{"id":38308,"date":"2022-09-21T02:12:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T08:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/humanitarian-group-brings-multilevel-aid-to-war-torn-myanmar\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:43:42","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:43:42","slug":"humanitarian-group-brings-multilevel-aid-to-war-torn-myanmar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/humanitarian-group-brings-multilevel-aid-to-war-torn-myanmar\/","title":{"rendered":"Humanitarian group brings multilevel aid to war-torn Myanmar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Shanta Foundation works with local Myanmar villagers to create a more sustainable infrastructure. (Courtesy of Shanta Foundation)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In 2006, American backpackers Mike and Tricia Karpfen built a school for the Pa\u2019O people of the remote, mountainous villages of Myanmar (formally Burma), after having spent time in the country two years earlier. When the couple next returned to the area, they found that no one was using the beautiful school they had built.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey started going around to the local villages, asking the parents why they weren\u2019t sending their children to the school they had built,\u201d said Wade Griffith, Shanta Foundation\u2019s executive director. \u201cIt was a very American approach to the situation: \u2018I did this thing for you. I know what\u2019s best. It should have fixed everything.\u2019 But Mike and Tricia learned to listen instead of just telling the villagers what they needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons for the children not attending the school were much more complicated than the Karpfens had expected: The biggest obstacle toward Myanmar\u2019s youths getting their education was the need for them to work their families\u2019 farms alongside their parents, so the family would not starve.<\/p>\n

Oftentimes, they could not physically get to the school because the monsoon rains had made the rivers swell so much that they could not traverse them, especially with no existent bridges in their area. They were also suffering from the many illnesses caused by the commonly contaminated drinking water.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike and Tricia realized that they couldn\u2019t help the people of Myanmar by simply giving them a quick fix like a school or new pipes to pump their water,\u201d Griffith said. \u201cThey needed to aid the villagers with a more holistic approach. Something more innovative and sustainable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such is the guiding model of the Durango-based Shanta Foundation, a nonprofit organization that has aimed to help the impoverished people of Myanmar over the last 17 years to strengthen their infrastructure with the complete involvement of the Myanmar people. Those working with Shanta have found that success can only be maintained through community-led development.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal people must be involved with what Shanta\u2019s doing with the village development,\u201d said Seinne Lai, Shanta\u2019s country manager in Myanmar. \u201cThey have to be able to keep things going on their own, long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Myanmar native, Lai has been working with Shanta Foundation since 2017, organizing and implementing a community effort with a staff of 25 Burmese citizens. She recently visited Durango as the keynote speaker at a fundraiser Shanta held at Riverbend Ranch.<\/p>\n

\"Seinne
Seinne Lai, Shanta Foundation\u2019s country manager in Myanmar, highlights the daily struggles of the Burmese people during a talk Sept. 14 at Riverbend Ranch in the Animas Valley north of Durango. (Megan K. Olsen\/Durango Herald)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cFarmers live in extreme poverty,\u201d Lai said to those in attendance. \u201cEven before COVID happened and the civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Feb. 1, 2021, the civilian government, led by the National League of Democracy, was overthrown in a military coup d\u2019\u00e9tat, which forced out Myanmar\u2019s elected state counsellor, (Prime Minister) Aung San Suu Kyi, and replaced her with the country\u2019s army senior general, Min Aung Hlaing, who seized the head of state position.<\/p>\n

Since then, the military has proceeded to bomb and set fire to many Myanmar villages in an attempt to retain control. In retaliation, civilians have formed a militia known as the People\u2019s Defense Force, which is made up of people from all walks of life: housewives, farmers, doctors, engineers and a remarkable number of young adults who have been forced to arm themselves with homemade muskets, catapults and bombs against a heavily-weaponized military force with aerial firepower, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe (civil) war has made things so much worse,\u201d Lai said in her speech. \u201cPeople are starving. We have had to deal with that and a pandemic, but even lockdown has not stopped us. We have continued to work with Shanta Foundation to get clean water and other resources to the villages. The local people continue to work hard rebuilding and improving the quality of their villages and lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the devastating destruction of the civil war, Shanta Foundation has managed to help the Burmese people improve health care, education, water systems, roads and even implement community-based banks. With a more realized, solidified plan of action and more funding, Shanta Foundation now has the means to stretch out its concerted efforts to the similarly struggling East African country of Zambia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe changes I see are inspiring and humbling,\u201d said Tricia Karpfen. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve done over there isn\u2019t just a one-off. \u2026 All the pieces are related, and they come together so the entire community\u2019s quality of life and sense of opportunity has been elevated by the programs we\u2019ve supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Griffith: \u201cI can\u2019t be happy while others are suffering. We can always do something, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n

molsen@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foundation has spent years assisting residents of Southeast Asian nation <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1269,1918],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-nonprofits","tag-relief-and-aid-organisation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83988,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38308\/revisions\/83988"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38308"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}