nargis took upwards of 130,000 souls and displaced 2.4 million in the low-lying delta area’s of Burma, communities, families and individuals attempt to make sense of life and loss while finding ways to go ahead. Having lost loved ones, all means of livelihood, their homes and in many cases their land, cyclone survivors are truly testing human capacity to handle tragedy.

Post-traumatic stress is a significant barrier to the re-establishment of normal community-life. Rebuilding infrastructure is one thing and it is certainly an important part of assisting individuals to conjure up the personal spirit necessary to carry on. We know that the mother mentioned above is not the first to commit suicide post-cyclone.

The situation is extreme and the community members have witnessed tragedy and experienced suffering to the likes that no human should ever face. But, Apart from the content of our Cyclone Relief and Rebuild projects, our presence in the village is having a notably positive effect. When we ask villagers what they like best about the water & sanitation projects, child emotional health projects or the livelihood development projects, they always mention their gratitude that we come back again and again. The consistency of our visits, the kindness and understanding of our staff has been an incredible support to them in this past year of seemingly insurmountable tragedy.

One villager and project participant commented, “The FPB staff took time to learn about our village, our families and our social structure. If I can say so, they have become like relatives, helping us as if we are family. When the younger staff members are working, they don’t care if it’s raining, or if they have to walk in the mud. They still help us. When we see them acting selflessly, we become convinced of their commitment to us. Sometimes when we are suffering and have the chance to work with them, it gives hope that our lives will improve. “

As the Program Director, I am so often asked to put numbers to our projects and to quantify the outcomes of the work we do. Although this is crucial to determining success of any development project, the way that we work with these noble survivors and our commitment to each of them does not always come through in statistics, but is a critical factor to facilitate change for those that face scarcity and lack personal freedom. So, although people continue to suffer detrimental mental health impacts in the aftermath of the cyclone, we know that the consistency of our programming, the compassion of our staff and friendship is saving the lives of many others.

Your kind support has enabled us to provide not only the essential infrastructure development, but also the ongoing, consistent emotional support that is proving to be invaluable.

January 9–23, 2011

Photo: Adam Weissman

The tour includes visits to:

• Burma’s spectacular sites—such as the ancient temples of Bagan, breathtaking pagodas, waterways of vast Inle Lake, the Sagaing Hills monasteries, and more.
• Foundation for the People of Burma’s humanitarian projects—benefiting rural and urban communities as well as peoples of many ethnic groups country-wide.

In addition, Joseph Goldstein will offer 30-minute guided meditations daily and several hour-long Dharma talks weekly.

• Joseph Goldstein is a leading insight and loving-kindness meditation teacher. He is cofounder of Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and is one of the organization’s guiding teachers. He has authored numerous popular books on Buddhism and has been leading meditation retreats since 1974.

Cost per person for first class travel:
$4,000 (approximately, single supplement extra) excluding airfare to Burma.
$20,000 minimum suggested donation to Foundation for the People of Burma in support of their humanitarian projects.

Contact us for more information. More detailed itinerary available upon request.

Click here for information on the first donor trip.

The evening featured the extraordinary music of the Gitameit Choir from Rangoon, Burma, who performed alongside folk legend and activist, Ms. Joan Baez.  In addition to original songs and video interviews with cyclone survivors, guests were moved by emotional renditions of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ and ‘We shall Overcome,’ performed harmoniously by Ms. Baez and the 24-member Burmese choir.

Joan Baez performing at Songs of Survival Photo: Terri Spath

Though a culmination of a three-week, FPB-sponsored, cultural and educational tour of the United States, the concert really derived from our nine years of close partnership with the Gitameit Music Center’s founders and students. In 2000, FPB provided a higher education scholarship to the Music Center’s Founding Director.  Since then we have eagerly supported the innovative work of the Center, which has created a music community that allows participants to express themselves in ways unthinkable to many of their peers, in turn, galvanizing a motivated group of young leaders.

Inspired by their incredible humanitarian leadership in the aftermath of last year’s devastating cyclone, FPB staff designed tour activities to foster a spirit of collective responsibility around the issues these students identified as crucial at this time in Burma’s history.  As such, activities included an assembly at Rooftop Elementary School, volunteer work in the soup kitchen of Glide Memorial Church, an introduction to San Francisco’s LGBT movement, 5 days of music training at Yale University, a visit to The Apollo Theatre and an investigation of the shelves at UC Berkeley’s amazing music library. Choir members will continue to build on these experiences in future community outreach and in their own personal development.

