Improving livelihoods to enrich the lives of many

Imagine not simply being able to go into the laundry, kitchen, or bathroom and turn on the tap to do the washing, prepare food, or bathe. Unfortunately, this is life for many millions of people around the world.

Meet Naw Paw Gay, a thirty-five-year-old mother of three children who lives in Bu Kho Lay Kwee village in the southeast of Myanmar. Bu Kho Lay Kwee is located on the side of a mountain, a long way from the stream which provides the villagers with clean water. The village is also very remote, with poor road access. Keeping domestic animals in the household has also led to diarrhoea and other contagious diseases.

“I have been carrying the water from afar and felt tired my whole life”, says Naw Paw Gay.

The villagers realized that their lives could be improved by learning basic health and hygiene and by getting better access to clean water.

Working with AID’s partner, the Church of the Province of Myanmar, the village now enjoys piped water, grows healthy crops, and practises better animal husbandry so that health and hygiene, and livelihoods have greatly improved.

In the Philippines, you can support AID’s partners E-CARE and IFI-VIMROD to work with local communities to improve their livelihoods.

Rodel is a 39-year-old farmer, married with two children, who lives in Sibalom Antique, in the Visayas region. Like many farmers, he had to take out high-interest loans to farm rice in the traditional way. Farm inputs were high, and Rodel worked at odd jobs to survive.

IFI-VIMROD worked with Rodel and his fellow farmers to introduce organically grown hybrid rice, a crop that proved to be highly sustainable. They formed the “Villahermosa People’s Organisation” (VPO) so that they could farm together, using homemade fertilizers such as worm composting and fermented liquids, and no longer had to buy expensive chemical inputs. The rice quality greatly improved, and their input costs greatly decreased.

They now have more nutritious rice to eat and can buy other foods with what they get from the surplus. And they can afford to send their children to school.

Rodel says, “The technology introduced through the project taught me to be resourceful by using organic materials available in the community for fertilizer production. In addition, one of my most important resources, my son, helped me to practice sustainable agriculture to cultivate the farm. The savings we make enable us to provide allowances for our school-age children.”

E-CARE similarly supports farming groups but also invites them to join their “Receivers to Givers” program so that funds given to the groups can be “re-granted” to other groups to save money, invest more in their small businesses, and improve their livelihoods.

For some of these projects, we have committed to contribute $1 for every $5 we receive from the Australian Government. This means that every donation you make to this project will be combined with funding from the Australian Government to reach more people.

Your gift to our 2024 Tax Appeal will improve livelihoods and enrich the lives of many.

Prayer

Thank you, God, for giving us the opportunity to do something good at the end of this financial year.

Thank you for the chance to provide clean water in Myanmar in the name of your Son who gives living water.

Thank you for the opportunity of helping farmers in the Philippines grow better yielding and more nutritious rice in the name of your Son, the Bread of Life.

Thank you for the chance to help receivers become givers, so that the abundance of life your Son came to bring can be advanced to others.

Thank you, God, for giving us the opportunity to do something good at the end of this financial year.

Amen.