Special thanks to all of you who came out in support of the event on May 1st and to the many volunteers who made the cultural exchanges so meaningful for the choir.

To receive a promotional copy of the music from Songs of Survival: Voices from Burma, please contact us.

Despite incredible gains throughout the first year of FPB’s Cyclone Relief and Rebuild Project, affected-villages need your help to overcome the depth of loss and tragedy. Last May, Cyclone Nargis swept across 13,566 square miles of Burma’s Irrawaddy Delta. 130 mph winds and a 30-foot storm surge took approximately 130,000 lives and displaced some 2.4 million people. Foundation for the People of Burma reached over 150,000 people in the first 6 weeks after the storm. We have been working intensely with 20 villages since.

The gift of a 'starter pig' allows this mother to generate income while building her assets

Year Two – Ready to go! (August 2009 – July 2010)

• Training for 30 school teachers – Your contributions are supporting 25 teachers in the affected areas. These teachers have expressed their desire to get training in teaching methods and classroom management. Building on our experience conducting such training and workshops, we will carry out similar projects for teachers in Delta schools. Support a teacher’s stipend for $30 a month or contribute $150 to cover the cost $150 covers the costs of the 2-week intensive workshop.
• 8 village-based water systems – Potable water remains a luxury for huge numbers and entire villages in the Delta. During rain season, villagers use buckets, tubs, ditches and ponds to gather water for drinking and household use. Once the monsoon season ends and the land dries, insufficient storage means that there is not enough to last even a month. In the 2nd Year of Recovery, Foundation for the People of Burma is set to construct 8 water systems that will provide enough storage to carry these villages through the dry season. $1500 builds a durable rainwater collection system. That’s $140 per family for clean, safe water year-after-year.
• 800 more sanitary latrines – FPBs latrine construction and sanitation education projects have been very well-received by cyclone-affected communities throughout the first year of Rebuilding activities. We start by training a small local committee to manage the project. This committee then works with their fellow villagers to select a latrine design that best suites their needs and to set up a timetable for construction. In a few villages, committees have also held toilet design competitions Some incredible creativity there! Help us reach the goal of one-household-one-toilet for all 20 villages by the end of Year Two! It’s about a hundred bucks a pot!
• Financial literacy to 500 more villagers – As international distributions of rice and foodstuffs are all but stopped, getting affected families on track to stand on their own within three years is a must! Helping villagers through training in financial literacy is one of the most important steps. FPB financial literacy curriculum has been designed by researching the villagers needs and wishes. We have conducted initial trainings in 2 villages and look forward to rolling this project out on a larger scale by the close of 2009. Training costs about $40 per person, or coach the village for $2000.
• School supplies to 2000 children – The burden of purchasing school supplies falls on parents, who, though the cost is not more than $15/year, are unable to purchase the notebooks, pencils and test sheets required for their children. Kids need these supplies to get the most out of school and you can help to alleviate this burden for families that want their children to get an education.
• 5 community-based playgrounds constructed – As a part of our child wellness work, we are collaborating with 5 villages to design, build and manage their own playground. Currently, none of the 20 cyclone-affected villages where we work have a designated outdoor space for children to play. Playgrounds provide children with a safe place to build strength and coordination, stimulate their imagination, use their ‘outside voices,’ interact through teamwork and improve motor skills. Playground equipment for one village runs around $1400 and the villagers contribute their labor to prepare the land and build a fence.
• Expand support to another 1000 landless farmers – Livelihood security has been the ongoing issue for both farmers and landless workers in the area. FPB will work through our established village committees to facilitate the support of small funds to get small businesses up and running in the next year. Some of that is done through local gardening and organic agriculture support and training and support for raising pigs, ducks and chickens. $30 buys a start piglet, $300 buys a small flock of ducks and $500 buys a buffalo. An investment indeed!

We need your help to make this happen! Click here to improve the lives of those that face scarcity and lack personal freedom. On their behalf, we humbly thank you for your compassion, understanding and generosity.